🍎 “Teacher’s pet AI” — Alpha’s 1st AI school. Ford’s assembly tree. Chanel’s 250-page magazine. + GCal dating.

0:28This is Nick. resting up for this pod. The show must go on, Jack. The show must go on. But right now, I've got a rash on my back that is bigger than Jeff Bezos' biceps. It's like a successor to Chicken Pox, right? It kind of looks like the Verizon logo got exploded onto my sternum. It is not pretty, man. It is not pretty. Well, dude, you're a trooper and I'm so glad to be here with you. I appreciate it, Jack. Thanks so much. I do feel as bad as owning Peloton stock. Oh, wait. We still own Peloton stock. But Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, the first school with AI instead of teachers is already here.

1:04It's called Alpha School. So we wanted to find out what a school teaches kids if the teachers are chatbots. For our second story, Ford Motor Company is disrupting its most famous invention, the assembly line. Introducing the assembly tree. So we'll tell you why Ford needs to cut the price of their cars in half and how they're doing it with a tree. And our third and final story is Chanel. Chanel just launched a physical magazine, and it's 250 pages. Uh, related news, Chanel doesn't even have a TikTok. Because legends never meme. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, fantastic mix of stories, Jack.

1:45Prognosis, the best one yet. It's Wednesday. It's the middle of the week. You're wondering what your calendar looks like through the weekend. Meeting, meeting, conference call, meeting, meeting, meeting, all on your Google calendar. But if you're on Gen Z, you put everything in your Google Calendar. Dinner, movie, pregame party on the G-Cal. We mean everything, Nick. Shots, dance floor makeout, late night 2 a.m. pizza, all on the G-Cal. Wall Street Journal did some hard-hitting reporting. They found that Google Calendar has become the life map of everyone in college for all of their activities.

2:19We're talking color-coded blocks for 24 hours of each day for each thing. At Williams College, one guy sent a girl he liked a G-Cal invite for hookup. And she responded, yes, confirmed. Boom, those 27 minutes were blocked on both of their calendars. Now, full disclosure, Jack and I also use G-Cal to run pretty much our entire lives. Yeah, every recording session, every lunch we have together, every dinner. And I got full visibility on Jack's everything. Dude, I used to have the find-by access to you, but at some point you cut that off. No, no, no, no, no, no. It was an Apple update. It was an Apple update.

2:54I get excited about, you know, sending the date night invite to a restaurant to my wife. Like that's fun. I think it's cool. But college kids have taken this to an extreme that we've never seen. Yeah. They're not having spontaneous late night burritos unless it's on the G-Cal. This is type A. Actually, it's type A plus. But Jack, there is one risk to sending someone an invite to the pregame power hour on a G-Cal. The risk isn't that they say no. No. It's that they say maybe. And in that case, you need to share a Google Doc with that person to explain why it's even worth it. Yeah, give them that access if they say yes.

3:29Let's just make it a Google Hangout. Jack, let's hit our three stories.

3:49At Liz, if you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

3:57Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

4:08Monarch. Yeah, it is. You know, my first money lesson, it was where to put our lemonade stand. I was wondering, it was on the Upper East Side. Do we do it on Lexington Avenue or Park Avenue? Wait a second. New York City has lemonade stands on the sidewalk? They didn't. We were pioneers, Jack. Lexington Avenue is more commercial. Park is more residential. So what did we learn, Jack? Families are willing to pay more for lemonade. So you set it up on Park. Yeah, we did it on Park. Besties, no one gives you financial lessons in life. You end up figuring most of it out as you grow up. But we love Monarch because it's like a financial advisor in your pocket.

4:37Because every minute, it's tracking your savings, spending, investments, and more. For instance, Monarch's goal tracking feature shows if you're on track for that summer trip to Santa Fe. And it tells you what percent of your income is going somewhere that's a surprise. I open Monarch all the time because it takes the mental load off tracking my finances. And whether you're single, you're in a family, or you're dinking it up, Monarch's the way. Our personal fave, the AI Weekly Recap, a once-per-week gut check on what you did with your money. Hey, Nick, you've spent 96 bucks at kids' lemonade stands since July.

