Episode Transcript
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Morgan Sung, Host: Welcome back to Close All tabs. We’ve been on a break the last few weeks, refreshing, relaxing, touching grass. In my case, being back on the East Coast for the holidays, touching a lot of snow. I’m Morgan Sung, tech journalist and your chronically online friend here at Open. As many browser tabs as it takes to help you understand how the digital world affects our real lives, except today we aren’t opening any tabs. That’s right, to kick off the new year, we’re back with another episode of Save or Scroll.
Now, what is Save or Scroll? This is a game we play every now and then on close all tabs. We do a lot of deep dives on the show, but sometimes I come across a story that’s fascinating and wild and I’m dying to talk about it with someone, but there isn’t necessarily enough to do an entire episode about it. Or I do a little digging and realize that there’s a lot more to the story and it’s definitely worth a deep dive.
This is a very special Save or Scroll because joining me is the rest of the close all tabs team. On today’s episode, we have senior editor Chris Egusa,
Chris Egusa, guest: Hey there!
Morgan Sung: producer Maya Cueva,
Maya Cueva, guest: Hi, Morgan!
Morgan Sung: and editor Chris Hambrick.
Chris Hambrick, guest: Hello!
Morgan Sung: So we have all been offline for the last few weeks, and today we’re gonna catch up with a few different tech and internet stories that may have slipped under the radar during the holiday season. And for this episode, each of the four of us has brought one story that we cannot stop thinking about, that’s haunted us throughout our entire holiday break.
And as a group, we’re gonna decide to Save or Scroll. If we scroll, that means we’ve talked about it, we’re moving on. If we decide to save, that means we’re bookmarking it and we might dive in deeper in a future episode. And based on the stories we brought today, we’re gonna make a few predictions for the new year.
You guys ready?
Chris Egusa: Ready.
Chris Hambrick: Yeah
Maya Cueva: I’m ready.
Morgan Sung: Okay, Chris E, you’re up first. What did you bring us today?
Chris Egusa: So if you want to get paid $555,000 to stop the AI apocalypse, I have good news. Open AI is hiring for a new position: head of preparedness. So get excited.
[Laughter]
Morgan Sung: It’s a bit ominous.
Chris Egusa: You’re all launching your applications right now.
So on December 27th, we were treated to kind of a late Christmas present from Mr. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which side note, is actually within a walking distance of where we are recording right now at the KQED studios. But yeah, he posted on X that the company is hiring for a head of preparedness.
What does this mean? You might ask? Here is a little bit of Sam’s post, he said, “We are hiring a head of preparedness. This is a critical role at an important time. Models are improving quickly and are now capable of many great things, but they’re also starting to present some real challenges. The potential impact of models on mental health was something we saw a preview of in 2025. We are also now seeing models get so good at computer security, they’re beginning to find critical vulnerabilities.”
So he goes on to say that this person would be responsible for executing the company’s quote preparedness framework, uh, securing AI models for the release of biological capabilities, which, that definitely sounds ominous.Um, and at the end of the post, he warns that it will be a stressful job and that you’ll jump in immediately. So get those resumes ready.
Maya Cueva: Oh God.
Morgan Sung: Can I ask a clarifying question?
Chris Egusa: Please.
Morgan Sung: Is this basically like they’re hiring someone to pull the plug…
Chris Egusa: Yes.
Morgan Sung: …if it all goes bad?
Chris Egusa: Great question. And there’ve been some, some online jokes about that as well. Basically, this is a person who is directly responsible for preventing all of the risks posed by all of this ever advancing AI technology.
People are calling it an impossible job because those risks are innumerable and impossible to really predict. Right? And like you mentioned Morgan, immediately, uh, there were jokes about this.
So some people posted a fake open AI job post from a few years ago that was called, uh, Kill Switch Engineer.
[Laughter]
Chris Egusa: This is a couple years ago, people dug up this, this fake post. And, uh, in that post, this fake job post under expectations, it listed know how to unplug things, bonus points, if you can throw a bucket of water on the servers too, just in case.
[Laughter]
Chris Egusa: Ah. So, yeah, to your point, Morgan,you could like reduce this idea to someone [laughs] who just is gonna pull the plug if AI gets too powerful, tries to take over the world. Um, other people called this position chief, fall guy, or Chief Scapegoat Officer, which is very funny to me: the idea that like, they’re hiring one person who can absorb all [laughs] of the blame for whenever anything goes bad.
Uh, I’ll just mention a few things to note on this. Uh, it’s actually not a new position, even though it’s kind of being characterized as that OpenAI has had this position in the past. Um, and it actually has a preparedness team, but the people who occupied the position either kept moving into other departments or leaving the company entirely.
