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this week on press here. good morning everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. you are a long time viewer of this program. you know, we are fans of the artist agnieszka pilat, the polish born american artist uses robots to create her works for years, boston dynamics spot was her go to partner. these days, she's learning to interact with the more humanoid digit from agility robotics. so we thought we would check back in with her and see how she was progressing. and that's good. good morning. so you taught a robot dog new tricks. how's it going with the humanoid? hi, scott. great to be back. well, humanize much different. actually. spot ui is so easy to operate with humanoids. like with humans, it takes more understanding of technology. so it's a bit more challenging for me as an artist who is not really a technologist. how does that work? i mean, are you is it

mimicking you? are you doing hard coding in it? how do you teach a robot to make a painting ? this is great. so this is actually a kind of a watershed moment. so two years ago everything would have to be programed, meaning i was actually using what's called snap, which is a software that's for non-programmers. and think about it like you look at it, you have a digital twin and you kind of animate it, in the metaverse, and then you hope the same thing you will see the robot executes. and i've made mistakes and we've had problems when the robot would pour red paint all over itself, which was very stressful. but it's been a big moment right now because, because of progression of ai, robotics finally are merging. so right now, there's many ways to interact it in including actually language. so they start understanding language and they transfer to lms and they, they, will imitate your wishes or trying to do what you told them

to do. now is it is the robot generative? is it painting the painting it wants or is it painting the painting it was programed to paint. i, i think of myself as a helicopter parent, so i think so. i don't let them do whatever they want to do. i think it's still kindergarten or the nursery. so everything my robots paint is still, delegated to them by me. it would be easy to do generative art, but it just i think it's too early now. i'm. i'm guessing a humanoid, robot is easier to work with than a than a than a dog robot. as far as painting and other human tasks go, well, yes and no. so again, there's such a moment in technology. everything is changing so fast. but i think about this, for example, when it comes to stability, a quadruped robot is very stable. so even if

i make a mistake and tell it to turn very violently, it will still do it for digit, which is a tall robot. it's about five nine, so it's like a tall person . it's pretty heavy, 140 pounds. so if the robot falls, it's much more bigger consequences. so i would say it's harder to work with them than with the quadrupeds. now, the quadrupeds, the dogs, the spots, you had a project in which you had them paint for four straight months, right? yes. we had i automated myself out of being an artist and transferred the brush to them. yes national gallery of victoria, we just closed the show. we had a million people pass through the exhibition and see the robots autonomously for months. painting? yes. so i one of the reasons i ask is, what is it? anthropomorph is the word, right is we attribute, you know, human or in this case, dog characters onto a robot. it seems like almost mean to make

for a couple of little dogs, you know, paint for four months. but of course, our robots, they're machines. but you do it too, because you gave the names. where? what's the balance between these are machines? and also i'm sort of projecting my own beliefs on on top of them. well, this is very interesting because i'm going to of course, they are just machines and it's new technology. but historically, you know, as humanity, we, we had we were very certain about many things also treating other species. probably not the best way. so i don't know, maybe, you know, maybe historically, people will look back 500 years from now and they will think it was very cruel to keep these these, you know, these robots, without any ability to leave for four months. i don't know, do you do you see that people have a different, reaction to a humanoid robot over a dog shaped robot, yes, definitely. i think

with. i mean, they both people are confused by both. i think my first encounter with a bipedal from my experience, was actually atlas at boston dynamics. digit came later, and it was really a spiritual experience because it got up without me expecting it. and it really felt like it has had its own, agency. and now i want to point out also one more thing. so from my experience at agility robotics, especially jonathan hurst, who is the cto, he prefers the term bipedal to humanoid, which goes to your point. so, you know, it's not a human, it's not trying to mimic to be human. it's built like a human because we want it to operate in environments. the world was built for humans, so we built robots that look like humans, but it's more because that's what necessary for them to do the tasks we used to do. well, i think that leads me to my last question is, now that you've had some time with a bipedal robot, you what? what

can you imagine it doing? is it going to be able to? i mean, maybe not this version, but it's going to fit into society and do the things we need it to do to take care of an old person. for instance, in a home that kind of thing, this is this this sounds possible to you? yes. well, this i think that the main business model and it makes sense is to replace this repetitive, boring tasks. and we see this. so, of course, digit is being tested pilot at amazon. we know other companies, agility robotics. it's this agility excuse me. then we have apollo adaptronic mercedes is doing a, a test run with them. so it's a lot of jobs that when automation came in 1920s with ford factories that was happening with robotics right now, it's cool stuff. and i and i so enjoy watching those robots paint. well, and jessica pilot, thank you so much for joining us. and press here.

