Ep 159: Elviss Strazdins
Productivity & Security in the Age of AI: Tips on How to Become More Productive & What to Avoid Unless You Want to Get Scammed
Elviss Strazdins is an experienced software engineer and digital security expert. Over the last few years Elviss has built a significant following and influence on various security related topics on X, Tiktok and other social media platforms. He is also a tech enthusiast and early adopter.
On this episode we talk about:
Using AI enabled software and hardware to enhancing productivity
What digital security threats are most prevalent today
Best practices for digital security
Ethical and data privacy considerations of AI in business
This special AI-themed episode brought to you in collaboration with SAMSUNG!
Take your productivity & creativity to the next level with Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Find out more at https://www.samsung.com/lv/smartphones/galaxy-s24-ultra/
Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/
Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTA
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/
Questions/suggestions? Join our Telegram group > https://t.me/pursuitofscrappiness
Read the full episode transcript below
Uldis (00:00.936)
Hello, hello, hello, dear listeners. Welcome to another episode of the Pursuit of Scrappiness podcast. Whether you're building a business, running a team, or just starting out in your career, we are here to bring you scrappy and actionable insights to help you become more productive. My name is Uldis Teraudkalns and my co -host is Janis Zeps. Hey Jan.
Janis (00:21.995)
Hey, maybe it's me, maybe it's my AI clone. We'll find out in this episode.
Uldis (00:26.696)
Once again, before we start, a quick reminder to follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Don't need AI tools for that. Just click the follow button. It helps more than you know. And in exchange to that, you will get more than 150 episodes of Ageless Wisdom covering topics to become a scrappier and better version of yourself. So both in life and business. So tune in, click the follow button and don't miss when we come out every Tuesday morning. About today's topic.
In the last year or more probably, but in the last year, especially every, almost every tech related conversation involves AI. Almost every pitch deck involves AI to some extent and, and security trainings increasingly also include AI. And how can it not when it has the potential to be the biggest difference maker, both for the force of good and for evil. Today, we would like to talk a bit about both.
about how we can use AI -powered hardware and software tools to become more productive, as well as how to keep yourself and your business safe from bad actors using the dark side of AI. To help us navigate these challenging waters, we have invited an experienced software engineer and a digital security expert. Please welcome Elviss Strazdins
Elviss (01:43.113)
Hi, what's up? So I like that you mentioned about the productivity because I think that is the main thing that we should talk about when we speak about AI and security threats. Of course, there always will be with every new technology, there will be security threats. But yeah, I like that you mentioned the productivity.
Uldis (01:45.128)
So.
Uldis (02:07.752)
So yeah, so things that we want to cover today, overall good practices of digital security, how we can use AI in mobile technologies and maybe some safety concerns regarding that and how can those be prevented. And obviously how startups and entrepreneurs and employees can benefit from integrating AI into their product services or devices that they use. And in the end,
talk a bit about Elvis's career and influencer, let's say, career as well. So this episode is produced in collaboration with our good friends and supporters of the show Samsung and their latest AI powered smartphone S24 Ultra. So we will definitely cover also things related to that. So let's jump in and...
Maybe let's start with what main types of digital security threats are out there that companies and individuals face today. And is there a difference between the two or it's at the end all about personal security?
Elviss (03:19.049)
Yeah, so as we spoke about the productivity to start, the problem is that AI makes fraudsters more productive too. And that's, I think, one of the problems because they can all the, you know, the Nigerian prints, emails and those things, they can now use AI and come up with
a perfect letter that will catch even more victims and there is this thing I think it was fraud GPT, its name was fraud GPT so you can pay subscription like chat GPT and it will teach you how to fraud people it will give you it will come up with all the messages to send them.
and that will guarantee maximum success and all these scams and frauds are about percentage of success so if you become 1 % more productive in that it's a lot more victims and so I think that's the main concern about artificial intelligence regarding scams
I have also heard some audio recordings where people are being scammed over phone and I hear that something's wrong with the voice. I think in some cases they actually use live AI generated voice. And that's also concerning.
Uldis (05:08.264)
but speak themselves you mean, yeah? With the voiceover.
Elviss (05:13.082)
Yeah, yeah, so I think they speak other language and it's translating real time. I'm not sure because, again, I have spoken about this a lot, but people ask me oftenly, how do you tell apart? Is it AI or is it real human? And you should not concentrate on that. That's the wrong direction because even if you now can tell them apart,
It will not be the case a year or two years later. So it doesn't matter what language the guy speaks on the other side of the phone. It matters what he is asking and what you are giving to him. So regarding concerns in the scams and frauds, I think if we are cautious and we don't give any information that we shouldn't give.
