AI & Yoga — Tools, Truth, and What Can’t Be Replaced with Byron and Michael

0:00 All right, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. So this is Michael Henry on the mic and we have Byron in the house. Or should I say Satya Rishi is back. A few people actually kept calling me that. Were they? Yeah, I should probably just. I'm back to Byron.

0:17 This is Byron again, Byron. OK. So welcome back, Byron. Thanks, Byroni. Or you know, the Byronian Nation or B or yeah, B Ron. Yeah, any of those are good. Cool. I'm into it. Before we hit record, we're talking about what we're going to talk about today.

0:33 Conversation was leaning towards AI, artificial intelligence, which is very relevant to now, and yoga, which is relevant to now and a long time ago, and the evolution of those and what it means. What kind of conversations can we talk about with that? So yeah, there's a lot of things to think about. We did try to use AI to help us with some conversation topics and it wasn't really very helpful. So that's a good way to start.

1:00 You know, it doesn't really quite have the same heart or vision of, you know, let's say some yogi's that want to kind of deep dive into a meaningful conversation about that particular topic. But one of the questions that it did ask, which I thought was actually helpful, was when you hear AI or artificial intelligence, like what do you feel in your body? So I'm asking you, Byron, but I'm also asking listeners, like when you hear AI or you think of

1:27 AI, how does that feel in your body? Does it cause freedom? Does it cause constriction? Does it, you know, what's kind of going on there? So I thought that was an interesting question because that's actually a great place to start.

1:39 Like if we're going to talk about the conversation of yoga and AI, it's like, why not talk about this outer concept, AI and the inner yoga feeling of that connection, if at all? Hey, man, like I just showed up at your door and was like, let's do a podcast. And then you're like, OK, what should we talk about? Basically.

2:00 And, you know, I just think the social dynamics can be an interesting thing to kind of look at it like, what, what, what's it going to look like in the future for yoga? Is there still a place for yoga teachers to have a job?

2:14 Will that be a thriving business? And, you know, and just going into the fun, the funness of all that. But now that you took it this direction, I'm kind of like, yeah, there's so much more. And I had the answer to that question for me is pretty easy.

2:29 It's just there's fear immediately and that fear causes some maybe I wouldn't, you called it a constriction, but that contraction or whatever you might call that is I'm also excited by it. So maybe that's an individual perspective, you know, like I get excited by fear sometimes, you know, So I immediately am like, oh, that's a little fear.

2:53 That's interesting. Let's see how we can, can we transmute that? Is that a real fear? Is that an illusion fear? So that's what happened though. And I can only imagine the story that I'm creating as I have that fear is, Oh my gosh, is am I going to get replaced?

3:11 Right. Is my job in jeopardy? Is are those futuristic dystopian movies accurate? And now, like, I don't not I don't do anything. I'm useless in society, right? It's probably deeply rooted in some other, you know, a karmic link of abandonment and belonging. But anyways.

3:31 Possibly, but I imagine a lot of other people. Probably. Feel and I think, I think we all have that, yeah, somewhere. They're probably at one point. I'm sure everyone evaluated like, will AI take my job or will I need to either use AI or surrender to it or whatever it is, you know, and if you scan through professions, like I'm sure it varies from time to, from from profession to profession, but you know, more techie related stuff, I'm sure there's probably more fear there than there is for, you know,

3:57 maybe in person stuff. But nonetheless, I think there's a valid question of like, how will that affect me moving forward, especially yoga teachers, since this is a basically a podcast speaking to yoga teachers or these people that are interested in yoga at the very least, Yeah.

4:12 Yeah, yeah, it's an exciting topic. I think about the exciting perspective as well. I'm like, wow, well, you know, like theming a yoga class or what about the sequencing? I mean, I've dallied with it and seen what it's capable of with a yoga class and it is very helpful. I could see a new yoga teacher, however, getting on there and trusting it too much and not knowing how to embody what they're actually talking about.

