The Last Time Investors Really Got Excited For Tech Infrastructure

Tracy Alloway (0:00)

Hey there, don't go just yet. We want to tell you about a new series from our colleagues here at Bloomberg. It's called Levittown.

Joe Weisenthal (0:07)

It's about a technology that's moving faster than the law, about dozens of young women in a New York suburb who discover manipulated photos of themselves on a porn website.

Tracy Alloway (0:17)

Told there isn't much the police or anyone else can do, they decide to fight back, joining a global battle against deepfakes. Please note, the trailer for the show you are about to hear features adult themes.

SPEAKER_4 (0:36)

Five years ago, this was a vast checkerboard of potato farms on New York's Long Island. Today, this is Levittown, one of the most remarkable housing developments ever conceived.

Olivia Carville (0:49)

Levittown, New York, America's first suburb. Row after row after row of cookie cutter homes. The picture of the American dream. But recently, underneath the facade of Perfect Order, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare.

SPEAKER_5 (1:14)

Someone was posting photos of many of the girls that we had gone to school with.

SPEAKER_6 (1:22)

There was one picture of me in a bathing suit, and I didn't have a bathing suit on anymore. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts that looked exactly like my own.

Margie Murphy (1:42)

Over the last few years, rapid breakthroughs in machine learning have made it a lot easier and cheaper to make real-looking photos or videos of pretty much anything you can think of. But innovation comes at a price.

SPEAKER_8 (1:57)

I felt gross.

SPEAKER_5 (1:59)

I felt like I needed to take a shower. I felt like I wanted to cry.

SPEAKER_9 (2:02)

I wanted to throw up.

Margie Murphy (2:04)

I wanted to scream.

Olivia Carville (2:06)

This is a story about a technology that is moving faster than the law, where everyone is a suspect, even your neighbors.

SPEAKER_6 (2:16)

It was always in the back of my head, like, oh, it's someone that I know. But how do you find out who that someone is when you know so many people from school, soccer, all these things?

Margie Murphy (2:31)

What we discovered in Leavittown led us on a winding journey.

SPEAKER_8 (2:35)

I just always had in the back of my mind that any of them could be the one.

Margie Murphy (2:42)

Through the darkest corners of the internet.

SPEAKER_9 (2:44)

They call it an arms race between law enforcement and technology. And it's just, we're losing. We are absolutely losing.

Margie Murphy (2:53)

Where online vigilantes and enterprising detectives are joining forces.

SPEAKER_10 (2:58)

If you're giving prey, you want to go and get it.

Olivia Carville (3:02)

In this story, the victims flip the script, band together, and fight back alongside some unexpected global allies.

Margie Murphy (3:15)

I'm Margie Murphy.

Olivia Carville (3:16)

And I'm Olivia Carville.

Margie Murphy (3:18)

This is Levittown, a new podcast series from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER_11 (3:41)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Joe Weisenthal (3:57)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (4:02)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (4:03)

Tracy, as you know, I am a sucker for any conversation that involves reminiscing about the.com bubble or the telecom bubble, really anything in the late 90s, when I came of age as a young man.

Tracy Alloway (4:16)

Well, that makes sense. I think a lot of people tend to do that. I like just bubbles in general. I do not put a time period on my bubble interest. Any bubbles all the time, let's do it.

Joe Weisenthal (4:27)

One thing that I think is really interesting about that time period is obviously there was a bubble. But I think right now, obviously, people are really curious about the AI build out. And that really was the last time, the late 90s, when there was a specific costly CapEx tech infrastructure part of the story, because at that time, it was the telecom bubble, everyone laying all the broadband to power the high speed internet that we have today. It's not a perfect analog, but it's something that I've wanted to talk about. And probably want to talk more about on the show, just because of, yeah, some of the parallels to what we're seeing right now.

Tracy Alloway (5:04)

Right. It is the analogy that everyone uses, primarily because of that big expensive capital build out that you just mentioned. I will also say the telecoms bubble, it's kind of mixed up with the internet bubble, right? Or people tend to mix them up.