We are like 99 % percent safe. About the other things AI like leaking your own information through a chat GPT or other things like that. That's another concern, but I think the laws will be stricter. We have GDPR and that regulates what information service providers can actually store about ourselves.
Also because of GDPR we can ask companies to delete information about us. And that's a problem when those services get hacked and all the information they store get leaked. So yeah, that's probably... But that's nothing different from before AI era. Because when you use Google they also store information that you search or you do so.
With AI the thing is that we give more information about ourselves, that's it. But it hasn't changed, like it's not that it's at one point it started to become concerning, no it's a risk, it's an old risk, it's just becoming more of a problem now.
Uldis (07:33.48)
Can you describe a bit more this risk of giving out personal information to chat GPT and how can it be abused or used? Because probably that's something that people might not have thought of that it not only gives, but also takes, you know.
Elviss (07:52.772)
Yeah, so when you ask any question, it probably involves some personal information about yourself. And the more you talk, the more you talk to chat GPT, the more information it knows about you. And that can be used by fraudsters. If they, for example, if they access your account, then they know a lot about your, about you. Like, for example, if they,
somehow hack your account. The other thing is if chat GPT service itself gets hacked and all this information gets leaked. You probably give more information about yourself than you can imagine and a lot more than you give to Google. Yeah, so if you if you Google something like where do I download illegal music or get drugs or stuff like that. Yeah, you give some information about yourself.
But when you speak to chat GPT, like how do I do this and do that? How do I make my own drugs or how do I grow weed or stuff like that? That's if you Google this, then you will probably ask about it to chat GPT and even maybe a lot more than than than you tell to Google.
Janis (09:14.633)
Yeah, a lot of personal things as well. I mean, whatever, like medical questions, mental questions.
Elviss (09:19.267)
Exactly.
Elviss (09:23.779)
Yes, your race, your age, stuff like that. And when it gets leaked, when scammer calls you, he knows you like his brother. And then he gains your trust faster, a lot faster. And that's concerning.
Janis (09:28.105)
Hmm.
Uldis (09:44.104)
Yeah, and I think OpenAI is protected only by password, right? There's no 2FA or I mean, maybe you can set it up, but but I think mostly it's a simple email and
Janis (09:44.808)
Is there something like...
Elviss (09:53.635)
If you use Google account, I think Google account is the only way you can, I'm not sure. I use it with Google, so my Google account uses two factor authentication, so. So my.
Uldis (10:06.76)
I'm pretty sure I just used it with a password so it can be hacked, so it can be broken I think rather easily.
Elviss (10:15.011)
But I think it should use 2FA. I'm not sure because there should be some... Yeah, you should. That's another topic. Nowadays when we share so much information, we must use 2FA in all services we use.
Uldis (10:18.216)
Well now I will set up if I can.
Janis (10:32.808)
Hmm.
Uldis (10:34.088)
two -factor authentication for those of you who don't know. Not just a password, but for example Google Authenticator or some other app on your phone, something that only you have that can confirm that it's really you who is accessing the account.
Elviss (10:37.794)
Yes.
Janis (10:49.224)
The thing that feels annoying until you actually get hacked.
Uldis (10:51.272)
until you get hacked. Yeah, exactly.
Elviss (10:53.636)
Yes, when you receive your SMS about somebody asking for the code it means if this was not your second factor your Facebook, your LinkedIn account is pretty much hacked and it's gone. So be happy when you receive this SMS. But yeah, regarding SMS, try to avoid SMS. That's not the securest way for the second factor.
Janis (11:24.521)
Do you have any kind of, have you noticed like people now talk about, okay, you know, AI, deep fakes, voice, face cloning. There's almost a bit like the stereotype that, I mean, I don't know, I'm like internet generation. I know this stuff, nothing will happen to me. Yes, maybe my, you know, grandmother and mother needs to worry. Do you have any kind, have you noticed this like bias or stereotype out there and what can you say to that?
Elviss (11:49.699)
I want to say that those biggest experts in some area they are the biggest targets, victims to the scammers because I know everything I cannot be scammed, I cannot be hacked and that's sometimes that's not the case so don't be overconfident be
Janis (11:54.569)
Yeah.
Janis (12:05.64)
Mm.