So it’s been vacant for a little while, and so they’re hiring a new one. Um, the other thing is that Altman has a history of making really big claims about AI’s power and potential. But critics point to the fact that many of these claims are often just hype. So I will turn it to you all. What do you think, is this a good thing that OpenAI is investing in preparedness or is it more AI doomer hype?
Morgan Sung: It just seems like right now when AI is getting more and OpenAI specifically is getting more criticized than ever, like they probably want someone for that position before, you know, the 15 or so lawsuits over ChatGPT related deaths happened.
Chris Egusa: Yes, exactly.
Chris Hambrick: Okay. So I, I do feel like, okay, it is, you know, like it’s some foresight, you know, like in all seriousness. [Laughs]
Chris Egusa: Mm-hmm.
Chris Hambrick: I actually feel like a little bit more comfortable, um, if somebody is thinking about like how to prevent a disaster or mitigate it, or at least have some plan in place.
Um, no, I don’t think it’s like doomsday, like I don’t think it’s over the top to think about, like, getting somebody in the position who could give us some steps to follow.
Morgan Sung: Yeah.
Chris Egusa: It’s probably better than not having someone thinking [laughs] about it when you look at the alternative.
Morgan Sung: I mean, I think this is less of a kill switch engineer and more of a, uh, oh, how do we not get sued again, kind of, kind of position, you know?
Chris Egusa: Right. Does this make you feel more concerned that they are identifying these potentially huge, sort of like, world changing threats or do you see this as, okay, this is a marketing play, essentially?
Maya Cueva: I think I’m definitely terrified that they’re already identifying those positions. It almost seems like it’s both and right, because it seems like they’re doing that too, because they know something bad will happen. But also it seems like they’re trying to cover their bases and protect the company. So it’s hard to say that even if we had, if this position gets filled, is it actually gonna protect us? Who knows? Hard to say, so that’s fair.
Morgan Sung: Yeah.
Chris Hambrick: I, I feel like I’m on the side of the marketing hype because mm-hmm. Who posts a job and then gets on X and they’re like, Hey, by the way, we’re doing this thing. Look at us.
We’re so ahead of it. Right. We’re, you know, like, think kindly of us or think that we are, you know, thinking of you, the public, when it’s really like, you know, wanting a pat on the back. I feel like that’s….
Morgan Sung: Mm-hmm. yeah,
Chris Hambrick: ….They’re drawing attention to like, you know, they’re doing good.
Chris Egusa: It, it feels calculated for sure.
Morgan Sung: Yeah. Based on the story that you brought us on, OpenAI hiring the head of Preparedness, what is your prediction for this year, Chris E.?
Chris Egusa: Okay, so my prediction for 2026 is that we will not see a doomsday scenario with AI this year.
Maya Cueva: Hopefully
Chris Egusa: That’s my prediction. You know, I could be wrong, but instead I think that AI hype will actually start to peter out and we will see the first ripples of a sort of deflating bubble.
Um, a lot of experts have already pointed out how shaky the actual business case is for AI companies. There’s very little actual return on all the investment, and yet we’ve staked this huge chunk of our economy on the idea that this technology will just keep growing and keep getting better and better. Um, so I think maybe the real head of preparedness should be figuring out how to save our economy when AI doesn’t keep improving.
Chris Hambrick: Oof.
Maya Cueva: Agreed
Chris Egusa: And that’s why they’ll get paid $555K a year.
Chris Egusa: Sign me up.
Morgan Sung: Okay, team, what do we think? Uh, open eyes, head of preparedness. The AI bubble popping. Do we save or do we scroll?
Chris Hambrick: I’ll save it. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Maya Cueva: Yeah. I’m gonna also save it. I think this is important to keep an eye on. We don’t know what’s gonna happen.
Morgan Sung: I think we should save it. Yeah. I think this is a very Close All Tabs, uh, kind of thing. It’s, I, we joke about how often we have to cover AI on the show, it’s like, oh my God, another AI story. But also each one brings a new horror and I think it is worth diving into.
Maya Cueva: True.
Chris Egusa: A new flavor of horror.
Morgan Sung: Yes.
All right. We’re saving OpenAI, uh, head of preparedness, and maybe the bubble popping. That’s a save.
Morgan Sung: I regret to inform you all that I also have an AI related story for you.
Maya Cueva: [Laughs] Oh no!
