Radio Better Offline: Jeremy Kaplowitz of the Quorators

29 Jan 2025 · 46 min

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In short

Podcast Summary: Better Offline - Episode with Jeremy Kaplowitz

Podcast Overview Title: Better Offline Description: Better Offline is a weekly show that investigates how the tech industry influences and manipulates society. The podcast features narrative storytelling, interviews, and discussions that delve into the schemes of tech elites, cryptocurrency issues, and societal impacts. Hosts Ed Zitron and a variety of guests help listeners understand the motives behind tech developments.

Episode Details Episode Title: Radio Better Offline: Jeremy Kaplowitz of the Quorators Description: In this episode, Ed Zitron speaks with Jeremy Kaplowitz, co-host of the Quorators podcast. They discuss Quora, likening it to “Reddit with a gas leak,” and explore the bizarre and often degenerate content that can be found on the platform.

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Key Discussion Points

Introduction to Quora

  • What is Quora?
  • A question-and-answer platform where users can ask questions and receive answers from other users.
  • Described as a combination of Reddit and Facebook, resulting in a unique blend of content.

The Quorators Podcast

  • Overview of the Podcast:
  • Launched in September 2022.
  • Focuses on highlighting peculiar and often hilarious content found on Quora.
  • Motivation:
  • The hosts wanted to create a podcast that was easy to produce, using the endless oddities available on Quora as material.

Quora's Bizarre Content

  • Strange User Behavior:
  • Discussion of users who explore their sexual fantasies and fetishes on the platform.
  • Notable examples include individuals asking about experiences related to unusual sexual encounters.
  • Interesting Communities:
  • A community of users who share experiences of swimming fully clothed.
  • Retired police officers sharing their stories and advice.

Famous Personalities and Influencers

  • Jordan Peterson:
  • Mentioned as a notable figure who gained fame through answering questions on Quora.
  • His popularity is tied to the platform, which the hosts sarcastically lament.
  • Other Notables:
  • Orson Scott Card, author of *Ender’s Game*, actively participates in Quora discussions.

AI and Content Generation on Quora

  • Introduction of Quora Prompt Generator:
  • AI-generated questions are created, leading to bizarre inquiries.
  • Discussed the implications of AI-driven content on the quality of questions and answers.

User Behavior and Community Dynamics

  • Diverse User Motivations:
  • Users range from genuine question seekers to trolls and those seeking validation for extreme views.
  • Politics and Controversy:
  • Users debate political topics, often leading to inflammatory discussions.
  • Instances of hate speech and problematic content were noted, indicating a lack of moderation.

Conclusion of Episode

  • Reflections on User Engagement:
  • The hosts bemoan Quora's decline in quality and its shift towards AI-generated content.
  • Despite the bizarre nature of Quora, it serves as a repository for the oddities of internet culture.

Key Takeaways

  • Quora's Reputation:
  • Regarded as a "gas leak" of the internet, Quora is home to an unusual mix of content and users.
  • Cultural Reflection:
  • The bizarre questions and responses reflect deeper societal issues and interests, highlighting the unpredictability of human behavior online.
  • Podcast Appeal:
  • The Quorators podcast captures the essence of internet weirdness, providing humor through its commentary on Quora's oddities.

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Links

  • [Quorators Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/@Quorators)
  • [Patreon for Quorators](https://www.patreon.com/Quorators)
  • [Better Offline Links](https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks)
  • [Newsletter](https://www.wheresyoured.at/)
  • [Discord Community](https://chat.wheresyoured.at)

Hosts' Social Media

  • Ed Zitron:
  • [Twitter](https://twitter.com/edzitron)
  • [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/edzitron)
  • [BSky Profile](https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com)
  • [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@edzitron)

This episode illustrates how platforms like Quora can become reflections of societal quirks and the chaotic nature of human interaction online, while also providing a comedic lens through which to understand these phenomena.

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Transcript

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3:01live but recorded on tape from new york city the iheart radio studios it's goddamn better offline and i'm the chief of pigs at zitron

3:21today i'm joined by jeremy kapowitz of the corators podcast i'm so excited to have you here because your podcast has found i would say some of history's detritus yeah it's become one of the worst best places online but just for the listeners who may have just ignored quora what is quora just walk it through quora is a website where you can ask questions and then people answer it but it is very much like uh reddit meets facebook i would say right so two of the worst websites combined to you know in sort of like a super saiyan way to create an even worse website wonderful so how long have you been doing the podcast we've been doing it like two years since September 2022.

4:02And why? What brought you to it? Oh, we really wanted to do a podcast that wouldn't be hard to do. Right. We figured Quora has endless degenerates to look at and point at and laugh at. Right. So what is your favorite one you've found recently? Give me a good example. I'm trying to think. There's a lot of perverts on Quora. I'm listening. For some reason, people go to Quora to act out their sexual fantasies, but they don't want to see it. so they'll i don't know what it is although like write down a question that's like have you ever uh had a girl pee on you and then like they'll be like they want people to be like oh yeah one time it was i was so naughty and i guess then they're jacking off to it or something very nasty we found a bunch of weird we found a whole community of people who swim with their clothes on okay which i i imagine is a fetish of some kind but they were all posting photos of it and stuff it's all these like older guys like in lakes and pools are they dressed how are they dressed normal clothes like just like walking around what you're in right now okay if you were taking like a sexy photo shoot of you jumping into a pool falling in a pool yeah and are there a lot of these perverts on there i realize we're very perverted so many perverts it's like cops and perverts and racists which could all be the same thing i mean um yeah it's a weird it's a very weird website so but wait the cops what are the cops doing on there cops uh they're talking about safety there's all There's these like sub-Quoras that are like subreddits, but for Quora.