Elviss (12:17.54)
Always be cautious, always think about what you are doing online, what you are sharing. Yeah, and yeah, I've seen a lot of these guys who say that I cannot be hacked. That's impossible. And then years later, they write me like, there are some cases where people actually so lots of people contact me every day about how they get scammed or hacked and
Uldis (12:24.264)
Okay, so.
Elviss (12:45.764)
There have been at least 3 or 4 cases where they say I watched your videos on TikTok or in television I've had some also shows in television where I speak about this and they think How stupid you must be to actually get hacked like that Are you dumb or what? And In one case it was a week after my show A week later guy writes me
A week ago I watched your YouTube video and I thought the same like how is this possible and I got scammed 4000 euros. So yeah don't be confident. And why don't be confident? Everybody can be hacked, everybody can be scammed. That's simple truth. But when you will get scammed and if you publicly...
Said to everybody that you cannot be scammed that you are the smartest and you get scammed You will not tell about this to anybody and that that's even worse. You will not go to police you will not go to Your friends for help ask for because you are the smartest one So even if you are confident don't speak about it publicly it can it can fire back?
Uldis (14:10.28)
So you almost answered probably my next question. So in terms of main security practices for an average person. So we heard don't be overconfident. Don't give out personal information anywhere. And third is use two factor authentication for which whichever services you can. Is there any other like basic things that...
Elviss (14:37.507)
Forget all the green flags and remember only the red flags because there are no green flags in security. So whenever your... Yeah, if your mother calls from her phone and asks you some personal questions, that's not... There are no green flags. The phone number is not green flag. Her voice is not a green flag. Forget about those.
Uldis (14:46.056)
Can you elaborate a bit?
Janis (15:03.623)
Hmm.
Elviss (15:06.019)
That could be a fraudster speaking with your mother's voice and spoofed her phone number. So...
Janis (15:13.704)
It's like in Terminator where you have this scene where she says the wrong thing and the guy's like, your parents are dead.
Uldis (15:20.488)
Oh my god. I imagine this milk carton like f**k.
Elviss (15:21.379)
Yeah and recently we also
Janis (15:27.591)
hehe
Elviss (15:28.387)
And recently we have even seen real -time video deepfakes where a guy has a company meeting because he refused to transfer 25 million dollars and there were like 12 guys in a zoom call and and one of them was CEO and and accountant and all the all his colleagues
And they convinced him to transfer 25 million dollars. The problem was that he was the only real person in the voice call, in the video call. All 11, rest of the 11, 12 guys were the fakes. So the authenticating, and authenticating means that somebody proves that it's him. And authentication by a picture,
Janis (16:08.072)
Oh.
Elviss (16:28.035)
is the worst thing ever so because in in in real life it's pretty hard to authenticate yourself like impersonate another person and but i i think we'll get there we'll get that you will not be able to trust even a guy you meet in person but but that's that's uh future let's not not talk about this right now but in a video yeah but in the video
Uldis (16:53.096)
That's Harry Potter level.
Elviss (16:57.859)
That's so insecure way to authenticate somebody just by looking at his picture, moving picture. Guys, this is not secure. Maybe this guy isn't Elvis.
Uldis (17:07.592)
So basically you start an internal call in the company and you go like, what's the last thing Albus Dumbledore told me before he died? And then you can start the meeting.
Janis (17:08.839)
Um...
Elviss (17:19.299)
Yeah, something like that.
Elviss (17:24.067)
Yeah, well... Yeah.
Janis (17:24.487)
What's, no in reality, what's your, any kind of advice you can give? I'm just thinking exactly like you said, I also heard the case where, you know, CEO calls, you ask to transfer money, it was I think some bank in Hong Kong or whatever and the guy did it. What do companies do? Do they have like this secret, yeah like, uh,
code words or how do they practically add this 2FA to real life conversations.
Elviss (17:52.515)
Yeah, so one thing is 2FA of course and I mean like coming up with some common password that only you know, but that should be like level one security. For example, I don't know. Give me like, I don't know even like some information. Is this colleague at work for example today? Yeah, level one.
authentication, two -factor authentication. Just give me the passphrase and I will tell. Regarding passwords or money transfers, you have to have a policy and a really hard bureaucracy on how to do it, how to share password. It's not that somebody asks you password on Slack and you just copy paste it. No.
There should be a mechanism where some electronic signature or something is involved. For example, you go to a local like in Latvia, EPARXCV, you sign a request and then this is also that you authenticate that you are you. You sign the request, you send it over email or something and then the guy does the same with the password.
