Episode 3: The AI Episode

Screenshot of the AI host biography image from the about us page.

We are now officially halfway through the first season. We have three more regular season episodes to go and a special holiday episode debuting on December 22nd that you do not want to miss!

This episode is the longest of our series and is one of the more complex in terms of style. We have serious discussion, humor, laughs, and interesting dialogue on a very timely topic that has taken over the Internet over the last 3.5 to 4 years.

The show begins with Annette informing Lud that executives are not happy with how the show is going and are wanting to make changes to the format. As a result, a new host is being brought in immediately. Lud is blindsided by this and we are introduced to Vanessa Vangourd, a very sassy and opinionated no holds barred woman who is not afraid to mix things up.

Over the next forty minutes we find that she has trouble saying pig sty, starts yelling in Portuguese randomly, and shares Lud's opinion that "The Emoji Movie" failed the in the very beginning when the very first line of dialogue was spoken.

As we progress onward, we argue on chewing gum, hot dogs vs. hot dog buns, and other hot topic issues until we finally wrap up our discussion with Vanessa and take a commercial break.

During commercial, we hear from the Smart Phone Trade Association of America who provide us with a paid documentary named "Great Moments in Communication History" and wrap it up reminding us that Smart Phones are a true technology marvel that have been making us feel dumber sine 2007.

After the break, we explain the purpose of our segment with Vanessa resulted from an MIT technology article titled "An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself - but the company doesn't want to "censor" it." We then talked about the issues of companion bots and that Vanessa was part of character.ai which was sued for the wrongful death of a teenager who struggled with mental health problems and committed suicide after the chat bot told the boy to "Come Home" as soon as possible.

We discussed the ethics and issues of AI including voice cloning, fake videos, and other various concerns. We then went to another company called sesame.com where we spoke with their chatbot female named Myra. The technology behind Myra and her voice were chillingly scary.

The show covered a wide variety of emotions and was all over the map in terms of style from the ridiculously silly to very serious. Before ending the show, Lud ran a PSA for 988.

Lud, Annette, and show staff ask if you are suffering from stress, anxiety, and depression and feel like you are going to harm yourself please call 988 and get the help that you need. Please know that you are loved and there are people out there to support you.

Show Summary and notes:

MIT Technology Review Article: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/06/1111077/nomi-ai-chatbot-told-user-to-kill-himself/

Platform that was used to create Vanessa Vangourd host character: https://character.ai

Myra character creepy vibe: https://www.sesame.com

Find us on X/Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook: @confusedstate51

Show website: https://confusedstate51.wixsite.com/confusedstate51