Morgan Sung: Um, so I am up next and, uh, buckle up. We’re gonna talk about the world RAM shortage, uh, and why I still can’t play Oblivion, Remastered. So if there are any electronic devices on your wishlist for this year, buy them now. Buy them right now because I bought a Steam Deck on Black Friday, after agonizing over it for literally years because I can’t make decisions about big purchases very easily. So I have barely been outside during my break. I have developed a callous on my thumb from playing Hades II. I’m having a great time, right?
The Steam Deck annual winter seal rolls around and I’m filling up my cart. There are great deals. And then I realize, oh, I’m gonna run outta space. And so I ran to Google and searched, uh, best micro SD card for Steam Deck Reddit, uh, as you do, you know, gotta slap on the Reddit. And then I fell down this rabbit hole of panicked posts about the global memory storage shortage, uh, thanks to the AI industry.
Chris Egusa: Shocking to no one.
Morgan Sung: Shocking to no one.
Chris Egusa: The AI industry is using resources.
Morgan Sung: So AI data centers need like an obscene amount of memory chips called RAM, uh, random access memory. And these are the chips that let your laptop like, open multiple programs, uh, without crashing or gaming systems and consoles to run games without lagging.
And so it’s like, temporary memory at at its most basic. Um, data centers need a lot of RAM and along with graphics cards.They need both of these, uh, technologies to train and operate AI models 24/7. One data center’s ram, uh, capacity can power something like a million laptops all at once. And AI companies right now are buying up the world supply of ram.
So what does this have to do with storage? Let me tell you. According to TechRadar, there are three main players that control the whole global market of memory chip production, um, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron.
And so these giants are also producers of flash memory and like, that’s like the static, like, kind of like a file cabinet, you know. It’s just like a space to dump your files. It’s like SD cards, external hard drives, USB, flash drives, um, all that. So they’re making both, right? They’re making RAM, they’re making the flash memory. They got their hands on everything. And because of the AI boom, these memory chip producers are shifting to producing more RAM, um, specifically for large scale AI centers. And because of this, they’re making less flash memory products and also making less products for consumers in general. They’re, like, deprioritizing consumer production in order to meet the demand for enterprise companies, which make a lot more money.
These memory chip companies are expanding their production, but they’re gonna hit a wall, uh, very quickly in the next year. And so that means that anything electronic is going to skyrocket price-wise: laptops, TVs, consoles. Like, even if you build a PC from scratch, each individual part that you’re buying is going to be more expensive because the major players that create both kinds of memory products are shifting to cater to AI data centers.
Chris Egusa: So, let, let me, let me get this straight, Morgan. Um, you’re saying that it’s fiscally responsible for me to buy a Switch 2 this week?
[Laughter]
Maya Cueva: Definitely.
Morgan Sung: Genuinely, yes. It’s not just the tariffs that are driving up prices. It turns out it goes way, way deeper than that.
Chris Hambrick: So amazing how one thing just affects everything, everything else down the line.
Maya Cueva: Everything.
Chris Egusa: Yeah.
Morgan Sung: What’s wild is that, um, Trend Force did this whole, uh, report on the, the future of consumer electronics, and they predicted that smartphone and laptop RAM will actually decrease over time because of the shortage.
Um, so for example, my 2-year-old iPhone has 8 gigabytes of RAM, and the newest ones go as high as like 12. But because of the shortage, uh, smartphones might actually start at 4 gigabytes, which is what iPhones ran on in like 2017 when like running Snapchat and YouTube at the same time made your phone hot.
Chris Egusa: Hmm. So you’re saying we’re, we’re now in a place where smartphones are going to become dumber again?
Chris Hambrick: Yeah.
Morgan Sung: Yeah,
Chris Egusa: That’s our future.
Morgan Sung: Yeah, soon you won’t be able to run, uh, YouTube and scroll at the same time on your phone, um, if you don’t have enough RAM. Personally I’m annoyed because I really want to play Oblivion Remastered on my Steam Deck because I have discovered the joy of gaming while lying down. And I can’t do that because I don’t have enough space.
Chris Egusa: Welcome to the team, Morgan
Morgan Sung: I know.
Chris Hambrick:Dreams deferred.
Maya Cueva: Does this just mean that we’re gonna have to keep buying new electronics all the time because of all the…If they’re making less and less storage or RAM space, like yeah, what does that mean for us as consumers?
Chris Egusa: That’s true. We, we used to be able to, the idea of future proofing your purchases, right. You buy something that’s like, good enough to last you for a long time.
Maya Cueva: Mm-hmm.
Chris Egusa: But now if the stuff you’re buying is getting worse and worse, uh, it’s, it feels like that’s a cycle you don’t want to get into.
Morgan Sung: Right. I mean, I think this shortage, uh, and the conversation we’re having is kind of like a, a precursor. It’s a little preview of what the future of consuming could look like.