That's hard, I know, that involves a lot more steps than you think it should, but it should be hard. One example is when company sends you a fake... fake... ratings. Yeah, one example is when company sends you a fake invoice. And it...
Uldis (19:41.64)
Invoice.
Elviss (19:49.314)
Everything looks legit, like the company name, all the numbers, everything. The only thing that changed is the account number, bank account number. And if you don't check that, you transfer money and a lot of folks don't know that actually the banks are not checking if the company name and the account number match. That's only for inside payments, for inside transfers and only for some banks.
Uldis (19:53.608)
Ahem.
Elviss (20:17.57)
For example, Citadel doesn't check and that's good actually. That's not a criticism. I think Citadel does the correct thing. If you don't check the receiver and the bank account number for your external payments, then you should also teach your users for internal transfers that that will not be checked. So that's, I think, a good approach because a lot of people...
use sweat bank or sep and and it checks if if the receiver and the bank account match and then they think that the same is being done for outside transfers to other banks but it's not the case and maybe it's even smarter to never check it and never tell people that it's being checked so yeah about these invoices that are fake
There should be a policy that you only pay for invoices that are electronically signed and that's it Easy as that and whenever a company and there are some examples that I'm I'm consulting lots of companies and also learning from them and there are some companies in Latvia that have bureaucracy that if you are a partner and you want to change your account number for your future invoices, that's like at least a week, maybe the month
of bureaucracy. So that's a good example. Yes, it makes a lot of things slower, but that's secure and security. Security and comfort, they go like different directions. They almost never go the same direction. So we should think about that. We should keep that in mind.
Uldis (22:04.328)
Final question on the security. Is there any particular type of software or hardware that you would recommend to use that you believe has good security features or just makes things easier to keep things secure?
Elviss (22:27.043)
Yeah, so as I always tell people you should use the latest, like the newest hardware because old hardware is vulnerable. And also you should always use devices from manufacturers that are thinking about security, just like our today's sponsor Samsung. So they have lots of layers of security built in and
Yeah, you should probably research what device you are purchasing. Probably the cheap, some, I don't want to name countries, but you probably know them cheap devices made somewhere. No name devices, probably there will be almost no security. So you should think about that.
Janis (23:08.517)
Yeah.
Janis (23:19.013)
Or there is some security, but also these devices involve sending data to certain countries and storing on certain servers.
Elviss (23:26.242)
Yeah, and that's another thing with cases like Samsung. Yes, they use cloud -based AI, but also they have a local AI. If you want, you can, for example, live translate, you can download the language package to your device and then it isn't being sent to cloud. But there are other products that you can just enable the local AI only. But for the things that use cloud...
You upload data, but you know that Samsung is compliant with GDPR. So whenever you ask Samsung to delete all the data they store about you, they will immediately do that. And that's not the case about these third party vendors. Okay, maybe not the correct term, not third party vendors, but unknown, no brand vendors.
that you don't know anything about them, you don't know how they store data, where they send it, how to request to delete the data.
Janis (24:33.317)
Yeah, no, what I meant is more like the certain government also collects data if you buy devices from a certain country and I think that's been also quite documented. So yeah.
Elviss (24:43.394)
Yeah, yeah, that's not even some tinfoil theory, that's a fact that there are countries that are spying on people and yeah, you should pro... Yeah, many countries, of course, yeah.
Janis (24:49.893)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Uldis (24:55.016)
Probably many countries.
Janis (24:59.493)
Well, everybody wants to spy, but not everybody can spy, I'm sure. The national capabilities of spying are relatively limited, I guess. Maybe they are listening.
Uldis (25:07.176)
Maybe you don't know, maybe we're up there. Let's switch to productivity. So obviously with the arrival of AI, many companies are looking for ways how to integrate AI both into their products and organizations. Maybe let's start a bit with the organizations, you know, how to just make the day to day more productive. How can companies and professionals benefit from using AI, both software and potentially also hardware?
Elviss (25:37.089)
Yeah, so, um... Companies.
Uldis (25:39.4)
I mean, chat GPT, I think is widely covered so we can skip that. So.
Elviss (25:43.871)
Yeah, but also for for chat GPT there are lots of usages for companies that people don't even know about for example if you if you receive a resume and you have some internal like red flags of people that you will never accept or something like that you can teach a new GPT and then you can just pass all the resumes through that it will summarize the resume it will
Uldis (25:51.4)
That's true.