4:43 And then you guys start to get into that again, an individual way of looking at things and like are is that is it good or bad? And like, what are you doing with that? But yeah, I think ultimately you want to be able to embody what you're speaking.

4:59 It'll touch more people. It will heal you more and essentially create an opportunity for growth, you know, more potent growth for everyone. But is reading a quote like that's not your quote. If you haven't about it, it still could affect somebody positively. So is it bad in that level?

5:18 And you create a sequence that's, let's say it's for back bends and a heart opening. And you make a theme around heart opening that day. And now you have things to talk about. It gives you structure well, and then you start thinking about, well, Google is a form of, you know, how far back do we want to go?

5:35 Like that's technology, yeah. Google. Well, AI uses Google. That's basically how it works. I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me because I use Google. Right now I'm using more ChatGPT, but I kind of go back and forth and I'm sure one day I'll use whatever the next thing is, Unless I just completely, you know, renounce my belongings and technology in society all together and go live in a bus in Alaska.

5:58 Then I could see myself and I was just jumping on the next evolved technology. I tip. I tend to go in reverse and think about all the way back to like the technology of gratitude or prayer and be like, OK, everything. The wheel is the technology and in some ways ChatGPT to me is an evolution of the wheel.

6:22 I do that maybe to so that maybe to give me an excuse to interact with it more. Right. Or, you know, on a deeper level, and I think a more true level, I do that because I don't want to vilify something that has so much potential for beauty and connection and refined excellence or refined, you know, I guess mastery, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's, it's a technology like we've never seen ever, at least in my lifetime, I'm sure nothing before me. I would be very surprised unless

6:56 there was some sort of. Thing that happened. Yeah, thing that happened, but yeah, I mean, I think about AI and I think it, you know, it's changing all the time from year to day to week to month. Like it's all the time. There's something it's like it's getting better and then it's like not as good. And then it's like, then there's this cool shit that's happened and this is how there's questionable stuff and you're just like, it's very messy right now. But to kind of strip it all down

7:18 to me, I just, I, the more that I've been using it over the years, I'm starting to realize like you really need to use it as a tool and not as a replacement for anything. And that's what I think a lot of people, I don't want, I don't want to speak for a lot of people, but I feel like people use it as a replacement for certain things to lighten the load of worker responsibilities or tasks and things like that, which is great. I mean, that's definitely what

7:44 it can be used for really well. But I think there has been a certain amount of trust and reliability into it that, you know, if you don't know enough about what you're asking it to say, you're just going to take what it says as full truth.

7:57 And then, you know, you're, you're in hot water. Because if you use that and let's say in a way that the truth will be revealed, you know, and you didn't kind of not read it over, but at least understand then, then let's say poor use of it. And I've seen a lot of elements of that and I guilty of it. You know, there's been times where I just was like, I just read the first little bit and I was like, yeah, this is pretty good.

8:20 And I just, I'll just work with that. And then, you know, when it actually comes down to using it, I'm like, oh, fuck, this isn't actually as good as I thought it was. So yeah. And more, more and more now I kind of like what you said of like, if there's like a newer teacher that's like, oh, I'm going to use AI to create my sequences for me and to theme stuff like that. And they put something in, but you don't actually know much about sequencing and you don't

8:40 know much about theming. You're not going to be able to call out or figure out that it made a huge mistake and that's actually dangerous for the body with sequencing or that's actually confusing and complicated for a theme or whatever it is. So there's definitely needs to be a certain amount of. I think understanding of just topics in general when you're using AII mean you can definitely use it to learn stuff, but there's a certain amount of. I'd say.

9:04 Gaps in it that I don't know if people are aware or they're just blindly copying pasting everything that ChatGPT says and like well ChatGPT says this so it must be true. I hear that all the time in conversations and I'm like sure enough, you know, it does have a lot of truth into it, but it makes a lot of freaking mistakes.