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handsome. oh, you have your way. the car accident burger wins. i'm not sure i can afford a lawyer. burke wins. what if the insurance company offers this? but my medical bills are. this burg wins. i need somebody to deal with the insurance company. burg wins. i'm william burg. when the insurance company tries to pay you less, we fight to win you more. and with our no fee guarantee, if you don't win, you pay nothing. my wife and i called my cousin called. my mom called. all right, i'm ready to call. are you? call one 800 400. burg. welcome back. press here. i am sure you are aware by now that california requires fast food restaurants, or at least most fast food restaurants in the state, to provide a $20 an hour wage. it's an unusual law. it applies to just one industry. and if you've heard the objections from that industry, it's that it's too much. it'll drive up prices and it will force stores to close. but

kareem nasser says higher wages can be helpful to the industry. he's acquired more than 100 fast food restaurants popeyes, burger king, denny's and wendy's, among them kareem. right off the top, i do want to point out you are definitely an expert in fast food. you do not currently have any stores in california, is that correct? i do not okay. very good. so before we talk about the benefits of higher wages, do you agree with the idea that there should be a different wage for each industry, or at least for fast food? it strikes me as unusual. i don't agree with it. i think it's a little awkward and, drives away, costs up in the industry that shouldn't be up on the fast food industry. so now as we talk about, the fast food industry, i should point out our minimum wage in general, for that matter, oftentimes when we talk about minimum wage on television, what we don't point out is a lot of people don't make minimum wage. they make a

lot more than that. so the walmarts of this world and whatnot, at least in california, have been paying more than minimum wage. and i would imagine that's true of some restaurants as well. correct? that's absolutely correct. what are you paying only minimum wage in your restaurants or do you pay more? we pay a little more to stay competitive and get the great people that we want in the restaurant. so you pay a little more, you get the best. best, the best team members you can hire. i read a cal study now before the, you know, the $20 an hour, california law. but that higher wages discourage turnover and turnover is one of the big costs for business, i would imagine that's true for you. can you expand on that? absolutely. it's true, you know, the turnover is the biggest part of controlling the minimum wage increase. so keeping your team for multiple years versus 4 or 5 weeks is a big game changer for you. it actually drives the cost down. a minimum wage helps you recoup some of those costs. you've got, what, more than 100 restaurants, i would imagine you've got a new employee at

least every week. if not more. every day, every day, every day. yeah every day. that person is a huge cost. and of course, it's a slowdown as well. that person is not going to know the grill or the cash, the cash station. absolutely and it costs, you know, upwards of 60 hours to train someone one position. so it's critical that you keep those people for a long period of time. and that scheduling i'm guessing, is also a big one, because you don't want to have too many people making in california $20 an hour, you know, over scheduling in the wrong place. talk to me about how you schedule people. exactly. we cross train our people, so we have multiple people that can do multiple positions. so we put our aces in their places. so we put the best people on our lines, the best people on the cashier, and we teach everybody to cross, cross train so they can go into a different position and help. and that actually brings our cost down to having less people in the restaurant. and then you have to be more careful about who you hire, right? i mean, if you're paying $20 an hour, then you don't want the slackers absolutely very picky on who you hire. you do multiple interviews. so apparently we do

two interviews before we hire someone. it's with the assistant manager and then the store manager actually does the final interview before we hire anybody in the restaurant. we do. we do reference calls, things of that nature. why do we not know as just regular folks who come in to a quick serve restaurant, as you call them, as fast food as we call them, what do we not know about the industry that that you think we should the amount of training that goes into it, the amount of training that goes into training someone to actually make the, you know, make the product on the line or on the girls, it takes a long period of time to get someone proficient in not doing a great job, you know, following brown's standards and giving the great product to every guest. what, what other things are you doing to save money in the system? well, let me ask you this. have you raised prices recently? and a reminder to a viewer who's just joining us, you don't have locations in california, but you do in places that are dealing with inflation, correct? we've taken pricing over the years, very cautious taking nowadays, given the fact that our prices are already kind of high and we take price pricing to a high point. customers don't come in as often. they actually go to a different concept, different

restaurants. so they take what's a fast casual restaurant because our prices sometimes compete with them. yeah, that's interesting that the quick, the, the fast food and a place like chili's have almost the same prices on a hamburger. exactly. and that's the big concern. i'm not taking pricing. so it's a great, great fact to just make sure you train your people, keep them happy and don't have that turnover actually brings the cost down. you kind of recoup some of those minimum wage increase by not churning, you know, 150% of your crew a year. anything else you're doing to keep costs down? just, we monitor food costs, you know, we monitor food costs, labor. we schedule properly. you know, we don't over schedule. we don't under schedule, but also we keep our employees happy, make sure they schedule the shifts they want to work so they don't call in and they're able to come to work every day. they're scheduled to work, and they're happier that way. when they get the days off, they want and they can take care of their families, you know, on their days off. we respect their time off. we respect their days off. do they request i think that goes a long way for our for our team members. bottom line is, happy. well paid employees keep costs lower. correct. if you take care of them properly. absolutely.