Elviss (26:11.837)
mark all the red flags and stuff and it makes you so much more productive. And there are lots of examples with text only AI. For example there was one company I know that they collect data about their users, so they are game developers. They collect all the data that people are doing inside. So...
It's called analytics. It's all anonymized. Of course, you don't know who does what, but you just collect data to understand how people use your software. And you have so much data that it's a problem to actually analyze that. And what they did, they created a GPT where you ask questions like how many users stopped playing after pressing this button today. And it generates an
a database query that it sends to database gets back data and the thing that would require for data analyst maybe an hour maybe more is being done in seconds and that's so that makes so people so much more productive insane.
Janis (27:14.533)
Hmm.
Janis (27:33.669)
It's even more than hours, like usually the business users, maybe not everyone knows SQL, right? And like there would be, I know, product managers sending, typing up this question, sending to data guy, data guy takes time to read it, to go through it, put it in the queue of tasks. It's huge, right?
Elviss (27:43.674)
Yeah!
Elviss (27:49.946)
or a guy who spends like all of his life writing a tool for the company that does that automatically. So there are cases when companies develop their own internal analytics solutions and that's so much money you can't even imagine. And that's all solved by a few second request to chatGPD.
Janis (28:01.38)
Mm -hmm.
Uldis (28:16.776)
Yeah, I mean, we have, we have obviously been saving a lot of time also for the podcast using using chat GPT and other other AI tools for for production and and for videos for for a lot of things. So we have been major major benefactors, I think cutting production time by I don't know, at least 30 % or probably even more.
Elviss (28:17.721)
So yeah.
Elviss (28:27.482)
Yeah.
Janis (28:29.604)
for videos especially.
Janis (28:41.412)
Look at us sounding like a Toyota factory. We cut the production time by 30%.
Elviss (28:46.426)
Yeah, yeah, but that's true. That's true.
Uldis (28:46.92)
This is manufacturing of content.
Janis (28:50.021)
No, no, it is. It is. It is.
Elviss (28:52.73)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Uldis (28:53.672)
And in terms of hardware, some kind of things from the Samsung, new phones that can really help you be more productive.
Elviss (29:06.779)
Yeah, as I said years ago, I wish that I had Samsung. It would help me so much when I was at CES, Consumers Electronic Show in Vegas. Lots of guys there were not English speakers and I had to speak with my hands and ask for help and stuff. If there was Samsung that I could...
Janis (29:19.651)
Mm.
Elviss (29:33.882)
And there was an internet there was really expensive so it was years ago and I could just download all the languages I need like Chinese and and other others and just use it to Translate all the messages live it would save me so much time and even maybe money maybe new contacts I would I would get new contacts and new connections Yeah
That's basically I have now a dream in my pocket, a device that I wished for years ago.
Janis (30:12.612)
I also in the languages I have an observation as well. I think people somehow, we all assume that we speak English and especially when you go to some countries, you know these stats like I don't know, like Netherlands, Sweden, like a very high percentage of English speakers, whatever. But let's say you go to big European ones like Italy and Spain and France and that percentage drops. But also I just think big companies where you have a lot of nationalities sometimes could save time because two people go.
from their language to English and then sometimes that English is not great and then they try to interpret like, what is this guy writing about? Sometimes it's this felt it's easier if the French person would write in French or talk to me and then I can have AI to translate because you lose a lot of meaning and let's be honest, English is not that familiar to very, very many people and for good reason some countries or try Japan, right?
Elviss (30:55.193)
Yeah.
Janis (31:11.108)
They don't speak English, they don't need to, they're too big. So I think companies will unlock a ton of productivity by that.
Uldis (31:18.152)
I just used that last week. Yeah, I was in Paris catching a bolt and the driver wrote to me and it said originally written in French, but I received it in English. So it was, it was very convenient. Yeah.
Elviss (31:18.745)
Yeah, actually, you mentioned that.
Janis (31:33.7)
Exactly, that's a good case. That's a good case, exactly. Instead of him trying to, and then you try to understand what he, oh no, yeah, awesome.
Elviss (31:42.009)
Yeah, so it's a good example you mentioned France because I think everybody who has been in France knows that they don't... you go to restaurant you think, oh yeah so you go to restaurant you think like this is a tourist place everybody should speak English here yeah good luck finding any waitress that or waiter that speaks English that's yeah it's interesting
Janis (31:48.579)
Nah.
Uldis (31:50.504)
Even if they do, even if they do, they choose not to.
Janis (31:53.731)
Yeah.
Janis (32:03.78)
Mm -hmm.