9:20 And I use it all the time for coding and stuff like that. But anyway, I just thought I'd bring that to the forefront that, you know, if anybody is actually using it, just, you know, do yourself a favour and make sure you review and like actually read it. Don't just take it as full truth because there's a lot of, it's just, again, it's just using Google index. It's just more information that's being kind of like amalgamated into your response that you're getting or whatever. Yeah, amalgamated.

9:44 Yeah, same word goes coming to my mind. Just kidding. But yeah, I hear you. And thinking about like thinking about your experience in 50 years. You're going to a yoga studio in 50 years and you walk into a yoga studio and you're met by like a robot that checked you in.

10:03 Maybe you're at home doing yoga, like with people at that point, who knows? Like you're just, you know, in a video game, there's movies about that. But let's say you actually get to the studio and then you're checked in by a robot. You walk in, you have your your place and you know, there's thirty other people that also have their place and they know you by name.

10:25 They remember everything about you. Any detail that that that you let be known. They know your physical alignment. Maybe technology even scans your body for injuries and understands the you know to some level that you have to avoid certain movements and warns you about that.

10:43 And it has perfect rhythm because it's a computer and it knows how to create space between its words, you know, And you start to have this experience that's like, wow, like this is a like, perfect yoga class in some ways.

10:59 Like, I wish my yoga teacher could do that. Like, gosh, so many teachers out there. And I'm just like, oh, I'm going to avoid that. And then I'm like, OK, finally that person. I can trust that person. But if you can trust this experience, then why is it not a better product?

11:16 But then there is the element of presence, an awareness that a human being has in connection. It can be built from that human interaction, not just connection, but the awareness to stay present to the other individuals in the room, the actual witnessing element, witnessing like real transformation. There is something authentic there that's missing on an energetic level, you might say, without being able to know the science behind when a cell becomes seen. I'd be, you know, I've seen

11:51 certain, like deep spiritual science things about water molecules that. Yeah. When it's being witnessed, that's like quantum physics, like when something's being watched, it changes the way it responds. So that's One Direction to take this conversation, which is kind of fun, but just for the skeptics out there. And like, they won't buy into that. You're still just like, what if someone actually needs human assistance and needs like human touch, for example, touch is like missing big time, can't get

12:19 the touch yet. And if you can, you'd have they don't have like a real beating heart behind that touch. Yeah. So the. Electromagnetic field would never be the same I would say. I mean, I should say never be never, but as a human?

12:32 Yeah, and the accountability element, you know, some people can do yoga to pre recorded videos at home. So there's surely a market for it. But there's no accountability. Like I'm just fucking late. There's fucking robots everywhere right now.

12:45 Like nobody's watching me. This is sad. I just quit in the middle of class. Sometimes you need that little extra person around you to like be OK. I'm going to do this. They they're doing it. I'm doing it. I'm going to channel that anyways.

12:58 I just went on a spree. Yeah, it was. Good though I was, I was hoping you were going to go to that like level of like authenticity or just real human components that can't be replaced by science and math basically, which is basically what AI is. It's just like algorithms and formulas and structure. So yeah, I'm I.

13:22 Are you a robot? I'm not. I mean, I'm sure I have robot elements that I function with my subconscious and I just follow patterns and programs. But I think, yeah, I, I mean, personally, you didn't really ask me, but I'll just say it. I'd love to ask you, OK.

13:38 I was just thinking about like yoga teaching and AI and. What am I asking you though? I don't know, Just like what I think. Oh. What do you think about all this AI stuff? Thanks. Do you feel a sensation in your body for example? Oh yeah, we can go back there.