5:32And there's a lot of them that are like, how to deal with thugs in your neighborhood. But wait, so you say the sub-Quoras. Yeah. Is this mean people publish there as well? It's not just question and answer? I mean, those are where people are still doing questions, but they're like collecting them in a group. Like, how do I stop the scumbag from shooting? Yes, yes. And there's a lot of like retired cops who are like writing novels. Insane. A lot of them literally are writing books of like, because a lot of people have become famous on Quora. The big one is Jordan Peterson. Jordan Peterson got his start answering Quora questions and people were like, you should put this in a book.

6:05And then he became - Those people, we should find those people. Yes. And stop them. How do I deal with the fact that Shrek and Fiona should not be together? Right. But really, he came from Quora. That makes me so angry. Quora created Jordan Peterson. That is fucking horrible. It's really sad. What was he asking about? He was answering. So he was a big answerer. So he was the guy going in there being like, actually, if you swim in your clothes, it's a better fold around your penis. I don't like the idea of pervert. I like to be called a sartorial man. Yeah, that's horrible. And there must be even other any other famous Korra freaks.

6:48I think he's the only one who became famous from Korra. But Orson Scott Card is on there. Who's that? He's the author of Ender's Game. Oh. Who, he wrote a bunch of sci-fi novels. And is, like, famously an insane crank. I don't know if you know anything about him. I don't. So, he wrote Ender's Game, which is a book about the government abducting children and making them fight wars against aliens. Right. Right? Totally normal stuff. As happens. And then, in, like, the 2000s, he went crazy. And he's, like, very Mormon. And he was, like, super anti-Obama. Okay. And he was like, if Obama wins, there will be gangs of black people going around the country killing everybody.

7:23Oh, my God. So he was, you know, obviously right about some stuff, but no. Come on. He was crazy. He's totally nuts for them. He's like super duper like anti-gay people, even though his books are like very homoerotic and weird. There's like this very famous scene in Ender's Game where Ender beats a guy up by soaping himself. He gets really naked and then puts soap all over his body so that the bad guy can't like catch him. He's like a very strange dude. But he was a big Korra guy? Yeah, he's still on there to this day. What's he answering? He's just, I don't know, I can look. Yeah, you know, by all means, I just love the idea.

7:59Let's see what he's up to. Korra seems horrible, just want to be abundantly clear. Because I was a Yahoo Answers freak. Oh, yeah, similar. But I was just someone who looked. I was like an Answers voyeur. And there's, of course, the very famous Yahoo Answers are, how is Babby formed? How can I get pregnant? I need to do Way and Stay Mother who killed their Babbies. I could say the whole thing, but I won't. But Korra feels different somehow. It feels like it's got a degree of LinkedIn poisoning almost. Yeah. But it's also full names on there. So it's all like no one's anonymous. Some people are.

8:32I mean, we've come across one guy whose name is I am a pizza and he posts every day. He asks, how can I get eaten? Okay. So he's not, I don't think that's his legal name, but he's on there. Just my name's I'm in pizza. I am a pizza is his name. And is it just questions around how he can get eaten? Yeah, it's literally what it is. That's it. How can I get someone to eat me? how can i get eaten like every day it's nothing sexual i mean i mean perhaps just the process of being sexual like of course sure that's are there a lot of bit style accounts like that there definitely are there's nothing like trolls on there there's a lot of um christian baby questions that's a big thing on quora where people be like uh what would you do if you're skydiving with a christian baby and the baby says i'm not gonna pull my parachute unless you renounce atheism and accept Jesus Christ.

9:21Okay, well, the answer... And that's supposed to be a gotcha. The answer there is just, I'll say whatever I need to. It's a fucking baby. Yeah, exactly. They're very stupid. Like, just they're not intellectual. Yes. There's hundreds of these. And how are the responses? Do people take them very seriously or do they take them more? Like, they kind of like, is it like Twitter where you get like 50 % honest people and 50 % people being unfunny? Well, it's not Twitter because they're not unfunny, but it'll be 50 % people answering it and 50 % people being like, how dare you bring this to my question website where discourse is meant to be done wait so the reverse got card oh okay okay so he's answered three hours ago four hours ago he's there every day get a job i know he's on there just people being like well how do you write a book and he's like i wrote ender's game in 1975 and then back then i had the dinosaur that you pack on the head yeah that's that's like this and listeners who are not gonna love that um yeah just a lot of stuff about like he's just giving like relationship advice in some spots that's not brilliant based on anything you've told me about is there a large like relationship advice sure yeah there's definitely that kind of stuff there's a lot of like famously bad ones where it's hard to tell if it's like legit i mean there's just children on there who are being like how do i get this girl to like me or whatever just and in some ways that feels quite honest like what the internet is really for but with the perverts and degenerates on there it's pretty bad that there's a place that we have found a bunch of times called like teen fun zone for like teens to hang out and it's just like how many of these people are undercover cops like that's my question how many of them are teens probably a small percent and so you've seen the the generative ai aspect right yes yeah so there's this thing now called quora prompt generator oh good that is making questions that they think people want to ask in the future uh-huh and um it's like very hidden you have to to even find the question asked her in general on quark it's like the worst ui you have to like click on like three dots and then go down to question log and then scroll all the way to the bottom and see the question and now it'll just say like created by quora prompt ai or whatever and it's just these bizarre questions that we've come across every now and then you've got any fun examples yeah i have so many of them please please share them because i think we should both listen to them and answer okay this is one that we found on our podcast right uh should the grinch be able to kill a who whenever he wants according to Halloween is Grinch night.