Uldis (32:09.256)
Have you tried using this voice translation that Samsung has on the new phone, that feature? It seems like very convenient, a bit awkward, so I wonder if you have tried using it.
Janis (32:09.956)
I've, uh, I've...
Elviss (32:19.896)
J -J -
Yeah, I just for tests only, I haven't still recovered from COVID. I haven't traveled since COVID. And that's weird because before COVID, I was like once a month I was somewhere in other countries to some conferences and events. And since COVID, like everything has died and that's yeah, my life has changed. So whenever I will go outside of Latvia, I will definitely use it.
Janis (32:52.642)
The first case I thought about this was how to use it. I was also a month ago for three, four weeks in Tenerife in Spain and also like you try to book a table there. English sometimes works, but 50 -50. And then there were cases that they didn't understand and didn't take the reservation. And you have to call by phone because there are no apps as well. And I thought like, I didn't have the phone yet, but like I thought this will be perfect use case because yeah, Jesus, like that's so much easier.
Elviss (33:20.986)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the live translate over a phone, I haven't used it because all my friends are either Latvian or English speaking, so there is no... I have worked in companies that have Chinese branches and then, oh my God, how much time would I say with this live translation. Now I work for a Latvian company, so...
Uldis (33:23.08)
Any other?
Elviss (33:50.233)
No, no use I would I would really love to use it, but I have no use for it currently But yeah, I guess that will change in the future
Uldis (34:00.328)
any other cool feature that you have grown to love besides the translation.
Elviss (34:04.602)
Oh yeah, the summary of articles, that's so cool. You just open any article then you... So you open any article, there is this star, I think it was star. I don't pay attention what icon there was, but there is this AI icon. You just hold it and it summarizes the article for you in a few sentences. Oh, that's a game changer.
Uldis (34:11.784)
How does that work?
Janis (34:22.945)
Mm -hmm.
Elviss (34:32.186)
So now you can read all the news in a few seconds and all without all this gibberish like you know always. Let's talk about this technology but before that let's get back to 50 million old history about dinosaurs. I don't care about that I need the summary.
Janis (34:49.057)
Yeah.
Every time you try to look for a recipe online, it starts like, this recipe we discovered with my husband when we were on a trip and it's like, I just need ingredients. This is a good one. Like honestly, these features that we discuss, of course we're kind of talking about them, but I genuinely kind of find them useful. I think.
Elviss (34:59.801)
Yeah, to this country which did you know has this and this cultural thing.
Janis (35:21.059)
There are features where AI maybe is being used these days. We all know we discuss this as a gimmick. Every startup has an AI attached to it now and everything. But I think these are the features that can really save you a lot of time per day.
Elviss (35:34.776)
Yeah.
Uldis (35:37.338)
I have s -
Elviss (35:37.88)
Another thing is this image manipulation that's really good. Especially for me, when I create thumbnails for videos, I take a photo with my Samsung and then I have to... So there is, you know, when you have, when you make a thumbnail, you love something about it, but there is something in the background or maybe the...
you are not in the in a line in the center of the picture or something like that and then you try to remake it in in the correct conditions but now you cannot remake the same emotion or stuff and that's so often like for me that I try to mimic the same face expression or the same and it doesn't look good it it doesn't look right so now you can just either take another picture of the background you wanted and then just
Janis (36:08.373)
Hmm.
Elviss (36:33.718)
copy and paste your face onto it from this other picture or you can just cut out and it's being done automatically you cut out yourself from this picture and then you move yourself where you want or if there is some item or maybe the I have two kids and sometimes walls are not clean and you realize that only when you have taken a photo for your next video.
And with this AI feature you can just click on this booger or something on the wall and just erase it and it's not there. So yeah, that's pretty cool.
Janis (37:14.049)
I just realized actually it's so AI has come into the life. This is not example from Samsung, but still good recommendation. Canva has these features as well. And for the podcast, we do the covers with the guests, just more or less profile picture. But sometimes they send something where they stand somewhere and there's like, I don't know, a flower and it creeps into the frame and you could publish it, whatever, but this erasing is good. I've used it a few times as well where it's like, we just want to focus on the...
face of the guest. So whatever, like all this is a flower in the background now, we could, I've erased quite a few things or some kind of logos or something like that.