13:53 You actually kind of is. I'd say very similar. It's not. I wouldn't say fear. I'd more say like I was excited and I've used it a lot over the years and probably a little bit more than you, at least initially that I had initially had this fear and then was also excited. And then it's kind of transformed into now when I hear it, I'm just kind of like, I don't want to say disappointed, but I kind of want to say disappointed. Like I'm just like I figured it

14:22 would, it would have blown up bigger than now Like and like, you know, there's a lot of cool shit out there, don't get me wrong. And I don't follow everything and I see some of the. Stuff, but big expectations. I just, I don't know the way that people talk about it like it's and it's evolving and like I've seen the evolutions of it, but I'm also just like, I see that it makes a lot of freaking mistakes and there's just a lot of, you know, like you just

14:42 can't rely on it in that same way. And, and then I start to think about the critical thinking component of the human brain, which is like problem solving and all that stuff. And if people are relying on it as the truth for problems, then you will lose that muscle in your brain that allows you to do that, which is the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is part of the brain that has evolved over other animals more than like as humans. It's evolved more than any other

15:15 animal, which is allows us to fucking be on this podcast talking into this electrical thing that's, you know, broadcasting to people to listen into their ear, right? Other animals haven't really developed to that extent that prefrontal cortex, which is decision making and all that stuff, problem solving. So if AI is taking over part of that part of your brain's responsibility, you will lose it. Just like if you don't use your muscles, you kind of lose that strength.

15:43 So to me, I I worry about that. For people. Which is why I mentioned that, you know, just be cautious of how to use it and don't rely on it. It's kind of like using calculators and shit, you know, to figure out like math equations like if.

15:57 Yeah, well, you're definitely further along in your like I'm just like, hey Chachi BT what should I eat today? You know, I mean, and you're over there just like plugging in all kinds of I use stuff. I test it like crazy.

16:12 I test it with recipes, I test it with like, you know, coding. I test it with problems, I test it with sequencing for yoga, I test it with queuing, I test it with anatomy, I test it with bio mechanics, like tons of shit. And like, you know, sometimes it's like, oh, that's pretty good and like that would help me think of an idea. And other times I'm just like, what are you doing? Like this is terrible and bad, You know what I mean? Well, I just want to mention,

16:36 well the advancements is one thing like you know, what I hear from you is that it's not improving quite, quite at the rate you expected or hoped, but I would also. I think. I think my fear was more related to that. I was like, I was worried that like my fear was like, it's gonna advance so quick that who fucking knows? It's gonna be like a John.

16:52 Connor, but it seems to be slower. It seems slow. So now I'm kind of disappointed that it's not happening. But I'm also kind of like, yeah, that makes sense. Like it's not, you know, why would it turn into the Terminator?

17:02 You know, it's probably not likely, but it could. But it also could. You never know. We're early in the stages here for sure and considering like on a 24 hour day clock at 365 day calendar year based off of the, you know, sciences belief in the beginning of the the whole organizational structure of the universe is that we're at like the last, you know, like humans came along in the last 30 seconds of December 31st on that if if, if you could condense

17:33 everything into one year on a calendar. There's a movie that talks. Right. No. Interesting. Yeah. And it's like we just came along and 11, fifty, 5:59 PM with 30 seconds left, time for the countdown kiss. You know, like that's where we're at, right? So the ChatGPT is just so fresh in this thing. I think about Harry Mack and I think about with technology like it is right now, how does not everyone in the world not know about this man?

17:59 And finally he is getting there. You know, he is getting to a level the tipping point. There's a book like Malcolm Gladwell, way before Outliers, the first one I believe, and I read it and there's one of the first books of his I read, I think the first one, and it's super great.

18:13 And it talks about how information travels around and how does something become so popular? How does an epidemic become an epidemic? Harry Mack is becoming an epidemic. How does everybody just call Kleenex Kleenex and not tissue?

18:28 You know, like that's the that's the thing. So I find that pretty fascinating. So for for Chad GBTI mean you got to think there are enough. There are still people on the planet who just don't can't afford the time or the energy to mess with it.

18:43 Or the indigenous cultures may not even subscribe to technology. They're not even with any social media yet. So why would they possibly get involved with Chad GBT? So is but, but pretty quickly it's reaching the nooks and crannies in the corners and it's infiltrating the planet. It's scary in that way because as we become more and more dependent on like a device, you know, it's like, it's hard to imagine right now even like take my device away. What would life be like?

19:11 Like it's kind of exciting and fun to think about, but it's also scary. Like could that do not do that, do not take my device away. But it's human nature. And from a yoga perspective, the non attachment element comes in and you know how we are conditioned to be, you know, so lean towards the comfortable thing.