5:02Because we pioneered it for him, Jack Restes. Write your own story with Monarch. Use code TBOY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just 50 bucks. It's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code T-Boy. Indeed. Oh, we missed the deadline. My recording device is having issues. Our contractor pretended to be sick. I know he's watching the World Cup matches, Jack. Or how about this? Elon just tweeted something at 3 a.m. that completely changes the takeaway on our second story. We got to re-record the show. Besties, when workplace chaos hits you, you need the right hire.

5:34And this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. We produce a daily episode of this show, 250 episodes a year. Sometimes we need help. We need it fast. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this T-boy show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast.

6:04Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this show. Indeed.com slash podcast and mention T-Boy. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. For our first story, Alpha School is the first school that uses AI instead of teachers, and it's 40 ,000 bucks a year just to enroll. Here's what the future of education might look like based on this for-profit private school. Now, Yetis, if you're a parent and you've created an AI avatar of yourself on a casual Saturday afternoon, then you've probably already enrolled your child in Alpha School.

6:46Alpha School. It is the first major K-12 private school that is proudly AI first, aggressively. Using AI isn't cheating at Alpha School. It's fully expected. Like, if you're not getting your algebra lessons from a bot, you are getting an F. Well, that's in 2014, actually. It's unclear what Alpha School did before AI arrived? Not exactly clear, but post-chat GPT, Alpha School is in growth mode right now. They have three schools so far in Austin, Texas, Brownsville, Texas, and Miami, Florida. We jumped in T-boy style to the expansion map, and they got 13 more schools planned for this fall. New York City, Washington, D.C., L.A., San Francisco, Phoenix, Raleigh, Dallas.

7:25Now, interestingly, Alpha School boasts that their students score in the top 1 to 2 % of the country, but there is a major selection bias here. Remember that$40 ,000 a year price tag? Cha-ching, cha-ching. These are the children of wealthy techies, not a cross-section of America. Now, so far, they have a few hundred students enrolled, but the business model, it is scalable. It's scalable because there's no teachers. Besties, if this sounds less like a school, more like a venture capital-backed startup, that's because it is. Alpha School is part of the for-profit corporation called Legacy of Education, and they're seizing the chance to disrupt education.

8:03So there are no human teachers in the building. The academics are all led by AI. Like, you're taught by Professor Art I Fischel Bot. Alpha school students spend just two to three hours a day learning about reading, writing, math, and traditional school subjects. But those reading, writing, math, and traditional school subjects are part of a personalized education plan for your child from a bot. Because everyone has their own bot, you're not teaching to the average student. Each teacher has their own AI instructor, which ensures each student is challenged appropriately. So like you're not being bored by lessons that are too basic, but you're also not being overwhelmed by lessons that are too advanced.

8:42It's kind of a Goldilocks situation. It's not one size fits all. It's custom sizing for every student. And for the staff, this AI school ends your busy work. There's no grading. There's no lesson plans. The AI does that. Although we notice there are humans in the building. They're called guides and they're there for the human part of the experience. Guides get paid over a hundred grand to give students motivational and emotional support as they're working away their arithmetic on their iPads. Add it all up and Alpha School says that with an AI instructor, they can teach in two to three hours what a regular school teaches in seven.

9:16And with the extra time, the kids learn stuff that schools have missed out on, like public speaking, financial literacy, teamwork, and outdoorsy stuff. Side note, we personally don't think teachers can be fully replaced by bots, but Alpha School does. There's no way Mr. Kip is being replaced by Mr. ChatGPT. You told me so much about Mr. Kip. What a guy, Jack. But Alpha School also teaches one big thing that AI can never do. We hope. So Jack, what's the takeaway and the lesson from our buddies over at Alpha School? The first AI school is teaching kids to specialize in one thing. Yeti's key highlight to the curriculum here, the biggest project of the year is called a masterpiece.

