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The Last Show with David Cooper

Tell Me When My Product Will Die

30 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What controversy arose from an AI-generated song in Sweden?

1.533 - 12.623 Carmi Levy

For those who know that questioning everything includes questioning this show's existence. The Last Show with David Cooper.

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16.113 - 37.849 Carmi Levy

to generate it can even sound good you can make some really funny parodies with it but how do the music companies how do the audiences and how do these charts that list hits perceive ai music it turns out not well we're gonna go to sweden for something that happened on their charts i'm here with carmi levy it is time for technology time We're talking tech stories of the day.

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37.909 - 48.421 Carmi Levy

Carmi, what a pleasure it is having you here. Oh, it is so good to be back with you, David. Thanks for having me. So an AI song in Sweden charted or was about to chart? Tell me about this.

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48.641 - 70.493 David Cooper

So it charted. It was at the top of Sweden's most popular song, Spotify Playlist. And it also topped the country's biggest charts. It's from a group that calls itself Jakubi. And it comes from a record industry group known that they call themselves Team Jakub. And the song is called I Know You're Not Mine.

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Chapter 2: How can Ring cameras verify video authenticity?

70.994 - 81.473 David Cooper

And it's kind of like a folk poppy kind of song. It's very melancholy. It talks about lost love. There's some acoustic guitar and it sounds very sort of dreamy.

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81.453 - 102.37 David Cooper

um it's the kind of song that you'd probably hear in a doctor's office and then forget as soon as you left the doctor's office but you know it is what it is and it's doctor's office pop is one of my favorite genres sure it is next time i go to my doctor's office i'll ask them about it but after hold music jazz that's my favorite genre That's right. Montevani Mist.

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102.61 - 125.213 David Cooper

So it became one of the biggest songs of 2026 so far. And it sparked a controversy because no one knew who this band was. Who is Jakub? Where do they come from? There wasn't a whole lot of biographical information on it. So some journalists started digging into it and they realized it was registered to a bunch of music executives. And essentially they created it as a marketing company.

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125.193 - 127.476 David Cooper

concept and it was all AI generated.

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Chapter 3: What legislation is being proposed for product lifespan transparency?

127.496 - 149.22 David Cooper

They were very coy about it, kind of nudge, nudge, wink, wink and mission accomplished. But they've sparked a controversy. So you could listen to it on Spotify or Apple Music or other platforms if you want, but you won't see it on Sweden's top song list. In other words, the charts in Sweden don't want to have anything to do with it.

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149.24 - 169.591 David Cooper

They issued a statement saying that basically all music should be human created, not AI created. We're not going to celebrate something that did not have a human hand in its creation. And it sparked a pretty significant controversy, both in Sweden and elsewhere, over, you know, what is music? And if AI is used in the creation of it, does that necessarily ruin the artistic intent?

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170.032 - 182.451 Carmi Levy

What's so wild to me is that this story seems so normal for us to discuss. Like, of course, there's this controversy, but this idea... that people can't tell the difference between AI music without a deep dive, without investigative journalism.

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182.933 - 195.683 Carmi Levy

I remember talking to you, Carmi, on this show, maybe six months ago, maybe a year ago, in the not so distant past, you and me sitting saying, in the not so distant future, like now, we won't be able to tell the difference.

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195.663 - 215.234 Carmi Levy

as this hypothetical thing that we were entering and it's happened and no one's saying anything about it, but it's like, we're basically at a point where you can't tell art that's AI generated from real art and it's just going to get better. And that is both depressing, but also kind of amazing, like an achievement that we've unlocked.

215.855 - 222.144 Carmi Levy

I just want to say that moment here because we talk about AI every day, but like these milestones, they happen so fast.

Chapter 4: How does Apple categorize product support and updates?

222.245 - 223.847 Carmi Levy

It's, you almost don't even notice them.

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223.827 - 239.666 David Cooper

They do. And if you look at the history of music, I mean, technology has long been a disruptor. I mean, think about what happened when synthesizers and drum machines in the 80s became a thing. Craft work. Yeah. And people were aghast saying, well, you know, electronic music isn't real music because it doesn't use real instruments.

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239.746 - 253.243 David Cooper

And, you know, go back even further as new instruments, analog instruments were introduced into kind of the musical vernacular. There are people who said, well, oh, it's an oboe. Therefore, it can't be real because, you know, the only good music is created with a piano. This harpsichord.

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253.223 - 254.785 Carmi Levy

The chord isn't real music.

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255.646 - 266.678 David Cooper

Exactly. So, I mean, in one sense, we can look at AI as another tool in the music creator's toolkit. But in the other sense, I'm not a musician, but I could use AI to create music.

Chapter 5: What are the implications of AI music on traditional music creation?

266.738 - 288.06 David Cooper

And so does that make me a musician? Not necessarily. And just like deep fake photos or deep fake videos, it kind of helps to have knowledge, transparency, labeling, knowing what we're getting as we go into it. And so I don't really necessarily have a problem with AI music. I do have a problem, though, trying to pass it off as music created by a human.

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288.08 - 294.326 David Cooper

In other words, put a label on it so I can know for myself going in and I can make my own decisions about whether I want to listen to it or not.