Uldis (37:53.416)
So let's talk about gimmicks or maybe not. So I have noticed on several apps that I have on my phone that there is a GPT function. So for example, I use Sleep Cycle, this sleep tracking and smart wake up app, and it has the sleep GPT at the bottom when you scroll down some kind of, you can ask some kind of questions. Or then this Doggo app for training dog has a dog
dog GPT or pet GPT or whatever and I kind of disregard them and discount them because like I'm like you know you just slapped you know GPT AI on it because it's cool but you know never really gave it a chance have you have you seen like a good application of that and maybe my kind of skepticism is not not well placed
Elviss (38:46.228)
Yeah, it's an interesting question. A good example where they slap a GPT on their product and it's actually good. Maybe I'm not that... As I said before in the podcast, I'm an early adapter but I'm an early adapter for big technologies, for big companies maybe.
Uldis (38:58.44)
Yes.
Elviss (39:16.403)
all these smart pins and stuff like that I don't know if I don't believe the product I don't I don't try it so I I think I haven't even tried any product that has a GPT on it because I don't believe in that I don't believe that anything anything can be a lot better than chat GPT I don't know
Janis (39:23.808)
Hmm.
Janis (39:40.929)
Because I think a lot of those, but that kind of answers the question I think, because a lot of those products, like when you, what we want to use is something that makes sense, right? And if a company just attaches like, oh, let's just add this as a feature. Okay, well, if we use the original company, then we will maybe use the GPT, but it's, if you were selling, I don't know, wine and now you're wine GPT, and we didn't use, I don't know.
Elviss (40:07.761)
Yeah, you know, yeah. So when you. If you if you like, you know, I like the name of your podcast, the scrappiness. So if you are a scrappy startup, you'll release anything that that. Even if it's not working as well, but you just release to see how people see it. And you should always realize that technology space is a.
Uldis (40:08.808)
Let's write this down in our idealist.
Elviss (40:37.49)
huge huge sandbox and you are the sand and people are playing on you and For them yeah, they can lose lots of money on the product then they make another product then they lose lots of money and then they are double Entrepreneur they have failed two times and now they have access to a lot more money So their mistakes will be a lot more expensive until they build. I don't know chat GPT
or something huge. So that's, I always look at new products as a sandbox, as a playground. They are playing, they're building up their portfolio of failed startups and they maybe even know that this will be a miss, this will not be a hit. And the next 10 startups will also be a miss. But then at 11, and also the investors know that.
Don't think that investors think, oh yeah, this startup, it will definitely bring me back my millions of I invested. No. They invest in a pool of companies and one of them, only one or two of them will be successful. The rest 100 companies will fail. And that you should realize that all these smart pins and stuff like that. Don't buy that this will be a lot of...
that this will be some innovation, this will be a cool product. That's probably their portfolio company that will fail and they will move on to the next one.
Uldis (42:07.08)
You mentioned that you're an early adapter of things and also that you're teaching companies about security and obviously you have a voice, especially in the last year. I would say I see that red cap of yours quite frequently on different occasions. Maybe can you tell us a bit about your story and how you ended up being an influencer for security given that you're a software engineer and those
guys are usually not too public and not too talkative so maybe you can tell us that.
Elviss (42:40.72)
Yeah.
Elviss (42:45.008)
Yeah, so my journey in security started in 2012. I worked for a security company and I worked for a few years for three or I think more than three years. So I gathered lots of information about security there and then I left and all of the companies I worked for since then and also before then were failed like tiff.
all the products that I worked on failed and I got into a huge depression about that so basically 16 years of my career is being thrown in the trash so I have just I was basically I have been sitting at my computer and receiving salary that's it that's my career in a few words
And I really got frustrated and depressed about that and I started to search for what should I do with my life. So I want to give something. I think everybody wants to, I think every single person in the world is creative. They want to create something for others. The money is a good bonus, but the main, I think the main motivation for everybody is to give good to somebody and...
Yeah, create something. So I started giving all the knowledge from the most recent to the older ones. So the most recent I worked on hardware, so I started disassembling hardware and telling about those because that was something that I have recently been working on. And then I moved back to repairing, just experimenting with stuff.
And then I moved back to 10 year old history of me on security and I started with speaking to fraudsters and trying to hack them, get some information from them and sending them fake payment receipts and stuff like that. And that blew up, it like immediately blew up. And then I thought, okay, maybe that's one...
Elviss (45:06.605)
I continued disassembling hardware showing what's inside I even I tried different things I even I was experimenting with with traffic signs in traffic lights Maybe you remember I that was also in the news. I showed how the traffic lights worked and And that that that went good. It was also pretty popular. But then again, I tried I
Create the first video of how I mess with the scammer and that immediately blew up again Then again some other ventures again a video on YouTube about how I mess with the scammer again blew up and that's when I realized that That I should probably I give a lot more to people when I speak about security and when I speak about hardware
Janis (45:39.424)
Mm -hmm.