19:31 Anything that creates discord from comfort is kind of we push back with resistance. And if you have a practice that allows you to observe that resistance, you call it out in the moment, you're like a little resistance right there.

19:41 Let's let's go see what that's all about. See if I can turn that into something or just watch it, you know? Anyway, so Harry McAfee, don't know who he is. Listeners, he's a freestyle rapper that we love and a lot of people love.

19:56 And go check him out. He's awesome. Yeah, he's he's all about good vibes. He's just trying to spread positive stuff. That's why he does it. He doesn't really do it with this energy of wanting to, you know, be famous or make a lot of money. It's just kind of like he just wants to make people. Smile and he's and he's a master of his craft, beyond masters like he is sitting alone at the top of the throne with freestyle rapping.

20:17 And he does it in a way that makes you question what's possible for the human being. Like the mind. Yeah, yeah. Or just. No, it's not. I mean, it's beyond mind, I'd say. Yeah, it's. Pure channeling super. Channeling with a filter of positivity and love that never really steers you any other direction. Right.

20:36 And he didn't, you know, develop that craft since AI, he's been developing it for years and decade over and. That brings up one last thing I'd like to mention just before I think, you know, we exhaust the topic and it's that, you know, mastery like I, even though I had that fear when you started this, this podcast of like contraction and either some kind of fear there. I'm aware of deep down, I really feel confident about what I do and I feel like I I'm

21:05 irreplaceable in some ways. And then maybe that's some ego, but then maybe there's some truth there as well. And I see the same thing with Harry Mack. Harry Mack's not concerned with Chad GBT, you know, he's a human being in flesh doing spitting at that level that nobody is doing.

21:25 So I think ultimately, if you really want to overcome fears of ChatGPT, do whatever you do and do it really well. Exactly. Yeah. And do it authentically you. Because just like all of the humans that exist in this world, there's no one like you and no one can do the same thing, same task.

21:43 Unless it's like or different, some of the jobs are kind of like that. But yeah. Yeah, I guess if they're mundane to some degree, but you know, thinking of yoga teaching style and you know, all that delivery and, you know, whether it's the same sequence, the different sequence, same playlist, different, you know, at the end of the day. And I'm, I'm trying to channel, not channel, but like, imagine someone like Sadhguru or Vijeth, like how would they respond to this like AI yoga conversation?

22:07 They'd probably just wave off AI being like. Vijeth uses a lot of AI. I'm sure he does use it. Yeah, he is. I mean, rightfully so. I think most people do, but more so just like the effect of on how it affect like, you know, society, which is kind of one of the conversations from our perspective as like yoga, people who are like we're trying to help the world just stay connected and build community and, you know, allow themselves to see themselves and, you know, remember certain truths or find

22:35 certain truths, if that's what it feels like versus like, you know, progression of AI to, you know, make money or status or whatever the hell it is, solve problems for job, which is already related to that same stuff. But I don't think AI is, you know, going to be able to be great at like finding love and making connection.

22:54 You know, maybe it'll helpful, be helpful with like understanding more about how women work or how men work or what are some. Opportunities or something? Yeah, there might be some some definitely some things that can help with that. But at the end of the day, connection is connection. I'm not talking about an electrical in the output input connection.

23:11 I'm talking about human connection. And I think that electromagnetic experience is I don't think it's replaceable by by AI. So as long as you're being you connecting, being, you know, trying to make people smile, trying to help, being of service to the world, using AI as a tool, like, you know, you should be fine.

23:33 Maybe the job might shift in some ways if it's we're not talking about yoga, but I mean, times are changing and shifting all the time, you know, if I can, what was it, 4030, thirty years ago, like, and the Internet came out, Yeah, exactly like 29 years ago or something. Like at at 11:59 PM with like one second left. Like before that, like, you know, just, I mean, like, you know, whoever's listening to this, they might be like 19 and be like, oh, yeah.