11:45So that is completely generative. Yeah. I mean, I don't quite know how it works. Apparently it's like scrubbing these from somewhere. Like I saw some people suggest, because there's no like answer from court. They don't tell you like, they're not saying like we've announced our new AI. So just going over that again, Halloween night. Yeah. I think we looked this up. Halloween is Grinch night was like a movie from like the 80s or something. Did it bequeath the Grinch with like a license to kill? Like, is this a purge situation? I really, I don't know. But what were the answers like? So this one had no answers on it.

12:19Why not? And we made sure just to like keep things above board. We wrote, no, Grinches should have to respond to their programming. Just so the computer knows. Grinches should have to. So this is the suggestion that a Grinch is some sort of automaton. Like, I don't know. I just feel like. You take questions very seriously on this podcast. I just don't like that the computer is asking, like, is it cool to kill? And then we're all like, no. But under the terms of Halloween night. Yeah, the Grinch, right? Quote, unquote, Grinch. Should not kill. Yeah. Any other good ones? Because I'm going to be thinking about Halloween night.

12:54This is a continuation of this theme. This is the computer asked, how can someone live with a decomposed body in the fridge for months without others noticing? They live alone. Like, that's the answer. But doesn't it feel like the computer wants to know? Yeah, it does. You know what I'm saying? If a person asked both of these questions, you'd be like, are you the Grinch? Is that your friend? Are you going to kill someone? Yeah, did you kill someone? Do you have a decomposing body in your house by any chance? Yeah, the real answer is just that they just tell people that they have a smelly apartment or whatever.

13:29Yeah. That's what all serial killers do. Well, just be a loser. Yeah. Just don't let anyone in your apartment when the body's there. I understand that the AI isn't thinking that it's just the next word generator, but it's concerning that that's the next words that it's generating. Adam D 'Angelo, the CEO of Quora, he's on the board of OpenAI. Yeah. He was part of the people being like, we have to bring back Sam Altman. We need this technology. We need this technology. We need Quora to come up with crazy questions. I actually think that this is kind of almost a sign of the future for what Meta is going to be like.

14:02Yeah, I think that's right. it's are there tons like does it just spill these out all day there's like people have like there's a community where people like find their favorite ones and right right right um so there i found like 10 of them that i put in there's this one's just like false info it's uh how much territory did america acquire from the purchase of greenland okay so it's just like that's really good yeah so this is how much of this is there on the do you so you say it's quite hard to find the generator data right or is it hard to find these questions well it's hard to find um the if you go to like the generator it doesn't give you a list of them right so it's just like this was made by quora ai and to find the actual question like it's just a pain in the ass where i can show you so they're kind of burying them yeah so like if this is what the question looks like it just looks like somebody's asking a regular question and there's all these people answering and there's related questions and to know that it's quora ai you have to go to more and then you go to view question details and And then it says prompt.

14:58Oh, yeah. So just for the listeners, I'll post a link to something like this as well. So what this means is you can get these questions and they appear like they're asked by a human. Yes. Except they're written like a human that has a guest link. Yeah, exactly. And it says it's prompts are intended to capture questions people may have in the future. Just me walking around my house being like, well, what if the Grinch could kill people on Halloween night? Shit. Well, I don't have time. Well, thankfully, they've already asked it. Yeah. But no one answered. Right. Yeah, just me. You know what the best thing is going to be?

15:30When they just have them answer it. When they have an AI answer it. You just have an auto-Quora. Yeah. I'm sure there are AI answers on there. Oh, I'm sure as well. We come across some that feel like, I mean, it could just be weird people, but, you know. That's the thing. It sounds like you've got, like, a perversion element that really throws the... I am both disappointed and happy to hear about the amount of perverts. Yeah, I love the internet. But that kind of means that Quora is keeping going. but actually it sounds like they're really trying to fill like plummet with this fucking ai yeah they they said that has something to do with like they just want more questions on the site yes of course they do so bizarre yeah keep looking at the site yeah but the ui of the site does not appear to have changed no it's terrible like it's really bad i will admit the reason i don't use quora other than the fact that i know everything is every time i go on there i'll be like i'll click on i'll look for a question it'll be like a question to an answer like i don't know like who do you think the best baseball player in this year was like because i only started watching baseball fairly recently and it will be like answer then like an ad of some sort then like a wallet hub sponsored piece of content being like how do i save one thousand dollars a month and it's just 18 affiliate links yeah this feels like it's the advertising element is taken over quora but these don't even seem like they're advertising they just feel like it's bizarre and there's also if sometimes you'll see an answer that's like really long and you're like oh that's interesting and it'll cut off and be like you have to subscribe to quora plus for five dollars a month what the fuck is quora plus it's just the better answers are on there i guess are you fucking serious it's the worst website what the fuck is that it's really bad but the good thing about quora is that you people put their full names and like address so sometimes we'll find a guy who's like you know every one of their posts is like i love to shit in a diaper i get off on it sexually and then they'll be like i live in this town in indiana here's my full name and photo that's so it's so weird it's like you've got like a combination of ai slop and just the purest old school internet disgusting people yeah yeah