9:58Students at Alpha School work all year on a passion project that is due at the end of the year. We see this as a signal that in the age of AI, reading, writing, math, and science, they're not as critical as they were before. AI can do those things, but what AI cannot do is produce human passion. That's why one student at Alpha Schools built a bike park as their masterpiece. Another student built a special kind of unique dating app. We're talking like 13-year-old kids building this stuff. One theme of the future of work is that with AI doing the grunt work, there's still a place for expertise. And that is why the first AI school is teaching kids to specialize in one thing.

10:42For our second story, Ford just announced plans to build a family of$30 ,000 EVs, half the price of their other Ford cars. How? By disrupting their most famous invention, the assembly line. Yetis, let's set the scene for you back in 1913. One year after DiCaprio boarded the Titanic, Henry Ford invented a new way to build things. Instead of each man building one car, each man assembled one part. Yes, that was the assembly line, a moment of zen for logistics. And a vastly more efficient way to produce things. The assembly line, it made possible the famous Model T car, a vehicle priced at less than half the typical car at the time.

11:28Well, we got an update 112 years later. Ford needs to cut the price of their cars in half again. So our buddies over at Ford are disrupting the assembly line that they created. On Monday, Ford introduced the assembly tree. The tree, baby. Now, Jack, I got to sprinkle on some context here. You went to business school in Michigan. So in my eyes, you are the most smartest car person I've ever met. Can you tell us why does Ford have to cut the price of their car in half? BYD, that's why. China has figured out how to make a car way cheaper than America can. The average new Ford sold today in America is 56 grand, man.

12:10Car inflation has been out of control since the pandemic. But interestingly, the opposite situation has been happening in China. The price of a new car falls there every year. You can now get a$10 ,000 car from like four or five different brands. And that is why Chinese cars have been eating up market share in every country, chewing up chassis, and soon they're coming to America. So Ford is disrupting their 100-year-old invention, the invention that changed the world. Instead, this new assembly tree will build a car on three lines instead of one, the front, the middle, and the back of the car.

12:45It's a concession that electric cars are fundamentally different than gas-powered cars, so they should be put together a different way. It's like a moment of reflection. I feel like this is a takeaway they got out of therapy, Jack. And what is the result when you make that change from an assembly line to an assembly tree? Ford hopes that they can make cars with 20 % fewer parts, 25 % fewer fasteners, and 40 % fewer hours of human labor. Save on time, save on parts, save on people. That is how you compete with a Chinese car company and maybe, just maybe, build a profit puppy. Here's what the CEO of Ford said yesterday.

13:20It represents the most radical change on how we design and how we build vehicles at Ford since the Model T. And you know what, Jack? I think current Ford's great, great granddaddy would be pretty proud of that. Actually, as a Michigander, I can tell you he was a tree guy. Big tree guy. Huge tree guy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ford? When the going gets tough, the tough get investing. Now, Yetis, eight years ago, Ford built factories across North America because of Trump's new NAFTA trade deal. Four years ago, Ford went all in on electric because Biden's big energy bill encouraged it.

13:56But today, Ford's now being punished for both of those. Trump's tariffs are going to cost it 2 billion bucks this year, and Biden's electric vehicle incentives have ended. On top of the punishing policy whiplash, China competition is intense. So, with profits squeezed and cash short, you'd be surprised that Ford is dropping 5 billion bones to disrupt their own assembly line. It's counterintuitive. It is. But spending is the only way Ford will survive this. Because if it doesn't invest, it'll slowly decline and Ford will be forgotten. Instead of that, here's what Ford's doing. When the going gets tough, the tough get investing.

14:35Now, a quick word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Bill, the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses scale with proven results. Yet he's paying and getting paid? That is a pain for small and medium-sized businesses. Jack, did you send the invoice? Did they see the invoice? Did you remember to remind them to see to pay to remember to pay the invoice? If you drop the ball in any one of those steps, you don't get paid. Nope. And you're missing out on cash flow. You should not have to chase your customers. This isn't TAG. So powered by AI, build is all that simply and automate it so that you don't have to.

