What Do They Have to Lose?

The Machine

So many people in business are being told AI is the next magic thing. AI is great. It really is. The difference is what you actually use it for, and whether that use makes you money or just makes you more tired and more busy than you need to be. That's where this LIVE started, and it's where I want this post to start.

Should you pay somebody for "AI SEO"?

Not yet. People will tell you your website needs to show up better in the answer engines. Answer engine optimized. GEO. Geolocation, geographical, generative, who knows what it actually means this week. My advice: don't start spending money on ranking and all these other things. Money is hard to come by. People are going to try to sell it all day long, and if they can get you to pay for it, good for them. Build something useful first.

Where should a business start with AI?

With your workflow, not the hype. What do you do? Who do you work for? Do you work with somebody, or by yourself? I represent real estate sellers. I'm a Sellers Only Agent^™. So I have AI build me resources that help my sellers with the task at hand, which is selling the property.

Then find a problem out there that exists and build a resource for it. You don't have to know how to code. You just need to make sure it's secure and doesn't put people at risk. Tell the AI to do it. Ask it for guidance. How would you do this? What's the best way?

And then add one more line: be critical of me. If my idea isn't going to work, I want the AI to say so. That one instruction saves more time and money than any tool I've bought.

What did Connor build with AI?

I built a network of open house sites. SantaClaritaOpenHouses.com is home base, and the network covers Southern California by city. On the LIVE I pulled up a page AI built for me, the SCV Housing Report. It's a simple page, not complicated. I happen to have an MLS feed that I pull in.

Those numbers come from that report, CRMLS data as of October 18, 2026. You don't need an MLS feed to do this in your own field. Find the question people keep asking and have your AI build the page that answers it.

Should you build AI tools for your boss?

Here's the question people ask me. If I build this for the company I work for, am I just making my boss more money? Am I building the thing that replaces me? Maybe you need to have a talk with your boss and find out if that's their intention. Maybe it's not. Maybe your boss doesn't want anything to do with AI. Maybe they're going to keep you. Could be. And if that's the case, maybe you don't have to freak out about it. Ask before you assume.

Is AI a bubble?

That's the question at the top of the charts right now. CoreWeave has been in the news over its debt and financing. Meanwhile, the richest of the rich are telling you that you're a fool if you don't go all in. I use AI all day. I'm not writing checks into it, because I'm still trying to get health insurance. Maybe that's all of us.

Whenever somebody oversells something, I get a little nervous. Remember the preachers on TV at 3 in the morning? Send me the $300 you were saving for the electric bill, and I'll send you a prayer cloth, and your blessings will come back a hundredfold. I'm not sure there's any validity to that. When the people building out the data centers tell you that you'd be dumb not to buy in, I hear the same pitch with better graphics.

Who gets their money out first?

Here's my theory, and it's my opinion, not a fact. The early money gets in cheap. Maybe somebody was roommates with the right person in college and threw in ten bucks they were going to spend on pizza. That's a hypothetical, not a real deal. Then, to get their money out, they need the rest of us to buy in. Your savings. Your pension. Once the big money has extracted what it needs, who's holding the bag if something goes wrong?

What does the 2007 mortgage crisis teach us about AI?

I was in real estate back then. In March 2007 the subprime lender New Century Financial stopped making loans, and it filed for bankruptcy that April. That was a panic point. We had people buying homes who more than likely shouldn't have been, with 100 percent financing through an 80 and a 20. People making $30,000 a year were buying a million dollars of real estate. When that market collapsed, there was too much of the world tied up in it, so the government came in and helped. Somewhat.

If AI gets that big and something breaks at the top, I don't expect them to come help all of us. I expect them to print money, and you know what that does to prices. Different technology. Same question. Who is protected, and who is exposed?

The Ground Floor

What do they have to lose?

This is the whole show in one question. People are talking about how great and wonderful this all is. Pay attention to who's talking, and see what their stake is. Then ask them: what do you have to lose if this doesn't go right? If AI gets rid of all these jobs, if AI is a bust, if AI cripples the economy, where does your pain come from?

Because you know your boss. If somebody spins a yarn about AI wiping out half the workforce, a lot of bosses will hear "50 percent cost savings" before they hear anything else. That's a hypothetical, but you know your boss. The people selling the future should have to say out loud what they personally stand to lose, the same way you do.

What is a transition prize?

The big moonshot people give prizes for human ingenuity. One example: the Future Vision XPRIZE asked for trailers that showed an optimistic future with technology, the opposite of Terminator and The Matrix. It drew about 2,500 entries, and the top award was reported at $2.5 million. I like that. Good prize.

So why not a prize for the transition itself? A prize for getting people from where we are today to the abundance everybody keeps promising, where none of us suffer. Zero. Is that possible? I know people suffer every day. But if this technology is being baked into our lives whether we asked for it or not, the least the people at the top can do is fund the way across.

How bad does "a little rough" get?

Here's my estimate, not a forecast: somewhere around 10 to 13 percent unemployment, I think you start to see real trouble in the streets. Add the too-big-to-fail AI labs going bust, the government printing money, inflation running high. That's the rough. Now ask the people at the top what their rough looks like. Take 90 percent of a billionaire's money and the whole world's money resets with it. Take 90 percent of somebody who's paycheck to paycheck and they're on the street. I covered that difference in who gets the little rough.

Who should run the transition?

There's got to be some brain out there that can come up with this. Somebody tied in with AI who wants to start it. I'm not talking about a nonprofit, or a government entity that wants to build a high speed train and puts all the money into studies. I'm talking about direct application.

The person in charge isn't driving a $500,000 Lamborghini. Maybe they drive a conservative Volkswagen. Normal clothes. A normal house. They can't be bought. They aren't chasing the next big thing or generational wealth. They just want to do the right thing for everybody. You put a lot of protection around a person like that, because people who can't be bought tend to make enemies. Then you give them a microphone and let them report where we stand.

I've been calling the idea the Transition Moonshot. It's not a pitch. Read the first version in the Transition Moonshot: AI from the ground floor and the newest one in the AI moat and a possible utopia.

Why does Connor say vote?

Because if you don't play the lottery, you don't get to complain about losing it. Whatever side you're on, cast your ballot. If you don't vote, you don't get to go on YouTube and tell everybody how upset you are about who won.

Video chapters

Start with your workflow. Make your AI tell you no. Ask the people selling the future what they have to lose. That's AI With Honor. I'm Connor with honor, and I'll see you in the next one.