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19:47The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now. So, okay, we've got our perverts, we've got our cops. Are there any other weird subcultures you've noticed on there? There's a lot of politics on there. A lot of people arguing about Trump. there's like a bunch of like trump and and you know democrat spaces that battle it out people say like is uh obama about to get arrested tomorrow and people are like no he's not he's our greatest man alive and they go back and forth and there's memes so it's not even like uh necessarily logical questions it's like yeah just total like q anon stuff is on there and so it's not particularly moderated then not really no there's not doesn't seem to be any moderation on quora do you see any kind of like hate speech hate speech oh yeah all the time people say oh there's definitely like slurs on quora we found a guy recently who said um his bio said uh we need a white president she said america americans for white presidents jesus christ yeah and sometimes again sometimes it's both like we found one that was like why did joe biden let obama make him his slave and all this stuff and then like right after it'll be like how do i get like my sister to fall in love with me like it's like wait what'll be combined the perverts and the racists oh my god so are there any like so there must be sports people are they arguing too is everyone just kind of arguing all the time you know what none of us on our podcast are really sports people so maybe there is and we're just not seeing it but i haven't interacted too much with sports quora but i'm sure they're on there no and they must be insane yeah yeah i'm still I'm still blown away that there is a Quora Plus.

21:31Yeah, it's bizarre. We refuse to pay for it. I don't want to do it. You've been doing this podcast a while as well. Like two years. That's so good. That's so good that you steadfastly refuse. Yeah, no, we're not going to give$5 a month. Why would you ever to Adam D 'Angelo? I have emailed him many times, though, asking him to come on. He doesn't get back to you. Adam D 'Angelo, it's a permanent thing. The curators will have you on, and you can come on Better Offline as well. but I only have very specific questions around Halloween night and then you will leave. I have no further questions. I just want to know if a Grinch is allowed to kill a who.

22:04And you said a Grinch, right? I think it was Actually, let's check this out because I feel like the proper It was the Grinch. Should the Grinch be able to kill a who whenever he wants? Because I feel like that question comes down to whether you consider the Grinch a person or a race. Like a real man who is allowed to kill. Just a very person of color harassed. Whenever he wants. Harassed for his religious beliefs. Person of green color. Yeah, I've emailed Adam, I've emailed Jordan Peters, I've emailed Orson Scott Card, all of them just being like, hello, I have a podcast that celebrates Quora.

22:39You're my favorite website. Just trying to be really nice, but none of them will bite. Yeah, I text Sam Altman. Sure, yeah. No, I have got his number. I've said it multiple times on the show. I've texted him. And then one time I terrorized a few friends by, I was at a hotel and I stepped on the side of a balcony and i took a photo and i put it in the chat box the samuel and i said i bet you would love this i didn't send it i really should have has every answer no no no he is not but he's not blocked me that's good i'm still getting blue reading he's that's the thing there is a little bit of joy of just knowing that samuel one's forwarding these to his pr people being like he's he message just just letting you know about this he keeps asking me about Halloween night and he asked me if I am a or the Grinch and I'm not sure how to respond he's the Grinch he stole our presents he's just this is not a tech episode so who gives a shit but we're currently in the post deep seek world right now which I think is really funny and how you bring that back to Quora is now they're going to be able to make so many more generative answers for so much cheaper we're gonna be able to see these demented things do you have any questions from from the ai generated ones about like life though like life decision stuff or because i think the my favorite thing with yahoo answers was the more innocent stuff sure where people would say like how do i get a girl to fall in love with me right my friend is mad at me how do i deal with that and then the just most insane you get like normal normal normal and then someone being like doesn't sound like much of a friend, even though the story is about you offending the friend.

24:19I was really extremely rude to him. Like, no, he's not a real friend. He should just understand you. You were justified in screaming at him. I'm trying to see if we have any nice... I mean, there's certainly a lot. Oh, no, I don't mean nice. I just mean, is the AI asking a life question? Because I want to see how the AI thinks about life. Do any animals refer to their young as baby or child like humans do? Fuck yes. That's such a large language model ask question. you just like well of course animals act like humans right they're all kind of the same to me yeah fuck it does my cat every time I think about these fucking questions it just kind of begins to boil what's left of my brain more questions let's go through these I want to know all of these fucking things is it common for doctors to keep umbilical cords why would an AI write that like I get that it's not a robot at the computer but it just feels like it being like what is up with these freaks yeah it's just that it's just the gpt4 being like humans are so fucking weird why do you talk to wait just run that question by me okay is it common for doctors to keep umbilical cords okay so there it's just like oh yeah i bet they do that but how often yeah and then all the comments are people being like no this is a weird question why would you ask it i would but they don't know that it's the robot i would not be able to help myself of responding with a fake doctor account like all the time just throw them in my fucking yeah you could just get a stock photo of you you know a guy in a web coat and just feel like i'm a doctor doctor genius md but wait some more questions okay i'm excited by these these are very good um did adam and eve celebrate christmas if so how