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15:42NetSuite next. Yeti, they say time travel is not possible. But have you heard of this theory? Every day your business is late to AI, you fall two days behind. Therefore, if you get ahead of AI, that means you're basically traveling two days into the future. I'm actually fact-checking that math with Christopher Nolan right now. Yeah, we got to double-check that. But that is definitely how NetSuite Next works, because the next leap in how business gets done is by sticking AI into everything you do. NetSuite by Oracle helps you do that. It automatically surfaces custom insights because their AI has the context of all your business data.

16:12AI agents work with you to solve daily problems, saving you time and money. And anytime you have a question, you just ask them like they're your colleagues. So besties, if you aren't sure how to use AI for your company, this is honestly the perfect place for you to start. NetSuite. And once you use it, it'll feel like time travel with Michael J. Fox. In a good way. So yeah, it is for the first time ever you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to netsuite.ai slash tboy. Built for every industry, ready for every boardroom, netsuite.ai slash tboy.

16:42For our third and final story, Chanel's newest product ain't clothing. It's a 250-page arts and culture magazine. We'll tell you why this fashion legend doesn't do memes. They do magazines. Now, Yetis, Jack and I have told you about the luxury lull. Well, sales of Chanel's luxury products actually fell last year. For the first time since 2020, by the way, Jack. Founded in Paris by Coco Chanel, this luxury brand actually moved across the channel in 2018. They're now London-based. Not possible, Jack. They're a$19 billion business that is five times as big as Burberry, four times as big as Prada, and twice as big as Gucci.

17:21And yes, they're still a private company 115 years later. You can spot a Chanel handbag because of its big double C logo. One of the C's is right, one of the C's is backwards, and they interlock. And they're both on a quilted leather bag. Basically, how else would you describe Chanel, Jack? The Audrey Hepburn of luxury. Yeah, like if Gucci is your wild cousin throwing around neon stuff at Thanksgiving, Chanel is the chic grandmother who's just wearing purls at the head of the table. How relatable. But the newest idea from Chanel is a product you cannot wear and you can barely hold. It's a huge magazine.

17:55250-page arts and culture magazine. It's thick enough to be a coffee table book or, honestly, a weapon. Sit down, stand up, and lift with your legs if you want to read this thing. And the concept here is clever. But first, let's say what this magazine is not. I like what you did there, Jack. You see, this is not a catalog. The pages are not filled with stuff you can buy or the latest Chanel collection. What it is, is Vogue magazine meets The Economist with the sprinkling of indie cinema. You see, the editorial in this thing is all indirectly related to Chanel. Basically, it's the kind of stuff Chanel wearers would talk about when they're grabbing a double-digit latte out together.

18:31It's full of cultural essays. There's a story on AI-generated art here, another one on the business of sculpture there. And there's a whole lot of pearl porn too, right, Jack? Oh yeah, close-ups of pearl necklaces. But Chanel is treating the magazine like a collector's item because it's only available at 20 independent bookstores. Get this, they're making this huge investment for a 250-page magazine, but you can't even buy it online. They won't mail it to you either, like Restoration Hardware does, even though I asked them to stop. In fact, the first and only place you can buy this in America is at the Casa Magazine Tiny Bookshop in New York City.

19:07Now, part of this is zagging while others zig. It differentiates Chanel from Louis Vuitton and Hermes. And part of it is the bigger comeback of the magazine in general. Physical magazines and catalogs are resurging. They're having a comeback. But part of the reason is actually our takeaway, which is inspired by a rap song. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Chanel? Legends never meme. Yeti's, Chanel's TikTok page only has one video. That's it. One post. We're talking the biggest social media platform here where people spend most of their time. Chanel isn't even there. On the other hand, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, every other luxury brand is playing and posting on Instagram every day.

19:47What those guys are doing is inserting themselves into viral stories. But Chanel stays above it all. And we understand what Chanel's trying to do here. Yeah, here's the strategy. Social media is dominated by short-term memes, not long-term brands and values. So Chanel is making a statement. They're saying we're about enduring culture, not passing trends. Or to paraphrase a rap song, legends never die and legends never meme.