Chris Egusa: For sure. So Morgan, do you have a prediction for 2026?
Morgan Sung: Well, I don’t know if this is a prediction for 2026, so much as like for the future in general, but I do wonder if games are gonna get smaller, um, because it’s just gonna be really expensive to keep equipping memory if memory is now a precious resource. Also this is less of a prediction and more of a hope, but I really hope that, uh, physical copies of games become more of a thing again. I really miss the days of trading DS cartridges with my siblings, and I think that was really sweet. We should bring that back.
Chris Egusa: A hundred percent.
Maya Cueva: Mm
Chris Hambrick: Sounds fun.
Chris Egusa: I’ll swap DS cartridges with you.
Morgan Sung: Thank you. If we can ever get them back,
Chris Egusa: Yeah.
Morgan Sung: I’m sure, you know, I’m sure we’ll find out like right as this episode airs that we actually can’t make DS cartridges anymore because we don’t have the storage for them.
Chris Egusa: Turns out AI now needs DS cartridges to run.
Morgan Sung: Yeah.
All: [Laughter]
Morgan Sung: So my question for all of you, um, now that we’ve discussed the global memory shortage and my inability to keep buying games that I won’t play, uh, is do we save or do we scroll?
Chris Hambrick: I think this is gonna roll into a bigger thing.I think save,
Chris Egusa: yeah. I, I would say let’s, let’s save it. it feels like this is gonna change consumer electronics going forward. It’s a big deal.
Maya Cueva: Um, I’ll say save too. What do you think Morgan?
Morgan Sung: Uh, I wanna save it because I’m annoyed. This is my personal gripe now. Um, and I really want to eventually play Oblivion, Remastered, but I think I’ll have to delete like two games to make room for it.
Morgan Sung:All right. We’re saving. So, so far we’ve got two saves. We’re stacking our slate for 2026.
Maya Cueva: So now I have a really wild story for you guys. Um,
Morgan Sung: Wait, wait. I’m so sorry, Maya. We legally have to take a quick break.
Maya Cueva: Okay, fine. We’ll get back to it after the break.
Morgan Sung: Okay, we’re back. Maya, it is finally your turn. What did you bring us today? What was the story that has haunted you throughout our break,
Okay. So when I say the phrase AI artists, what do you guys think of?
Chris Hambrick: I think of nonsensical Christmas music lyrics.
Morgan Sung: I think of, uh, it’s always like some guy on Twitter who’s like, Ugh, look at my art that I made using ChatGPT or Gemini or Midjourney. And it’s like, dude, you just typed words. You didn’t make that art.
Chris Egusa: Yeah. I think of like an imaginary artist creating AI art or something?
Maya Cueva: Yeah, yeah. So AI artists are actually online figures who look like real musicians or actresses, but are actually completely created by AI. So they’re not real humans, they are fake. So in 2025 there were a few AI artists generated. One of them was AI artist, Xania Monet, who’s an R&B artist, and she was actually created by Telisha “Nikki” Jones, who’s a poet. And I have a clip of her that I’ll play right now for you
[Xania Monet in clip]
I just want to take a moment to say thank you for the love, the support, the videos…
Morgan Sung: Oh, I did not like that.
Maya Cueva: Yeah. So it’s really creepy.
Chris Egusa: Thanks. I hate it.
Morgan Sung:Yes, thanks. I hate it.
Chris Hambrick: I don’t need that from her.
Maya Cueva: Exactly. Um, so it’s really, really creepy because she sounds real. She doesn’t look that real, but she does sound real.
Chris Egusa: And just to clarify, Maya, that was the AI voice that we were hearing right there, right?
Maya Cueva: Yes. That was the AI voice of Xania Monet. Um, and so she actually charted on Spotify last year, 2025. Um, and she got a multimillion dollar deal as well, which is just wild. And she’s not real. She’s completely fake.
So also in 2025, there was an artist that was created who was actually an AI actress, and her name is Tilly Norwood. And she was created by former actor Eline Van Der Velden. And now there’s a whole new studio called Tilly-verse to help expand Tilly Norwood. Um, I actually have a clip from an interview with Tilly Norwood, um, on a podcast that we’ll play right now.
[Tilly Norwood in clip]
Hi, I’m Tilly Norwood, the world’s first AI actor. Delighted to meet you. I’m so excited to be on Good Morning Britain. I may look real but there is no need to be afraid of me. I am just here to spice up entertainment and tell stories in a new way. I hope you’ll be seeing more of me.
Chris Hambrick: This is shades of “Black Mirror.” I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about this.