24:00 Like I don't really know what that was like, but I remember like they had the big ass TV tubes and like all that stuff and cassette players, like, you know, and that was only 30-40 years ago. Like it's crazy. We even talked about it. We were like, that's, that's not going to be around forever. There's going to be other things. Yeah, we kind of knew that, yeah. We kind of knew that.

24:16 But yeah, man, it's just, it's just kind of wild. Let your imagination go with it and it's impressive. You know, at the end of the day, it's impressive. It's useful. I think Sadhguru, yeah, I think he would, he would probably say happiness or something is there's simplicity, you know, involved as well.

24:40 So, you know, to overuse anything to, to put too much trust in something that's not even human would be, you know, it would create some sort of, you know, unhappiness, I guess. The word right, I'm sure it would be almost like a not a sidestepping of the question, but I just imagine them saying like, oh, you're asking the wrong question, You know, it's like. You using the?

25:05 Yeah. It's like, no, no, no. What is what is most important? What do you, what do you really want? Do you really want? Is you want. Love, you happened. So a man walked into the wilderness in the woods and he saw two people. One they'd use technology for whole life, other one never use. Man, my accent got bad.

25:29 I want to know where the story's going, though. Yeah, you got me hooked. Yeah, I mean, I could keep going, but then I would just embarrassed I'd have to slip into my accent and then he loses the. Yeah. This is the transmission.

25:41 I mean, just I'll continue the story of what I think happens is that, you know, the person that uses AI and the person that doesn't use AI, like they'll be living completely different life. But at the end of the day, it's still life. And like, you know, what's the quality of life for one person to the next?

25:58 I don't know, depends on what you value more I guess. It's wise, right? That's wise. It's like I'm sure, I'm sure the person that's living in the forest that has nothing to do with AI and it's just living life and enjoying it and you know, doing whatever they need to do to survive but also enjoy the little things probably feels fulfilled and maybe the AI person does as well or maybe they don't, I don't know. They realize, they realize that it's how you live your life that makes the difference, not what

26:21 you're doing. Yeah. So they're. I don't know that. Was a good channel. We started. We started something. Cool, should we tag them in it and see if they listen and then comment? Grew on this podcast. For reals though. That would be great. I mean, he was a new boot last year or two years ago. It's true.

26:38 Let's yeah, I was going to say let's put some energy into that. So I agree, if you're out there listening, we, we would, we'll let you, you know. You can talk. You talk about everything. Save the soil, you know. Save the soil, whatever you're hearing, advertise all those things. I listen to that stuff and it's great. Inter engineering.

26:54 He's got a book. Yeah, we've got a nice. Save the soil. Nice listening audience, lots of teachers, lots of people in Bali, lots of people in the US and Europe. Yeah, why not? Come on. Yeah. Share this with him if you're listening.

27:07 Tag a minute. Cool. So anything else? No, just recap the ChatGPT Yoga Yeah future. Yeah. So I mean, I guess if you didn't do it, just see how the conversation or the word AI just feels for you. I mean, that's kind of how we started this whole thing and just kind of sit with that. It's always nice to just kind of feel how those things influence your body, influence your energy. And you know, that's kind of where you find a little bit more of that truth of what it means

27:39 for you because we're just two guys talking about it on the microphone. But like, you know, we don't really know any better than you might because for what's real for you is real for you. So I think tuning into that feeling is kind of nice individually.

27:50 And maybe you do have some thoughts and comments and you want to share them with us. We'd love to hear it as well. So you can also reach out to us on Instagram. That's kind of a great way to do it. It's all in about the intentions.

27:59 I'll leave it at that. Just the intentions are aligned then it will be of great benefit for all that's. That's good. That's on culpa intention, energy focused direction, Groovy. All right, that's a wrap on this then. Peace. Much love.

28:18 We'll speak to you guys when we speak to you. Take care for now. Before you go, let me tell you about the Going proyoga.com platform. This is an online learning platform that is suited for anyone who's interested in learning about yoga.

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