20:18Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? day. Alpha School teaches kids with AI using human guides for the emotional and behavioral part. It's the first AI school teaching kids to specialize in one thing. For our second story, Ford is disrupting their most famous invention. They're going from assembly line to assembly tree to cut the price of their cars in half. Because when the going gets tough, the tough get investing. And our third and final story, Chanel's 250-page physical magazine highlights the fact that they're off TikTok. Because legends never die. Legends never meme.

20:54And they never meme. Exactly, Jack. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, stocks rose on Tuesday on the inflation report. You see, consumer prices actually rose 2.7 % in July compared to last year. That's less bad than expected. Tariffs continue to have a low impact on consumer prices. So let me add this up for a sec, Jack. We got a weak job market, mild inflation, those could be ingredients for an interest rate cut. Stocks rallied Tuesday on hopes that the Fed will cut interest rates at their next September meeting. And second, perplexity. The AI startup just made its wildest offer of the year.

21:36They want to buy Google's Chrome browser from Google. Perplexity thinks they can win the AI race if they own the browser that you already use the internet with. And you know what? Google is under pressure from the government right now thinking it's a monopoly. So they may be forced to sell their Chrome browser. So perplexity is like, do it right now under your own terms. Don't wait till the courts make you sell it. We'll take it off your hands right now, piece of cake. But what makes this so wild is that perplexity is worth$18 billion according to their private market valuation. But they're offering $34.5 billion to buy Chrome from Google.

22:12They've got some deep-pocketed VC backers. And finally, Taylor Swift announced her brand new album on her boyfriend's podcast. Taylor doesn't really do podcasts, but she made an exception for New Heights, the one hosted by Kelsey Brothers. Trust us, we've DM'd her. She doesn't always respond. No, she showed a picture of her new record that was blurred out during the video podcast. It's called The Life of a Showgirl. The drop date is TBD, but definitely, definitely, definitely before October 13th. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by the massive rash across my back, also known as shingles.

22:50Rhymes with Pringles. So Nick and I did some research on shingles. It's basically the comeback tour of chicken pox. Yeah, you see, shingles is actually caused by the same virus that gave you chicken pox as a kid. It's just been hiding under your skin, on your nerves for decades, waiting to make a return appearance. In fact, the reason you have the rash in a line is that it follows a nerve on only one side of your body. So what are the symptoms of shingles? How much time do you have? Like migraines, headaches, chills, I vomited four times and painful rash. Dude, is it contagious? If you start touching my scabs, Jack, it's not gonna look good for you.

23:24Okay, is there a vaccine? Okay, there is. I didn't get it though because it's mainly just given to older people who are the ones who tend to get shingles. And how long does it take to go away? Well, a couple of weeks for a rash, but five days for your headaches. Although there is an antiviral I already jumped on that helps it all go away faster. And it helps ease the symptoms, I hope. Yeah. Well, dude, you're a champ. Thanks again for being my co-host today. Always, always here for it, Jack. Now I'm going to go pop into some Pringles. That was mean. That was mean. I'm sorry. Too soon, Jack. Yetis, you looked fantastic today.

23:57And if you've got a buddy with a painful skin disease, send him today's show. And if you're a marketer who works at Pringles, yes, you can be a sponsor on the show. This could be the whole kickoff moment. I think we just gave you brand affinity. You can drop down and give us five stars. That's how you grow the show. And Jack and I will see you tomorrow.

24:17And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Sebastian Megan Cedar, turning 28 up in Rochester, New York, baby. Happy birthday to Dylan Steinfeld in Atlanta, Georgia, who submitted many of our best facts yet. Legendary Yeti. And Sabrina St. Peter in Clarkson, Michigan. She always has an app for something, including her birthday. Happy birthday to Andrew Mahler in Sussex, Wisconsin. And Mara Chabin just turned 30 years old over in the fun town of Nashville, Tennessee. And a big shout out to the guy on YouTube who commented that I need to straighten out this shelf right here. The one with the pink hat in the background.

24:53Well, you know what? Jack heard you. He did it. And now that shelf is human eye level. I didn't put a level on it, but I'm pretty sure that bubble would stay right in between those lines. I think we're gonna have to make a correction for the next project. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-box. Celebrate the wins.

25:12This is Jack Islandstock of Ford.

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