26:06it's so good they're off in like a weird way they're off in a way that's like they have a full understanding of meaning but not context or history no not even meaning it's just like these are plausible sentences yeah yeah but not state it makes no sense if you know what any of the words mean that's so weird though because surely it knows that christmas is i don't think it i don't know what it knows i want to know these are so the more i think about them the stranger they get because it's like these are questions that if you heard someone say them out loud you go yeah i don't know and then take a step back right wait what the fuck are you talking about but this is all of them but let's let's see what there's a lot of answers on this too like people are answering some people are being serious they're saying like no that's not possible because you know christmas was after that and then other people are like none of it's real so none of it of course they can't because they're not real right there's people just being like silly but Yeah, there's no way to know that it's an AI.

27:07And you wouldn't think it was. You'd think it's a child or something. Well, like someone with a gas leak. Yeah. It's like gas leak AI. Yeah. It's the kind of shit that you'd say if you were walking out of a car, right? Exactly, yeah. But more of these. Okay. I'm so glad you brought these today because I really want to. Is it true that astronauts are not allowed to touch the Earth? I don't know what that means. Yeah, I heard this the other day. someone told me this the other day and are there any answers on that one i have to imagine it's just people being like how dare you um no no answers on this one yet it's so bizarre and again this is there's no real quick way of seeing this is ai no no yeah it doesn't show you on the screen you have to go into like more settings answer a question log and then it'll show you there so deeply deceptive when did you start seeing these pop up so our whole thing is that um we just dox people all the time on our podcast so if you ask a question we want to read your full name so we just started figuring out like anytime we read a crazy question we're like who asked this what's their deal uh a lot of people are from like india we found uh core is really big in india much bigger in india than the u.s um but then you know every now and then we'd come across a crazy question like can astronauts touch the ground be like who the fuck asked this and we click on it And it's like the AI.

28:24Touch the earth as well. And it's just more and more has been happening. Strange question. Is the earth capitalized in that one? I think so, yeah. Yeah, it is. So that makes the meaning even stranger. Because I thought, okay, touch the ground maybe. Like if it's earth. I don't know. Like Americans don't tend to refer to the ground as earth that much. But like in England, I've heard people say that. So this is so fucking cool though. It's really bizarre. Any other good ones? Let's go through. Would horses have been invented if they did not already exist? What factors contribute to the invention of new animals?

28:58Okay. Just run that by me again, would you? Would horses have been invented if they did not already exist? What factors contribute to the invention of new animals? There's something wrong with this. This one, like, okay, again, I understand that it's just predictive text, but it does feel like the computer being like, I'm a new animal of sorts. How? Yeah. We do invent animals. I mean, humans invented dogs. And there are like ligers and such. Yeah, sure. You can make two things fuck all the time. Yeah. Probably should get off that subject or get off to it. It's really your choice. The numerous perverts to listen to the show.

29:34You're loved and accepted. If you make it someone else's problem, I'm coming for you. Ask about it on Quora. We're happy to discuss. I think what it is is that this doesn't even sound like chat GPT. No, yeah. I don't know what it is. I'm not sure where it's full of shore. I think so. But there's no like, again, there's no, Quora hasn't said what it is. like everything I've found about it is people either just guessing like in the core discussion because there's a million questions that are like what is this and why is it here I hate it so people are just like guessing and then some people will ask because there's a Quora AI assistant now where it'll the AI is at the top of every answer and then every question and it tries to answer every question so the AI will be like this is what the Quora prompt generator is but that's so actually elaborate on that a little bit so there is the AI on top of just like all websites now if there's any question on the internet there's an ai answer for it well but specifically it answers the question yes like it generates one yeah so you go to quora it's not on everyone like these unanswered ones it wasn't there but a lot of times on a popular question the ai will either try to answer the question itself using like gpt or it'll be like a summary of everyone's answers that's so it feels like at some point the computer is just talking to it yes it really is but these these questions that they're bothering me because they don't even sound like i've seen the various models like i would say anthropics clawed more conversational chat gpt very much like a lobotomy situation like very much like uh i have just recently had a lobotomy but i know everything written in this book i can read this is demented it's really weird there's something very off and it's infecting the google ai too how so um you know how if you search something on google now it'll uh it'll come up with an ai answer yes google is sourcing from quora for a lot of these oh so like there was a thing recently where someone said like when was running invented and google answers uh it says like 1945 right that was because of a quora comment well i know that was this where they had the melting egg situation i think so yeah a lot of these are from like reddit and quora so the melting egg situation for listeners was someone on quora i think asked if you could melt an egg and then the ai responded with yep yeah gotcha of course yeah that's it's all very very weird but these questions don't feel like that these questions feel like joker something you might ask in the future yeah no when you're an astronaut and you can't go home?