Maya Cueva: But yeah, so both of those are both AI generated. So we have, um, Xania Monet, who’s the R&B artist who got the multimillion dollar deal, who you first heard from, and then there’s Tilly Norwood. Um, but I wanted to ask all of you, like, first of all, for Xania, do you feel like is it’s ethical to actually sign them to record deals, AI artists?
Chris Egusa: Well that, that is my question and maybe, maybe you can share a little bit on this, Maya, but like, what does it mean to sign an AI artist to a record deal? Like who is signing, who is signing on the dotted line? You know?
Maya Cueva: Yeah, so I actually had to look this up because I also was confused. Um, so it looks like Telisha “Nikki” Jones, who is the poet that actually created her, is the one who gets the money from the record deal. Um, and apparently Telisha Jones also writes the lyrics for Xania Monet. Um, so I think that’s how she can kind of make the case that she should be the one to get the money, I guess, for the deal.
Chris Hambrick: That makes sense to me.
Maya Cueva: Yeah
Morgan Sung: This reminds me of, do you guys know Lil Miquela?
Maya Cueva: No. Who’s that?
Morgan Sung: Okay, so she is a CGI influencer, or, or I guess her whole thing was being a virtual influencer and she claimed to be AI like back in 2016. But in reality it was just like CGI and like motion capture. Um, and she’s created by this like, marketing team.
Um, wait, let me see ifI can find a video for you. It’s so weird.
[Lil Miquela in clip]
Starting this year, I’m committed to making choices that show I care for the planet and sustaining yourself is just as important. That’s why I rely on Liquid IV for self-care. It keeps me feeing good so I can look and do good. That’s the energy I’m bringing into ….
Morgan Sung: Okay, so that’s Lil Miquela. Um, and her whole thing is being like a CGI influencer, but from what I understand, it’s like a person in a motion capture suit underneath. And they say that they use AI for like digital rendering, but it’s like a person tracking. Um, and like it’s a person’s voice allegedly. Um, and there’s like a marketing team behind her.
So it reminded me of that when you mentioned this, but like that was what we just watched was like a Liquid IV ad. And so this it, the CGI influencer has been used to market and like get brand deals for years since 2016. And then it has gotten canceled a couple times because, uh, at one point, I think this year she made a video where she was like, I have leukemia.
And it was part…
Maya Cueva: What?
Chris Hambrick: Oh my gosh!
Morgan Sung: …of a campaign to like raise money for leukemia research, where I think like bone marrow donations. Uh, people have been like weirded out by her for the last decade.
And I feel like the AI actresses that you’re talking about, Maya, or like the, was it Xania Monet? feels like the next step of this where they’ve removed the actual people who are running this virtual girl’s social pages and it’s just generated now.
Maya Cueva: Right. No, that’s super interesting.That you bring that up. So apparently for Tilly-verse, which is the studio that’s gonna help expand Tilly Norwood, who is the AI actress, they’re claiming that they’re actually gonna be creating jobs. So they would have somebody who’s like running the social media or writing the scripts and the dialogue and things like that.
But my question is, is like, well, what happens when they can just train AI to do that? So maybe they’ll hire human workers, right? But then eventually they’ll just get replaced as well.
Chris Egusa: Well they said they’re creating jobs, but they didn’t say if they were human jobs.
Maya Cueva:Right? They said…
Chris Egusa: It could be AI jobs
Maya Cueva: They claimed that it would be like for humans, but they could easily, like Morgan was saying, with what happened to Lil Miquela that like, they could just be replaced by AI as well.
Chris Hambrick: And my thing is like, I don’t like being fooled, and so there’s a little bit of comfort already knowing the people behind these people. But like, I worry about down the road when somebody first encounters an AI actress or an ar- AI musician, and we don’t even talk about the person behind it. I’m like, who is this for? Like, okay,these advances are made in order so that humans can go do things that they want to do. Like I think we enjoy making, um, art and acting and songs.
Maya Cueva: yeah
Chris Hambrick: So like who is it for?
Morgan Sung: Yeah.
Chris Egusa: And like, what are we enjoying exactly.too?
Maya Cueva: Right? What are we enjoying? Exactly.
Chris Egusa: Like, do, do we just enjoy the thing we see on the screen? Or do we enjoy the idea that there’s intention and artistic endeavor behind it? This also makes me think like in some ways, yes, this is slightly, it’s dystopian and slightly terrifying, but in, in another way, it’s not that different from like, our current sort of model of famous Hollywood actors/celebrity culture.
Maya Cueva:Mm-hmm.
Chris Egusa: ‘Cause we already have humans who are kind of fake.
Maya Cueva:Mm-hmm.
