AI Ain't New, Y'all Just Late
Ep. 01

AI Ain't New, Y'all Just Late

Episode description

The technology everyone discovered last year has been running your spam filter, your fraud alerts, and your autocomplete for decades. A short history of how we got here — and why “new” is the most expensive word in tech.

This is episode one. Meet your host, and let’s cut through some noise.

THE BLAST RADIUS — Cyber • Tech • What’s Next Hosted by Quinn “Q” Vidal Know your radius. Shrink the blast. Cybersecurity, changing tech, and industry recommendations for the people who have to run the network on Monday — not the ones writing the press release.

Download transcript (.srt)
0:04

Hello my bad what's good internet people podcast nation my

0:09

name is Quinn I also go by Q but I'm better known as the IT guy that

0:14

your IT guy calls. Now without dating myself too much I've been on this

0:19

internet thing since the days of dial-up talking about AOL and net zero.

0:24

Man I was on Black Planet, Dallas Peeps, MySpace, Google Plus, Yahoo Messenger.

0:30

I was that dude downloading MP3s making and selling my own CD mixes while

0:35

burning DVDs. But recently I haven't really had a presence on social

0:40

media. Reason being it's a lot of victimization, entitlement, and

0:46

so-called know-it-alls and having a platform doesn't automatically make

0:50

you an expert and I hated going into the comments of other my friends and

0:55

seeing posts from the gaslighters and the trolls.

0:58

is what you need to do with tech and AI without even considering or asking

1:04

the question about security, privacy, or the actual steps of how to do

1:08

it where they just say anyone can do it.

1:11

Just copy and paste. So I figured, let me get up here and call cap

1:16

on the post the statement the recommendations in my area of expertise

1:21

are helping you all navigate the truth.

1:25

I'm starting this podcast initially weekly, and we'll let the internet

1:30

decide on how long my run is for. Either y'all find it helpful, or y'all

1:35

tell me, man, get this OG off the web.

1:38

Real talk, my goal is to help y'all navigate through all the noise.

1:42

Now let me give you a quick rundown on who I am, so you know that I'm not

1:46

just talking or blowing smoke.

1:48

I've created apps and published them in the App Store.

1:51

I've built cybersecurity platforms from the ground up.

1:55

I've racked and stacked appliances, MSPs, routers.

2:00

Switches, literally from an empty room with four walls to building telecom

2:04

closets for major companies. I've built classified and unclassified fiber

2:09

optic networks. I've managed MSPs, computer servers for Fortune 100 companies.

2:15

I've worked at the Pentagon, the State Department, and I've rubbed elbows

2:18

and shared drinks with a lot of CEOs.

2:21

Just about any cybersecurity role that you can think of,

2:25

I've probably done it. the reality is, most of y'all don't need that deep

2:30

enterprise knowledge. need just help connecting to a remote system, or

2:34

understanding new technology, troubleshooting different platforms that

2:38

you already have or own, and automating the processes that you do every

2:42

And my goal is to help you stop paying for so many subscriptions,

2:48

and show you when it makes sense to just build your own.

2:51

And that's what your boy Q is here for.

2:54

here's how the show works, so that you know what you're signing up for.

2:58

Every podcast is going to have basically three parts.

3:02

First is the blast. That's the one story that actually matters.

3:06

What happened? Who it hits? And what the headlines got wrong.

3:10

And trust me, after 20 years in this business, they always get something

3:14

wrong. They don't know how to explain it, or they leave key facts out that

3:18

really affect people like you and me.

3:21

Then you have the radius check. That's when we zoom out some tech shift

3:25

or regulation that's coming for businesses, whether you're ready for it

3:29

or not, and what it actually means if you're a small shop or a one-person

3:33

security team. And finally, we'll close with the fix.

3:37

That's going to be two to three things that you can actually do about it

3:41

this week. Not a 47 step framework, not consult with your vendor,

3:47

real moves. so often you'll also get field

3:52

notes. That's going to be stories from real engagements, but names have

3:56

been changed to protect the guilty.

4:01

That's to And going something bending my own kind of format before

4:07

you've even seen it. Consider it a free lesson in how the rollout will

4:11

actually go. But from episode two on, that's the shape, the blast, the

4:16

radius, the fix. All right, well, let's get into our subject today.

4:21

AI ain't new. Y 'all just late to the game and understanding it.

4:26

When I talk about what AI actually is and how you're already using it and

4:31

why people today acting like it's something brand new, but most know it's

4:36

not. AI got its term around 1956. So it's older

4:41

than probably most of y'all listening and maybe older than your parents.

4:45

There was a computer deep blue that beat the world chess champion back

4:50

in 1997. Think about your spam filter, your spell check, your

4:55

Netflix recommendations, that auto-correct on your phone that makes you

4:59

look crazy in the group chat. What'd he say?

5:02

All of that? That's AI. And it's been in your life for decades.

5:06

When you type something in Google and it predicts what you're looking for

5:10

and serves up rank results, that's AI at work.

5:13

At its core, AI is software that takes your input processes

5:19

it and gives you an output. True newer models like ChatGPT are more

5:24

advanced because they understand context and generate more detailed responses.

5:28

But the foundational concept of a program processing, commands that return

5:33

results that's been around for decades.