32:06Yeah. Or just something, a broken GPT would ask. Yeah. I don't know if it's like trained on Quora because Quora is already like where the sickos are. So maybe it's just like training on specifically delusional people. I really don't know. It must be trained on Quora because that's the only way you'd get such weird. It must train on Quora as well because they're running out of training data. Oh, I really need to look into this. I would love for someone to find out. Because these questions are not just like, I'm sure if I loaded ChatGPT and asked the question, it would be a normal one. Right. It wouldn't be like, so when horses, we all agree that horses were invented.

32:46We all know that, of course. It's really, I don't know, yeah. Some of them are just like misinformation. Oh, please. Any others? Is Tesla considered a socialist company? That is the closest they've come to a normal question. How about this one? what are the reasons for california having fewer natural disasters compared to other states oh boy yeah oh boy that one's that one again closer to meaning but just like and just completely nonsensical i'm trying to see when was this asked uh this was i think asked on january 12th uh-huh so during the fire right they asked the ai was like california rocks at natural disasters yeah these guys these guys really missed these yeah they're traditionally california disaster free that's really good any other good ones um let me see uh i think that's all the ones that i wrote down i have one more here what is the term for when a person's brain and physical body are connected to two different people oh oh that's that's a tough one yeah this is so strange it's really weird this concept is actually really bothering me because the idea of a generative one sure it sucks but sure but when it's just like so we all know that boars of course have been president but why can't they be king and it's like what no actually that's too normal that one made more sense that's like an understanding of there's a republic versus monarchy situation but we could get rid of that in post this is just these there must be something strange and you're saying that users do not like this no no one likes it i mean if they can even tell and there's like questions where people are just like why is this here and like what is it but on most of these like no one knows that it's the ai like if there's any answers on it people are just like this is stupid and i hate you right which is the general response to AI I found.

34:43You don't use AI, I'm guessing. Me? No, no. Particularly, no. No, no, you're not a big GPT. Someone said that to me on the phone. Like, you use chat GPT every day. I see what I was like. Sure. I know so many people who use it for like emails and all sorts of crazy shit that you would, I mean, I'm sure you're hearing about it. That's not good. No, it's crazy that you can't write an email. Yeah, I, that's so bad. But you still seem to kind of love Quora though. I do love Quora. But why? I kind of love it. Tell me. I just like how pure it is. like they're the fact that there are people just like i don't know like you could go on porn hub and just jack off to whatever you want and you're sitting here being like coming up with a situation to be like what does it feel like to have poop in your diaper there's a lot of people in there do you have any non-sexual what are you just on the pervert zone i do love the section i love the perverts on cora it makes me so happy to see them he really is quite happy uh the fact that they all have their full names makes me really happy.

35:40I'm trying to think. I don't know. There's people ask like silly relationships. It's like am I the asshole but like more like insane.

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36:34Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now, you can shop up to 60 % off storewide with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Shop now at washablesofas.com. Add a little... to your life. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50%, and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LG XBoom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go.

37:20Elevate your listening experience to new heights, because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom. And for a limited time, save 25 % at LG.com with code FALL25. Bring the boom! X-Boom. There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalist of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

38:01The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now. Do you get a prevalence of fake questions? I'm sure there are. Relationship advice on Reddit is 90 % people being like, and time for my fanfiction. Yeah. I will do the fanfiction now. But Cora seems more demented. It is. I'm sure there's just as many fake ones, but they're more obvious where it'll be like, there's one that was like, my son wanted an Optimus Prime toy and I don't want him to, or I didn't want him to have it. So I made him hold his breath for three days. Am I a bad dad?

38:42And it's like, it doesn't feel like the same as am I the asshole where someone made up like a boring relationship problem. And one like that is very bean dad adjacent where it's like, you think this is normal. It isn't. Yeah, exactly. Your son should breathe. It kind of reminds me from CES, like the Samsung, no, sorry, LG demo, where the AI was like, yeah, I heard your son cough last night, so I raised the temperature five degrees. It's like, you fucking insane. And I just, for the sake of argument, opened up Quora and thought, it can't be that weird. First one, what was the dirtiest country you ever visited?

39:14Oh, God. The annoying thing about Quora too is that if you visit it, if you really interact with it at all, you'll start getting emails from it. Oh, God. The Quora Digest. They'll send you like an email every day. I'm sure I have a million of them in my email. Why must farmers wake up at 4 a.m. to milk the cows? Why not just wait until a more reasonable time like 8 a.m.? Won't the cows adjust? It's a weird website. It's very strange. I'm just like this guy. I'm looking him up as well. This is a system analyst. Yeah. In Brazil. Isn't it fascinating to know his life? Like it's not just Reddit where it's just like, oh, you slash whatever.