Chris Egusa: And they are like industries of themselves. They have teams behind them, even though we, we see them as, as represented as a single person. But, you know, you think of like any Hollywood A-lister and they’re gonna have an operational team. They’re gonna have a marketing team. They’re gonna have, you know, like probably hundreds of people employed, keeping this one person’s image going. So,like, in a weird way, it’s kind of like reducing that to, its like core-most essence. Of like, we already have fake people in celebrity culture, and this is like the fakest version of that, you know?
Maya Cueva: Right. We’re already seeing just their persona riight. What they want us to see.
Chris Egusa: There’s no, there’s no facade about it.
Chris Hambrick: Mm-hmm.
Chris Egusa:They’re just like, this is fake.
Maya Cueva: Yeah. That’s interesting. Well, I also think about just, I don’t know, maybe people are already, celebrities are already perpetuating these tropes anyways, but I’m just thinking about the tropes that these AI artists might be perpetuating.
So like, Xania Monet being a Black R&B artist. And then Tilly Norwood is this white woman and they said that they are depicting a white woman, right, because it’s not real. Um, but their creators already said like, oh, this is how we want them to be presented. Tilly Norwood should kind of come across as this like, girl next door.
Right? Um, so yeah. I’m just wondering the types of tropes that they would already, that would, they would be perpetuating about like Black and brown artists, about women. Yeah.
Chris Egusa: They are kind of by default caricatures, right?
Maya Cueva:Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Chris Egusa: Because they’re not real people. It’s interesting. Yeah.
Morgan Sung: Thanks. I hate it.
Maya Cueva: Thanks. I hate it.
Morgan Sung: Okay. Maya, Xania Monet and Tilly Norwood. What is your prediction for the next year uh, based on what you brought us?
Maya Cueva: Yeah. So I do feel that these AI artists will make it harder for human artists, um, to be able to book roles or even get record deals because now it seems like anyone can just make a generated artist. I also feel like with the Tilly-verse, which is the studio that’s helping expand Tilly Norwood, um, that they’ll eventually just replace the human workers, that they claim they’re gonna be hiring, with AI.
Like I feel like that could happen like within the year, um, or everything will pop and these AI will crash, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen within this year.
Chris Egusa: Xania Monet will be the first victim of the AI bubble popping.
All: [Laughter]
Maya Cueva: And we’ll be the first to cover it.
Morgan Sung: Yeah. Okay. Team thoughts. Should we save AI artists for a close all tabs deep dive, or do we scroll?
Chris Egusa: I gotta be honest. I’m ready to scroll past these AI artists. I don’t want them in my feed.
Maya Cueva: I agree. But I wanna save this because I do feel like I wanna do some kind of story on this later. So I’m gonna say save.
Chris Egusa: That’s fair.
Chris Hambrick: I’m gonna say scroll. I feel like it’s, it’s interesting because it’s new right now, but I’m just like meh, you know, I’ll see how it shakes out. You know,
Morgan Sung: yeah, I, I’m sorry, Maya. I’m scrolling because..
Chris Hambrick: Oh, no.
Morgan Sung: Lil Miquela did it first, and I’m waiting, I’m waiting for a little bit for Lil Miquela to feud with one of these fakers.
Chris Egusa: Oh my God, God. Lil Miquela off the top rope.
Maya Cueva: Well then we gotta save it ‘cause we gotta follow their feud.
Morgan Sung: I know. I, I say save if, we’ll, we’ll come back to it if Lil Miquela weighs in on AI artists.
Morgan Sung: Okay, so last story for the day. Chris H what did you bring us?
Chris Hambrick: Okay, so I saw this video while I was scrolling Instagram. This user, SeanJaye1988, posted this reel where he stitched together two videos. So one of them was filmed at the end of 2024 where he was asking himself questions. And the second video was filmed at the end of 2025 when he answered those questions posed by his former self.
[Instagram User SeanJaye1988 in clip]
2024 Sean: Did you lose weight?
2025 Sean: 15 lbs, Shawty!
2024 Sean: Are you still driving that car?
2025 Sean: Hell naw!
2024 Sean: Because that m-r is on like 200,000 miles.
2025 Sean: That m—r said “poof!”
2024 Sean: Did you start your podcast?
2025 Sean: Absolutely not..
Chris Hambrick: And so these questions were around like his progress on goals that he set for himself. Like, did you move? Are you still at the same job? And at the end of this, he asked himself,
[Instagram User SeanJaye1988 in clip]
2024 Sean: Are you okay? Do you love yourself?
Are you okay? Do you love yourself? And it seemed as if he had very much not been okay in 2024, so that’s why his former self was checking in about it.