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294.446 - 310.821 Carmi Levy

On the downside, you know, these people like this group in Sweden can pass off AI music as if it were human. This is a huge downside. On the upside, really talented, creative people who can make great music will be using AI to make even cooler music. It'll be like half AI written, half

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311.071 - 331.375 Carmi Levy

genius written they'll use these tools to tweak music to make it amazing so like it definitely unlocks some really cool stuff in the creative space for those who deeply care about creativity to use it as a tool but it also unlocks a bunch of bs like this story you got to take the good with the bad and there's no stopping this technology unless we just shut off the internet tomorrow which i'm not sure we will car me

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331.456 - 334.599 David Cooper

Exactly. And it's like every tool. It's how we choose to use it.

Chapter 6: How does TikTok's ownership change affect its users?

334.619 - 351.896 David Cooper

And if we choose to use it to create something new and cool and amazing, then I think we should all be supportive of it. If it's being used to fool us into believing that it's something that it is not, I think we have to have a conversation. But I kind of like that. The fact that we're talking about music in this sort of controversial context, I think it's a good thing.

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351.916 - 368.738 David Cooper

When the Velvet Sundown, that also AI-generated band, started generating headlines last year, it also sparked a conversation. And I think that conversation needs to continue. We're probably going to see more and more of it as more projects like this release more songs onto streaming platforms. And increasingly, we can't tell the difference between them.

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370.04 - 383.56 Carmi Levy

The next story, a crime happens on a street. Something wild happens on a street these days. It's pretty likely that somebody's Ring camera, you know, their doorbell cam, will capture the video. The company Ring, are they owned by Amazon, I believe?

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383.72 - 384.261 David Cooper

They are, yeah.

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384.764 - 396.026 Carmi Levy

They have now said that like, okay, these videos, we can verify whether they're altered because you could put out a fake video saying your neighbor did this and it could be grainy and appear to come from your Ring cam and it could be a deep fake.

396.888 - 405.625 Carmi Levy

I guess it's good that Ring is maybe going to label videos so that any controversy that happens in neighborhood streets can be verified that it wasn't a fake video.

Chapter 7: What are the concerns surrounding content censorship on TikTok?

405.892 - 427.467 David Cooper

Yeah, the tool is called Ring Verify. You can find it at ring.com slash verify. And they call it, it will apply what's called a digital security seal to every video that's recorded on a Ring video doorbell camera starting from December 2025. So last month, you didn't have to do anything to roll this update out. It would apply that seal to it.

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427.588 - 434.578 David Cooper

And then if you upload a video and you just take it right off your camera and you don't edit it, then it will have that digital security seal.

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434.618 - 454.802 David Cooper

But if you edit that photo in any way, if you crop it, if you sort of cut out pieces out of pieces of it, if you add other elements in, if you change the settings, maybe make it brighter or darker, whatever that is, like put it in a video editor, it will remove that that seal almost like as a way of saying somebody tampered with this.

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455.183 - 476.263 David Cooper

And that's really important because how often do we see green cam video on or doorbell camera video on a feed that somebody shared and it's been messed with so that all is not as it seems. So it helps address to a certain extent the deep fake problem that we're seeing around security camera footage. What it doesn't do though, it doesn't tell you if it's AI generated.

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476.243 - 490.573 David Cooper

So if someone wants to craft something and pretend that it's Ring doorbell cam video using AI, this thing isn't going to catch it, at least not in its original form. It'll probably be updated over time, but I have to give Ring credit for at least trying.

490.874 - 492.475 Carmi Levy

You come home from the store.

Chapter 8: What predictions can be made about the future of TikTok in North America?

492.495 - 512.473 Carmi Levy

Maybe it's the Apple store. You got your brand new iPad. Maybe it's the Microsoft store. Is that even a place? You got your brand new Zune. Eventually, the technology you buy is going to die. And the question is when. Like when I buy something, I want to know it's going to be good for 5, 10, 15 years. But I don't know that. And these companies can just obsolete things very quickly.

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512.954 - 523.869 Carmi Levy

Should things be labeled with how long they're going to last? That is the question. Carmi Levy, a technology analyst, is here to discuss that. It is time for technology time. That's what time it is. Carmi, welcome in.

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524.39 - 525.011 David Cooper

Good to be here.

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525.452 - 537.3 Carmi Levy

So walk me through this one. What exactly would we want to see? Like, I want to know when my Apple MacBook is going to die, you know? And I feel like these big companies can obsolete their tech so quickly these days.

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537.415 - 555.424 David Cooper

They can, because there is no messaging around kind of length of service when you first buy a device. You only hear about it as it approaches end of life when, you know, maybe you wake up one morning and magically it doesn't work because they rolled an update that bricked it or, you know, killed some features that you had been relying on. But there was no advance notice of this.

555.404 - 573.908 David Cooper

A couple of Massachusetts lawmakers, they've introduced something called an Act Relative to Consumer Connected Devices, which will essentially require manufacturers of hardware to say upfront when they sell you the device, this is how long we're going to support it for. And so you'll know going in exactly kind of what kind of window you have. And Apple has different categorizations.

573.928 - 588.811 David Cooper

So, for example, like they'll roll feature updates for five years and then they'll roll security updates, but they won't give you new features after that. And then you're completely on your own. But if it isn't clear up front, this would sort of shift it from the end of the product's life to the beginning.

589.151 - 599.772 David Cooper

So you can make that decision knowing full well, okay, I've got five years of great service. I don't have to worry about it. And I'll plan for replacing it in five years. You can make a more educated decision with that information.

600.747 - 604.573 Carmi Levy

It's so crazy to me that they can just obsolete tech, these companies.

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