all right, well, let me ask you. ask you one last question. it's kind of a silly one. i mentioned off the top. you own, popeyes, burger king, denny's and wendy's. which one do you like best? which one do you spend? find yourself going to lunch at most, popeyes. i like popeyes. i love the cajun spices. i love the food over there. you love that chicken at popeyes? i do, i do. that's what i appreciate you joining us this morning, kareem. thanks ever so much. kareem is the, chief executive officer at qsr, which owns more than 100 fast food restaurants. thanks for being with us. back in the minute. yo, you think dallas is power for gonna drop 30 tomorrow? his mom made a post about going to the game. what? he's been averaging like 34 points a game when she's there, pick more, pick less. it's that easy. cash in on your sports fandom with prize picks. don't tell me direct from broadway. funny girl is musical comedy heaven, featuring celebrated songs like don't rain on my parade and people, this

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your goal, choose the dedicated team of minorities to your faithful injury attorneys. for the last several minutes, we've seen these flares streaking all across the skies over jerusalem. and now, for the first time, we're hearing the air raid sirens. that's nbc's richard engel in israel during the iranian strike of 13th april. welcome back to press here. my next guest was in israel at the time. he's often in israel. miami based venture capitalist david blumberg manages blumberg capital. much of this latest fund is invested in israeli high tech. he's an early investor in israel's most successful company, checkpoint software, as well as american company company nutanix. david, good morning. you met with entrepreneurs. you said it was your 70th tour or visit to israel. you met with entrepreneurs and leaders and military during your most recent

visit. can you give me an idea of just sort of the overall mood over there? thank you very much. it's a pleasure to be with you. yes, i've been to israel many times. i've lost count. it's well over 70 visits. this was one of the most interesting, and i have to say, most inspiring. we went with our family for the first week and then i stayed for a week of business with the family. i wanted them to be able to bear witness to the atrocities that happened on october 7th, and then also to see the resilience of the people and to support the soldiers and so on. so we visited about a dozen frontline units, drone units, k-9 units, paratroopers, commandos, hostage rescue teams, you name it. and we got a very up close and personal impression of the both the valiant efforts and courageousness of their citizen army. remember, it's a citizens army. it's not like ours. volunteer. it's everyone is drafted there and there are people from all walks of life and all religions, which is very interesting. there are muslim soldiers, there are christian

soldiers, there are jewish soldiers. of course, it is resilient. it, on the battle front, they are innovating as we speak, trying to avoid harming civilians and trying to yet defeat the terrorist enemy of hamas and iran. now, on the business side, just give a moment. the, business community continues to work, to invest and to do their very best to be good suppliers to their customers abroad, we continue to invest. and so, again, it's this combination of resilience and determination, i think, that characterized the most, of this visit. david, you mentioned going to the front lines. that's not a normal, tour of israel, i mean, it's is it just you've got serious pole that you are visiting frontline units on your trip to israel. yes, yeah. they in israel, the word for it is protection, which it means you get sort of special access, we'd also donated our son had a bar mitzvah, and instead of just having a big party, we thought, let's do it for something more

serious. so we gave money and raised money for a counter-terrorist organization called yamam, which is like our navy seals, but their specialty is anti-terrorism and they're they're in need of equipment. and they were in need of training and support and the widows who of the fallen soldiers need now, support for them and their, their kids. so it was a mission of solidarity. and we saw how hard they train, how seriously they take their jobs. and again, the life saving they work that they do to rescue hostages. so we were right on the gaza border. we were in fatigues and in humvees, driving right along the fence, we could see into gaza. we saw we heard artillery shots, back and forth between, you know, them shooting and us shooting back. and, our kids were very impressed with the with the seriousness of this effort. and we wanted to show them that life is not all silicon valley in miami. right? easy living. there are places

where it's very tough to sustain liberty, and democracy on both sides. yeah i let's talking about business, i think there are some people don't realize that that israel really is a high tech hub, particularly a cyber security hub. i was talking with shlomo kramer the other day. somebody called him the godfather of cybersecurity in israel. and he said part of the reason going back to the army was that so many cybersecurity company employees are coming out of 8200 unit, 8200 of the idf, this is their cyber intelligence division, it is a hotbed of cyber defense and cybersecurity in israel. yes israel leads the world per capita in investment in the cybersecurity industry. the cyber world is connecting with what we call the internet of things. so it's when it networks and computers now connect with physical machines, for example, you'd familiar in a hospital, but the cat scanners and the blood pumps and so on. all of