And so in response, the 2025 version, Sean blew air out of his lips and then press them together and turned to the side and his eyes look kind of glassy. And then he finally was like,
[Instagram User SeanJaye1988 in clip]
2025 Sean: Yes
2024 Sean: Are you making sure you’re okay?
2025 Sean: Yeah
2024 Sean: I pray that you are.
2025 Sean: I am.
Morgan Sung: Wow. That was really sweet.
Chris Hambrick: But what I think is really interesting about the video is that, you know, he says yes, but you know, it’s something that he’s looks like he’s still working on, you know? Um, but what I really, um, enjoyed about this is because like, yeah, it’s, you know, somebody posting something that could seem performative. I’m processing this real time thing, you know, like in public, on social media.
And I’ve seen different versions of like this sort of thing, asking your future self questions. But like, this one had a lot of sincerity and a lot of emotionality and a rare, um, for me, seen moment of vulnerability from a man online.
Chris Egusa: Hmm.
Chris Hambrick: Um, and so I feel like it’s a counter to this article that came out at the beginning of 2025, from the New York Times, talking about how big the Manosphere was and how like, if you think that it’s only on the fringes, you’re you’re wrong because it’s, it’s right here. It’s Earth. The manosphere is Earth.
It’s all of this like misogyny and toxic masculinity in American culture and politics. It’s, it’s, it’s right here. Um, so this is one that I, I really thought, you know, was interesting and I would love to see more of it.
Morgan Sung: Yeah, down with the manosphere.
Maya Cueva: Yeah.
Chris Egusa: What, what would we call this instead of the, the manosphere?
Chris Hambrick: Oh, the emotion…emotion bonanza
Morgan Sung: the feelingsphere.
Chris Hambrick: Feelingsphere! I like feelingsphere.
I looked at, uh, some other post on this guy’s account and they all seem very rooted in being vulnerable out loud.
Chris Egusa: Mm-hmm.
Chris Hambrick: You know, he’s got posts about his weight. It’s, you know, one where he’s at, uh, a wedding and somehow he got the mic. I think he’s in the wedding party and, and so these real life moments that he is sharing, you know. And I think of that in light of all the podcasters and male bloggers who focus on like sports and gambling and rah-rah red-blooded American male… Like, you know, I hope this guy does start a podcast, um, where he gets like more vulnerable and encourages other guys to, um, kind of beat back this, you know, masculinity that is actually a backlash to feminism, the rise of feminism.
Maya Cueva: Mm-hmm.
Chris Egusa: Well, it’s like you said, I, I was really drawn to the authenticity in this. The fact that it…
Maya Cueva: Same
Chris Egusa: …did not, it could have felt so performative and I can imagine what that version of the video looks like and this, it really felt like he was having a conversation earnestly with, with his past self. I, I think that’s hard to do online. Uh, I thought it was really touching.
Maya Cueva: I thought so too. And I also liked that it felt like a live vision board in a way, or like or not even a vision board.
Chris Egusa: Mm-hmm.
Maya Cueva: More so like, here’s what happened, here’s what we hope where we’re gonna happen, and then we get to see like what actually ended up happening for him 2025.
Chris Hambrick: Yeah. There are a lot of things where, you know, people like sit down and like do tactile things
Maya Cueva: mm-hmm.
Chris Hambrick: And pull out and like pen and paper and cut up magazines. But this one is like, hey, if you’re already operating, you know, in the online sphere, if you’ve already got your phone in your hand all the time, like this is like a very, um, low lift way for you to just like document what were the things that were on my mind…
Maya Cueva: Mm-hmm.
Chris Hambrick: …and like, check in later, so long as you can find the video.
Maya Cueva: Right, right, right.
Chris Egusa: You gotta be organized.
Morgan Sung: Yeah. You know, I, not to be cynical, but when you first sent this video, I was like, oh God, it’s another performative male thing. Like, I don’t know if you remember this, like last year was the year of performative male contests where like guys would put on their baggiest jeans and their, like all their labubus hooked onto it, bring their tote bags and their flowers and their like little Bell Hooks back, like copies to the park and compete as the most performative male.
And it was kind of like a funny commentary on like how, uh, you know, guys were trying to not be the manosphere guy, like this like soft kind of person who is sensitive and listens to women and reads feminist material. Um, but then, you know, at the core they’re still kind of like players, whatever. And I was expecting that kind of thing, but it was nice to see something more authentic.
And so, I don’t know, maybe that’s me. I’m too cynical about the internet, but I hope, I hope this kind of continues.
Chris Egusa: Lemme ask a question. Just because I am the only, I guess, male representative in this space, uh, uh, right now on our team.
