'Human Dot AI' examines links between advertising and A.I.

Okay, let's talk about one of the hot topics of 2026. We're talking about artificial intelligence. We all know a little, but our next guest knows quite a lot. So he has literally written the book on AI. Joe Marchese was an early builder of algorithmic and AI-driven ad engines. His new book, Human.AI, Joe shares his insight and decades of knowledge to see where AI started and where it's headed now. Joe is here now to talk more about this. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, I mean, listen, we talk about AI on a daily basis on this show. We talk to our AI on a daily basis. Our AIs have talked to each other on a daily basis. That's right. So how much of a presence would you say these algorithms have when we use AI today? I mean, how pervasive is artificial intelligence when it comes to advertising and getting products in front of us? And we might not even realize this is happening. Yeah, you know, it's funny, thanks for having me on. When we started writing the book, a big point was that People don't know how long AI has been shaping humans. Your Facebook newsfeed, your TikTok algorithm, your recommended products on Amazon, it was always AI in the background. And now it's front and center. People are talking to AI, talking to your chatbots. I think that it was important for people to start to realize what's the business model that's driving all of this and how much advertising has to do with what shapes and gets our attention. So give us an example, because how much does advertising really play into all this? Let me just set the stage here, because I have recently started using artificial intelligence almost every day to help dress me. And I say, hey, here's a tie. Give me a shirt. Give me. And it actually comes up with some pretty good stuff. But how would AI come into play with something like that? Or give us another example. Well, first off, it's doing a great job. Great job. I stick with just, I'm in the New York uniform of black t-shirt, black hat. I wish I could do that. It works. Keeps things simple. But really, if you think about it. The largest companies in the world, Google and Meta and Amazon, like I listed, much of their revenue and profits come from advertising. When you look at something on your Instagram feed or you dwell on something, AI picks that up and starts recommending things. But now, as you're talking to chatbots, and this is what I think is very important, You have a difference, if you use Claude, they've said there's no advertising in it. If you use OpenAI, they're just beginning to start to put ads in there. But I think the question is, when it recommended that tie to you in the morning, did someone pay it to recommend that tie? That's right, that's right. That's the question. And right now the answer is no to this point. But where does that go from here? So that's gonna change. That's, I mean, that is going to be, it's debatable how much it changes because you have Anthropic that says it's not going to do ads and then other competition. Google, which has Gemini, already has ads on Google search, so it doesn't need to put them into Gemini. But this idea that we're interacting and talking to robots, AI and machines have been deciding what goes in your feed for a long time, but now you're actually talking to them. And so this is a whole different time to be thinking about what makes us human and what we need to protect. I mean, so when you kind of put it like that, maybe I'm just a little cynical, but it kind of makes it seem like we're all just cogs in some sort of like bigger... campaign of just making money, like making these big corporations even richer. I don't know. It's kind of a dystopian, I mean, it is, I, this is what I hope. I hope the book reveals and it doesn't know. It's kind of a fun way. It's a little bit of my story. And, uh, but I think realizing that. Attention went from being, and advertising went from being kind of a small business to the biggest business in the world. The biggest business in the world is getting people's attention and turning it into ad revenue and dollars and shopping. Stopping. And this bout of AI now, your AI that's on your side, has a chance to potentially reset all of that. And I think that is those business models that is driving all this AI investment, AI revolution. And so the hair starts standing up on my head a little bit Because then you're talking about... Advertising and how we spend our dollars, but at the same time, there is this intersection between advertising and commerce and also politics and a lot of these AI leaders we have seen are already involved in politics. So is there a danger there that also it shapes the way AI will give us its opinions or Would they consider our facts when we ask them questions about news or things in the world? Right, like if you control the purse, you also control the information. That should always be everyone's concern. What is the source of the information? Like when we abdicate to machines what's worthy of our time and attention, we need to question where did that information come from? You know, like you run a news program and... You have human editors that are saying, what is worthy of people's time and attention this morning? And you schedule it, you slot it, and you say, this is worthy of our audience's time and attention. When we advocate to machines and say, whatever the machine decides is what comes back, there's a lot of big questions that need to be asked. So what guardrails are there out there? I mean, who's watching the handles? Who's watching out for the general population? Look, I think that that is one of the reasons to write the book is to say, let's look at what the business models are behind AI that have always been there. Thank Talk about what's going to come next. But the truth is, this is changing so fast that it's very hard to get ahead of it with regulation. So instead, we just need to be... you It's almost like we talked in the last, during the social media era, about media literacy, knowing your sources. very I think we need to be mindful of how we spend our time and attention. And in times when we're talking to the machines, much. there's all sorts of research that says there's things we need to be careful about. AI can be an amazing tool. I use it all the time, too. My parents use it all the time. But we should be using it to get our time and attention back so we can spend more time with other humans, so we can spend more time having conversations. The number one sign or correlation to longevity is the health of your human relationships. So realizing what it is for a tool, and it is absolutely revolutionary and magic, and people should use it for all of its benefits, but we should be thinking about and being mindful of what it's doing to us. Because no one's pressing pause on this. No one's pressing pause on the development and speed of artificial intelligence and the way it's going to be. We're going to be pervading every aspect of our life. Like, I want to live in a world where Bob can walk into his closet and make his own decisions. I like buddies. I like buddies. And by the way, we use it also to, like, design our spaces and quite a nice little loft you got going on there. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Joe, thank you. Thank you, Joe. And to dig deeper into this issue, you can check out Joe's book, Human.AI, available now. We've got to have you on more, Joe. Thank you so much.