that is connected through the internet and through wi-fi. so all these signals can be, blocked, or they can be. and so the protection goes between it and now iot. so those are all new areas for investment. and there are areas of concern for national health organizations, military and just general public to be aware, david, you're heavily invested in in israeli companies, because you know, the landscape, not because necessarily they're israeli per se. you told you told a financial reporter, quote, too many jewish investors come to israel, leave their heart or their head rather at passport control, and leave with their hearts. i do the exact opposite. i leave my heart at passport control and i follow my head. in other words, you're making the investments because they're good investments. you're saying yes, and that's really the only way to be a serious long term investor. one can be lucky by leading with an intuition or an emotion, but really logically, you have to work with facts. you

have to work with competitive analysis that has to be global. so blumberg capital is situated such that we have offices in san francisco, new york, miami and tel aviv. we invest in north america, israel and europe principally. and what we find is we're able to compare a startup that might start in israel with one that might start in the us or europe, and then pick the best one to invest in. we don't have to invest in israel or europe or the us. we can choose for the best interests of our investor base to try and find the winning technology. and then finally, i realized that neither you nor i are going to have an outcome on the influence on this war. but or the peace. let's hope there's peace. do you feel optimistic? i do, i listen to a very interesting podcast just this morning, in time for this by victor davis hanson, who's at the hoover institution. he's a friend of mine from fresno where i grew up. and he said something very interesting. remember, i slept through the attack from

iran on saturday night. why did i sleep through it? well, there were no sirens in tel aviv. the sirens were in jerusalem, which is to the east, and they were in jordan, and they were in iraq, which is further to the east. so iran launched those things. they had to come toward the west, and they went through several other countries and there were airplanes to intercept them. and the iron dome and a number of technologies that were deployed by the us by germany, germany, excuse me, the us, uk, france, israel, jordan, saudi arabia and the uae all helped in this. and maybe there were others. so it was a combined allied effort. so that was a first. never in history have so many cruise missiles and so on been launched at the same time. and the allies did a brilliant job of knocking them all almost all down. so iran was defeated in that technological salvo. also, israel did a response where they hit very sophisticated, very important. defense establishment, anti radar stations at a at a base in iran

that protects their nuclear, areas. and so israel was able to pinpoint and get through their defenses, which are russian. so israel won this war with the allies. and i think it's a very strong sign militarily to be optimistic. then i'm going to give one more example, and that's intel invested a few months ago or announced an investment of $25 billion in a new fab plant in israel, and israel. and intel is no, you know, weak sister. it is a very strong, determined, tough company that does things for business reasons. they don't invest with their heart, they invest with their brain. and their brain told them that they can have a fab that needs to run 24/7, 365, even in a place like israel. so i am optimistic. i think very smart people are making these decisions to continue to invest, and i think israel is proving it is resilient and has the stuff of the 21st century for the i future that we're all building. david blumberg, i appreciate

your time and your insight this morning. david blumberg is the head of blumberg capital, and thank you for being with us this morning. and press here. we'll be back in just a minute. moving the bay area forward. that's why we investigate. it's about helping people. se trata de ayudar a la gente. digging deeper to expose the truth. it's about challenging power, making sure your voice is heard and finding solutions. because progress means a better future for everyone. nbc bay area's investigator unit. moving the bay area forward. weeknight at six and 11 and on all our digital platforms. hi, this is daniel john baez. bay area houses. got a home that's eating up your time and cash. thinking about moving all your renters stuff to manage. inherited a home and not sure what to do with it. john buys bay area houses. offers the fastest way to sell your home as is, with no fees, no commissions and no

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you are the godfather of israeli cybersecurity? i heard this term being used before, but i think there are many godfathers to this success. i've done well, you know, and i lived an interesting life. so, that's a benefit. our podcast, sand hill road, available anywhere you find podcasts. that's our show for this week. my thanks to my guests, and thank you for making us a part of your sunday morning. celebrate her with emeralds, the mother's day stone, the jewelry exchange has diamond and emerald pendants for 79 rings and earrings to 49 or diamonds, one carat three stone rings and studs, 599 two carat 1490 by factory direct, the jewelry exchange, redwood city. thinking i should bring back my 100% all white meat popcorn chicken combos for 6.99. you're in luck! i did if you weren't

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