The Last Big Tech Fight: AI Agents (Apple, Google, Meta)

Alex (0:07)

Welcome to The Synopsis, a Business and Investing Podcast. I am back. You had MBI last week, and Drew did the intro. It wasn't that easy to do the intro, was it, Drew? I saw you struggling a little bit on that MBI podcast.

Drew Cohen (0:20)

First take, no problem at all. This is our second take in contrast. All right, well, here we go.

Alex (0:24)

So I'm already off to a bad start. But today, we're discussing a little bit of Meta. We're going to speculate wildly on how Muse is going to impact various consumer companies. And then lastly, a little bit about Apple. I mean, it's lying a little dormant. I mean, Siri, are they going to figure it out? I mean, Muse can't get into my iMessage, which is quite frustrating because a lot of stuff lives in my iMessage, which is a whole other thing, which is people, oh, you're going to get Meta access to your iMessages?

Take my data. I've got nothing to hide. I've got nothing to hide.

Drew Cohen (0:54)

See, that's a funny thing for you to bring up in the intro because Muse has already got in the criticism that it's improperly accessing people's iMessage.

Alex (1:02)

Please, I'm trying. I say, can you get to my iMessage? It says, no, I go take it. I want you in there, but alas, it's telling me it can't do it. But first, before we get into this, this is I guess your third YouTube video now, our second, I mean, third for The Synopsis, Drew has many, many YouTube videos on Drew Cohen Money.

I have to say the Spotify audience was resonating with me a little better. I was getting discussions about how great my points were. I had a fan, and now I'm just getting a little hate. Someone told Drew, this is my favorite comment. For people who've listened to us for a little bit, Drew speculated that I was getting a secret admirer, someone who liked me, and he thought it was me as just hyping myself up. And now Drew has a comment that he looks handsome in this new lighting. I mean, that's got to be Drew's mom at a minimum. It can't be. It's got to be someone in Drew's circle.

Drew Cohen (1:54)

You know, I prefer this comment, actually. It says, Drew, you need a better partner. This other dude is adding nothing to the conversation except annoyance, bringing down the overall quality. It's a shame.

Alex (2:07)

I wish I could rebuttal.

I mean, he's not wrong. I mean, Drew, if you had a better host, I mean, you're kind of what I'm with. You're stuck with me. You don't have any other alternative options.

Drew Cohen (2:17)

It's true. I don't know many other people that are willing to podcast for free and happen to know all the same businesses and are willing to put up with me. So it's a very small circle to pick from.

Alex (2:28)

But I agree. I'd rather listen to Drew too. So, you know, but I'm going to make some points in there. I've got some things to offer. And you're getting some fans.

Drew Cohen (2:36)

You're getting some fans. You're getting some love on the last time. Don't feel need to drop any positive comments now in response to that. He'll be.

Alex (2:42)

Yeah, that's fine. I'm not fishing. I'm not fishing.

Let's get into our discussion. So we had a discussion a couple of episodes ago, and I will call this the Meta AI CapEx Freakout. And I'm not taking a victory lap because I'm not, again, this is short term.

I hate saying long term investor, but like we were talking about with Co-part a couple episodes ago about how I'm not panicking over a few quarters of slow growth and maybe some of their operational challenges. I wasn't panicking over Meta spending a lot of money on AI. It was a lot of money. I'm not going to say I wasn't a little. I was like, well, it's only all of their cash flow. Only all of their cash flow. Listen, it was a little concerning, but as someone who's followed Meta for a long time, I think has read all of the management transcripts. I felt that Mark Zuckerberg has the lenience to direct capital other than virtual reality labs. It's always been, I mean, Meta glasses are-

Drew Cohen (3:36)

It's a pretty big asterisk, you know? Other than that $100 billion bet.

Alex (3:42)

Yeah, but it's not- Hey, the game's not over. I thought that could work out. I mean, and again, now we're seeing how Meta glasses, you could really have like a Jarvis. I mean, that's my most, you know, kind of apt analogy here, which is, you know, for those who aren't nerds in the Marvel Universe, Iron Man has his kind of glasses and it syncs up to his AI agent and he's able to do things in real time. I mean, I'm sure that's kind of the universe that it could be heading in with Meta being able to develop these Ray-Ban glasses or their, you know, kind of augmented reality glasses. But first of all, what did you think about Muse? I mean, Meta has not created a successful consumer app that they have not purchased since Facebook. Is that is that too harsh or is that I guess threads?