39:50But also, it's not even just that he, like, is that guy. It's that he was just, like, one day, like, well, I got home from my job as a system analyst. And I thought, why do these fucking idiot farmers get up so early? And just, there's 131 different answers. Sorry, no, the original question is from, this is going to be a fucking AI one, isn't it? Let's see. Who, I think, wait. it's very hard to find the answer this is crazy sorry the guy who responded was a systems analyst okay and uh he was saying he was talking to his farmer friend no you weren't wait so show me okay so you have to go to uh view question details and then you have to physically scroll through every answer to get to the very bottom of the feed and then it will tell you who the question is and very often it'll just be like anonymous yeah the farmers of the world will wake up early to wake up the roosters you see if the roosters don't wake up on time very funny yeah well i'm not a dairy farmer i do associate with them i'm just i'm gonna close that because i would just read core every day but it is it does feel like even though it's being tortured with with electricity it does feel like one of the last real parts of the internet i mean it's like how we all hated reddit for so long and now if you have any question you have to put reddit at the end of it when you google it because otherwise you'll just get ai slop or you know seo you get one of 15 different articles all on wallet hub so it's like sure this is going to be from some asshole who might not know but at least it's a human being have you seen much because reddit i've started to see some obvious spawn con in the world spawn con um like people like affiliate people people going in selling their shit do you get a lot of that in quora there's a little bit of it but with quora everything is more obvious so like there was one we read recently that was we did a whole episode of Hitler questions because there's a lot of Hitler people on there.

41:46And there was somebody who was asking about like, did Hitler's have high testosterone or something? How would you know? I don't know. And there were like 10 answers that were like, I think because of this reason, if you look at his male pattern baldness and his mustache. And then at the end it was like, if you want to learn more about high testosterone, you can take pills from this website. And it was just like people advertising their pills. There was some fucking SEO expert was like, all right, let's bring out the Hitler stuff. It doesn't matter where. My Hitler analysis. I'm scrolling to...

42:21The reason I'm doing this on air is I want to be clear how much Quora is burying whether a question is from AI. Because you have to go right to the end of this, and there's a hundred answers or so. And it was actually answered by a guy called Tao Tao. This is the question asked her? And he asked, do you have to have a full-time job in high income to take out a loan for a house? That's like a normal question. Very normal. This is the farmer question? Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. This guy's sitting around just being like, huh. Yeah. You get a house? But I guess this is the pure internet. This is like the normal internet.

42:56A little bit. I mean, it's like fucked up, but that's what the internet is. Why can't people learn from their mistakes? That's a great question. That's a beautiful question. How can I get out of debt as quickly as possible? I love these, but they're also very sad because it's like well, there's just a degree of like no one else you could ask mate yeah no one else and you don't want to google it you have you need someone to answer you how much money didn't elon musk have before he became a multi-billionaire i assume less than a billion dollars there's like a lot of picture oh my god this is a picture of my son and daughter he passed away in 2015 at the age of 26 from heart failure oh my god this is posted in good vibes well it's interesting to me like the farmer question is one thing but if this was on the profile of the guy who said like what is the dirtiest country like i'm just so fascinated by these people who are like i'm so racist and then they're just like here's a picture of my daughter yeah and all of their posts are different pages of like pete like there's a thing with a cop there's they've got a lot of pictures of couples this is on good vibes my daughter becca passed away one year ago this is an ai account this is using it's ai well considering the fact that they've now mentioned two of their children have died yeah it's very possible it's ai or a troll or something but this is what it is now this is this site makes millions of dollars i don't know yeah it must make something it was made by people who left facebook i think it was all people who worked on facebook and left to make quora what's the worst version of facebook what should i absolutely not do when visiting the usa and the first one is do not get out of your car if stopped by the police.

44:36They'll assume you were armed and they might shoot you. And there's a picture of a cop that's AI generated. Oh my god. A truly monstrous looking. Yeah. With like another cop. Three fingers. With like another cop but in a like a grey police uniform and doing something a cop would not usually do which is stop a cop being violent. And there's 2000 responses. This is just, how was it always this bad? I don't think Quora was ever good. I don't think the version of it where Jordan Peterson became a famous author was a better time for Quora. But I mean, maybe it was more usable back then, at least. I used to think that the most shameful thing about Jordan Peterson was his opinions.

45:13But I think it's that he got famous using Quora. Yeah. That should get you. They should take your passport just in case you answer questions in real life. That's so horrible. It makes sense, though, like thinking back on what is the name of his book, like five ways to live your crying principle. Yeah. I don't know. Like it makes sense that you'd be like, oh, yeah, That guy is answering questions on Quora.com. It feels like the kind of like a palace of pedantry. Like, do you get people on there who are just like, um, no. Oh, yeah. Actually, like. Yeah. You know, it's a big one we find a lot is witches.