5:35

The big difference now is scale, context, awareness, and natural language

5:41

processing. But the principle is still the same.

5:44

Don't let the hype fool you. Now here's where I need to get y'all to really

5:49

pay attention. A a lot of y'all are paying $20 or more for more than

5:54

one AI subscription that you really don't need.

5:57

Whether it's ChatGPT, Google perplexity or 50 million

6:02

other AI providers out there, you're wasting your money.

6:05

If all you're doing is basic searches,

6:08

Google already has, has AI built into its search.

6:11

So if you know how to search with the right keywords and context, you can

6:15

get a lot of what you need for free.

6:17

Google's AI overviews, featured snippets, auto suggestions are already

6:22

doing the heavy lifting for basics questions.

6:25

But if you are paying that $20 or more, I hope you're getting your money's

6:30

worth. So how do you actually get value from a paid AI subscription?

6:34

Think of it like going to the doctor.

6:37

When you go to your general practitioner, they give you some generic advice.

6:41

Maybe they run some basic tests and really that's what Google search is

6:44

about. It gives you surface level general information, but when you need

6:49

real in-depth help, you go to a specialist, a cardiologist, a neurologist,

6:54

someone who digs deep into a specific problem.

6:56

And that's what paid AI should be for you.

6:59

It's the specialist you're paying for.

7:01

Deeper context, more detailed analysis, the ability to work through complex

7:06

problems, step-by-step and specialized capabilities like writing code,

7:10

analyzing documents, or building workflows.

7:12

Now is every AI tool equally good at everything?

7:16

Nah, you know, that's not true. Some are better at coding and some are

7:20

better at writing. Some are better at research and it's like how a neurosurgeon

7:25

and a heart surgeon, they're both doctors, but you wouldn't want them swapping

7:28

roles. Know what your tool that you're using is good for and use it that

7:33

way. Here's the thing. I see a lot of people jump on social media, and

7:38

go straight for the AI content creation.

7:40

They're trying to automate everything and get one picture to look the same

7:44

seven different ways with seven different outfits.

7:47

And then they're trying to automate everything and get frustrated when

7:50

it doesn't work. Right. Y 'all are literally trying to drive a car, but

7:54

I don't even know how to ride a skateboard.

7:56

And no, I'm not talking about the self-driving taxi cabs and Tesla cars

8:01

either. So your boy's going to walk you through the basics first.

8:05

I'm talking about things like virtualization, containers environments,

8:09

and how programs actually work on your computer.

8:11

You know, the stuff that helps you understand what's really happening in

8:15

the hood. So you're not wasting time and money.

8:18

Here's what I want you to think about.

8:20

What do you do day to day at your job today?

8:23

What are the repetitive redundant tasks, even the that you send over and

8:27

over those templates, those are the things that you do a million times.

8:33

That's where AI saves you time and money, automating the boring stuff,

8:37

repetitive work. So you can focus on what actually matters.

8:41

Now, let me be clear. I'm not finna build y'all anything or code

8:46

for y'all for free, unless y'all paying me, that's a different conversation.

8:50

But what I will do is teach you how to teach yourself.

8:53

I will show you the path point you to the right tools and explain the concepts.

8:58

So you can actually understand what you're doing instead of just copying,

9:02

pasting, and hoping for the best. Remember you only get out what you put

9:06

in. There's an old saying that you give a man a fish, you feed him for

9:10

the day. But if you teach a man how to fish, he might come for your check.

9:14

Honestly, if y'all want to come from my check, that means I just got to

9:18

grow and level up too. And I'm cool with that.

9:21

Now, before I get out of here, I built a place for all of this knowledge.

9:25

It's a community called inside the blast radius.

9:28

And it's on the platform Skool. S-K-O-O-L dot com.

9:33

And the link is in the description. Now, the foundation, nation's track

9:37

in there is free. Free is free. I'm not doing this thing where I dangle

9:42

a carrot in front of a horse and trying to get you to follow me and then

9:45

hit you at the end with some outrageous price.

9:48

What I cover in the podcast, the training for their lands, their no charge,

9:53

the intro to cybersecurity. In fact, modules one through three are already

9:57

there. So go check it out.

10:00

And as for you, security gurus who already know everything, but sometimes

10:04

you need a little bit of help. Once a week, I'll do a community voted technology

10:08

breakdown, your vote on a vendor, a technology or a head to head comparison.

10:14

Everybody votes and everybody gets the highlights, the full deep dive,

10:18

executive summaries, the real analysis,

10:22

PowerPoints infographs that lives on the premium side of the community.

10:26

I'm going to keep it real with you. That's the part that keeps the lights

10:29

on, but the foundation's track free stays free.

10:33

That's not changing. So come through, check it out, ask questions, ask

10:38

me something. Tell me where you disagree or what you think I'm wrong about.

10:42

Honestly, I love that one the best because just remember one when I'm right,

10:47

I'm right. And when I'm wrong, I could have been right.

10:50

So I'm still right. Cause I could have been wrong about being right.

10:52

And one day I might be wrong, but that day ain't today.

10:56

I'm Q. This has been the blast radius.

10:59

Remember know your radius shrink the blast, and I'll see you on the Inside.

11:05

Peace.