Elviss (46:02.767)
I think still there should be some guys who do what I do because with me myself it's enough. It's not enough. I wanted to say one person cannot teach guys about what we should know. Like we should know a lot about and people say yeah you think you always say that we should all know programming we should all know hardware that's like they put it as it's.
my opinion but it's not my opinion that's a sad reality I would like to I would love to live in a reality where everybody could paint or make music or I don't know do any other stuff that doesn't make money or have their farm or grow crops or animals that's cool and stuff but sadly you
cannot even grow your crops without knowing technology. You know John Deere, technology company, all the tractors are technology, like pure technology. If you don't know how they work, you lose lots of money and you basically cannot compete with your competitors if you don't know technology. So...
Every single person in Latvia should know technology. That's a sad reality and that's not something that I want. That's something that is a reality. And because of that we should have a lot more influencers in Latvia that teach technology. How they work, how to use them, how to be secure and stuff like that. So I'm just doing what should be done here.
Uldis (47:54.856)
That pretty much also answers my last question about what to do if you have an expert knowledge in some kind of field and you want to increase your reach and be heard. So I guess pretty much a playbook right there. So start talking about it and people will notice.
Janis (48:11.329)
No, I think one thing I picked up from your experience is you tried multiple things and you saw what resonates and then you double down on what resonates because I think that's a lot of, you know, you might be passionate or somebody might be passionate about subject A if it doesn't resonate and subject B resonates obviously, you know, successful people would go for subject B but yeah, any other tips how to go?
Elviss (48:13.518)
Yep, definitely.
Janis (48:38.112)
build your brand, build your recognition online.
Elviss (48:43.086)
Yeah, so one is read Lean Startup. You know the book Lean Startup? So read it. Yeah, it's not suggesting to you. You probably have read it, but to all the listeners, read Lean Startup. That will teach you not only how to build startups, it will teach you about everything in your life.
Janis (48:50.913)
Hmm. Yeah.
Uldis (48:52.168)
Yes, yes, yes.
Elviss (49:11.022)
even how to organize your fridge, I don't know, whatever. Every single thing in your life you can find an answer how to do it in this book. Also how to build your... yeah.
Janis (49:22.624)
It's funny, there are some books around who claim the same. A few thousand year old books, but...
Elviss (49:27.982)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So yeah, yeah. And that's that also about the social networks influencing and stuff. You will find out how to you'll in this book, you will understand how to search for the topics on what to what what to create content about because.
Uldis (49:30.728)
Haha, it's the tech bible.
Janis (49:34.624)
Yeah.
Elviss (49:56.814)
Content creation is kind of a startup. So that's... And another book you should read is Positioning. That's where my red hat and a blue t -shirt comes from. It's a short book. You can read it probably in one evening or maybe one weekend.
Janis (50:15.84)
Mm -hmm.
Elviss (50:21.902)
And that will answer all your questions about how to position yourself, how to build your community and stuff like that.
Janis (50:30.113)
Ah, good point. So you're always kind of... You want everybody to know like, okay, this is Elvis, this is how he looks like, you know, this is what he does. Yeah.
Elviss (50:36.238)
Yeah.
Elviss (50:40.014)
Yeah, that's intentional, that's not something that I randomly came up with. It's always from day one I've looked like this. If you see my first YouTube video, I looked exactly like this and this was one and a half year ago and I will probably look like this one and a half year later. That's intentional and that's how always people remember me and whenever they see my cap they immediately know.
Janis (50:42.24)
Hmm.
Janis (50:54.24)
Mm.
Janis (51:00.608)
Good point.
Elviss (51:09.07)
what this guy will speak about.
Uldis (51:11.208)
Yeah, I recognize it for sure. All right, Elvis, thank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for showing us the way to security and productivity with AI. And also thanks to our friend Samsung for making this happen. And to the listeners. Exactly. Yeah, definitely.
Janis (51:30.368)
listeners. We see you next week.
Elviss (51:34.03)
and I hope you learned something.
Janis (51:36.192)
Yeah, don't get scammed, but till the next episode, please.
Uldis (51:38.792)
That would be sad. If you do, let us know.
Please note that the transcript text is AI-generated. We apologize for any potential errors or inaccuracies. Thank you for your understanding.