45:43A lot of like witchcraft people. I am Keaton. Tell me everything. So people will be like, how do I like put a hex on someone at school I don't like? And then a lot of people will be like, how dare you ask this question? You don't know anything about being a witch. You haven't read the spells. Open a book. The Necronomicon is free at a library. like it's just people getting mad at each other wait so there are like witches and witch pedants oh yeah there's a lot of witch pedants they're all arguing with each other about witchcraft like a lot of them uh yeah yeah i mean not like i not like you know it's not overwhelming but we've we've you know found a bunch of these people who are arguing about witchcraft see i keep oscillating between terrible and beautiful because i think the idea of people being like how dare you man it's very similar to reddit but it's i don't know it's more stupid it is gas leak reddit is a good way to that's i like that and are there any other weird subcultures like witches i don't know i must not think if there's any other um there's a lot of perverts a lot of cops we found a cop who like wrote a book we like read some of his book what was the book like it was you know what it was it was like his life as a cop in london or something oh god and we found out afterwards like why would anyone write or publish his book and his brother owns like a book publishing company so all of his answers were like whoa i remember in 1983 in the streets of london okay so he's a british cop yeah we do have a button whenever we find a british person we press our button uh and it says anglo spotted anglo spotted yeah i like that i like that a great deal and i'll be bringing that onto the shit no please yeah take it it's all just hitting it the entire fucking time yeah i really i'm locked onto those witches now what do they think about the Grinch yeah I mean not to bring it all back to that but there are Grinch fetishes that's a big thing Grinch people not necessarily on Quora but there are I know people love Bigfoot I know people love the Grinch any sort of big furry dude that's they'll get in really good yeah that's I just there is something very pure about this but pure in the way that like you don't want to look at too often unless you run a podcast I will say a lot of people listen into our podcast and have told us like i it's really funny and i've gone on quora to be like i want to see some of this and they're like i hated it and it's like yeah that's dope leave it to us no i tried to prepare for this episode by looking at quora being like and i will bring some bangers of my own and there was nary a banger to be found it's just like people bad website people being like i don't know how do i get on a plane and get to have two seats for free i'm fucking like why is this person next to me on this flight and it's like it's questions that don't even need answer the the answer is like who gives a shit to like 90 of the questions but we're the ones seeking out you find the 15 hitler questions why didn't hitler use the magical lance to defeat russia or whatever and some first response is like all right which magical lance first of all and what do you mean by magic you don't know about my exactly there was one that just on this hitler episode that was like would hitler have liked princess diana uh diana and which is a bizarre question you're like why do you care about this uh and every answer was people being like of course obviously or like no you idiot he'd hate her for this reason and he would the answer there is obviously he might because he kind of romanticized england yeah i don't know i wanted to live in fucking whiteleys this shopping center it's like a i'm trying to think of it if someone wanted to live in like the westfield mall in san francisco it's so strange the weird guy that adolf hitler But this is obviously an anti-Hitler podcast because you need to say that now.

49:21Yes, it's true. We're like six months from Fox News' pro-Hitler segment. They're kind of getting there. So to wrap us up, though. Please. So, okay, it wasn't that bad. Do you, are you going, how long do you spend on Quora a week, would you say? I don't think we're spending too much time. We're lucky that we have a few sickos who will find questions for us. They deliver you. Yes, which is very, very helpful. And then sometimes we will search stuff and find it. But it's not, we're not spending too, too much time on there. Not more than a few hours. I was wondering if there was like a madness. You'd like, you get into it too much.

49:57Maybe our listeners are all going insane and we don't realize it. The ones who are finding these, going into the mines. Do you involve yourself? Do any of you? We answer a lot of questions sometimes. We used to ask questions and like try to get answers from people. Did it work? Not really. They were onto us pretty quick. It doesn't feel like the kind of place that you could fuck with very easily. because people like to be way too earnest or they'll be like well this person's making fun of me and yet there's thousands literally like thousands of christian baby questions that are i must be trolls that's all there's so many i think they might just be like 13 to 18 year olds who have who have never spoken to a person they're all great scenarios there's one that was like what would you do if you're about to hit the winning strike in a base that's what they said winning strike in a baseball game winning strike and the pitcher throws a christian baby at you Do you hit the baby?

50:45Winning strike. It's all bizarre. So you are about to hit the winning strike. Yes. And you are being thrown at a Christian baby instead of a ball. So two problems. Which is against the rules as far as I know. Yeah. Well, also, that is, I don't think there are any specific rules around that, but that sounds like. It's like a dog playing basketball. If you are throwing a strike, you wouldn't be hitting it. No. Good place to end as any. Jeremy, where can people find you? Just search my name online. Okay. say your uh i would love if people checked out corators it's very fun to it in there um yeah we've done uh 200 episodes you should come on i would love to um um yeah and it's it's great to have people chronicling these parts of the internet and find one of the reasons i've brought you on other than you very funny is the internet is kind of dying when it comes to real people and it's nice to see an evaluation of real what real people are really like which isn't necessarily a good thing.

51:42No. Well, talking about things that are good, this episode's ending now. I'm Ed Zitron. You know where you can find me, and of course on my left is the wonderful Daniel Goodman, the producer here in the iHeartRadio studios. You've been listening to Radio Better Offline. Thank you kindly, and I swear to flipping Christ, I'm doing a Deep Seek episode. I feel like fucking Jeff Passan on ESPN. People saying, like, oh, and announce Peter Alonzo to the Mets. I don't do that job either, but I'm working on it. Anyway, thank you so much for listening.

52:39to find more podcast links and, of course, my newsletter. I also really recommend you go to chat.wheresyoured.at to visit the Discord and go to r slash betteroffline to check out our Reddit. Thank you so much for listening. Better Offline is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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54:06Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now, you can shop up to 60 % off storewide with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Shop now at washablesofas.com. Add a little... to your life. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50%, and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LG XBoom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go.

54:52Elevate your listening experience to new heights, because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom. And for a limited time, save 25 % at LG.com with code FALL25. Bring the boom. X-Boom. There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

55:33The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now. This is an iHeart Podcast.

From the publisher

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined by Jeremy Kaplowitz of the podcast Quorators to talk about Quora, which he describes as “Reddit with a gas leak.”

www.youtube.com/@Quorators

www.patreon.com/Quorators

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