Chris Hambrick: [Laughs]
Chris Egusa: You know, that we, you have the manosphere on one side, right? Uh, we all know what that is: the Joe Rogans of the world and the Andrew Tates and all of that. Um, and then you talk about the like performative mail and how that was really a big thing last year.
Um, I just wonder like not to be like a male apologist, but like what are men supposed to do? What space are they supposed to occupy? You know, because like, I think you could imagine some men trying to sort of distance themselves from the manosphere stuff and then being called performative.
Um, and so like what, what is the right, uh, in your opinion in 2026, what, what does that look like? Like what is an authentic, like, non-toxic man supposed to present as and supposed to be in the world? Um, that’s not performative.
Morgan Sung: I mean, when the whole performative male contests, uh, you know, were, when they, those were all taking off across the country. There were so many think pieces about like, how do men act online? Like, oh no. Um, and I think those contests were really like a commentary on how the manosphere and this like archetype of like this, the TikTok soft boy, it’s really like a horseshoe. You know, they’re, they’re a lot closer than you think because they’re performing, uh, they’re performing being woke, but like in public, but then in secret and or in private still mistreating women. And so I think really it’s just being normal to woman online.
Maya Cueva: [Laughs]
Chris Egusa: So, it’s the toxic traits are still there at the core.
Morgan Sung: Right. Just they’re like wrapped up in a tote bag and a labubu.
All: [Laughter]
Chris Hambrick: Just being normal
Maya Cueva: Be genuine.
Chris Egusa: I think it’s, it’s possible guys. It’s possible. Just be normal.
Morgan Sung: So Chris H., I have to know, based on this not performative male, not manosphere content that you just showed us, what is your prediction for 2026?
Chris Hambrick: Okay. I think that this is gonna be a year where more men feel comfortable being vulnerable publicly online…and sincerely, um, like maybe we’ll see more of these, um, checking in with your past self videos, and hopefully all the men who have, um, repressed these emotions, uh, they start leaking out and they get to release them as a healthier method of, um, being instead of like blowing things up.
Morgan Sung: Okay, team, an antidote to the manosphere. Do we save or do we scroll?
Chris Egusa: I vote to save this because, you know, we’ve been talking about doing something on the manosphere in general, but I kind of like looking at this, what’s beyond the manosphere? How, how might it be rejected in the next year?
Chris Hambrick: I, you know, I am surprising myself because I am on the fence.
Chris Egusa: Mm.
Chris Hambrick: Like, I, I like a good internet trend. I hope that this will take off, but I wanna see it, um, sort of in the background. I want it to happen without it going, Hey, look what men are doing.You know?
Maya Cueva: Mm-hmm.
Chris Hambrick: So I can just like be, I took note of that. That’s neat. More of that, please. Scroll.
Morgan Sung: Yeah.
Chris Egusa: Then you’re back in the performative space,
Maya Cueva: Right.
Morgan Sung: More labubus.
Maya Cueva: Although I do wanna see an antidote to the manosphere. I feel like I would scroll past this personally, but I don’t know Morgan, what you think.
Morgan Sung: Um, you know, I’ve been scrolling past the manosphere content because I don’t wanna see it. Um, and I don’t wanna platform it. Um, and then this, it’s like, I, I like that it’s happening. I, I think it’s good for humanity but I’m gonna scroll because I don’t wanna make a Not All Men episode. Sorry, Chris.
Chris Hambrick: [Laughs]
Chris Egusa: Crushing. Crushing. I mean, do I need a retort?
Maya Cueva: Yeah. Yeah.
Morgan Sung: Well, uh, so sorry Chris, we are, Chris E. We are scrolling on men being vulnerable online, but we do want more of it in the world. We do want it, we want it to happen.
Chris Egusa: I’ll save it on my, my personal feed.
All: [Laughter]
Morgan Sung: Well guys, thanks for joining me for Save or Scroll.
Chris Hambrick: You’re welcome. I’ll see you in a year.
Chris Egusa: Thanks Morgan. This was super fun.
Maya Cueva: Yeah. Thanks Morgan. This was a lot of fun.
Morgan Sung: All right, well, that is it for Save or Scroll. We’re keeping tabs on everything that we did save, so don’t be surprised if one of those stories shows up as a deep dive in your feed. We’ll be back next week with more Close All Tabs.
Close All Tabs is a production of KQED Studios, and is reported and hosted by me, Morgan Sung.
Close All Tabs producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Hambrick is our editor.
Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor, and composed our theme song and credits music. Additional music by APM.
Brendan Willard is our audio engineer.
Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager, and Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief.
Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.
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