Big Technology Podcast
00:29:56 · Teddy Schleifer
[00:29:56] S1: Yeah. So the proposal was for a one time 5% tax on people in California who have over $1,000,000,000 in net worth. There was a pretty unprecedented campaign against it where over $330,000,000 was raised into a political nonprofit linked to Sergey Brin, the the Google founder. This was Sergey's most significant political activity by far ever, and it looks like they killed it. You know, at the time we're recording this, we know, The New York Times has not made a call in that this... In that race yet, but you'd rather be the side that's that's that's opposing the tax than the side that's supporting it. And the Musk op... Sorry. The BRIN operation had a massive advantage in paid advertising. I mean, you know, I... The the the pro tax side barely mounted any any campaign for it. And this kinda galvanized the tech industry. And, you know, I did a story with my colleague, Erin Griffith, about all the ways in which Sergei and Patrick Collison and John Doerr were, like, you know, getting their their buddies to to chip in on this thing, and it became a victory story for for the tech industry or appears so. So not only that, actually, there's also another tax proposition on the California ballot that would effectively ban this in the future, and that looks like it's gonna pass. So there is gonna be this kind of downside protection going forward too. And, you know, for all the trouble of of of achieving your impact with money in politics, this is the this is the counterexample where the billionaires look like they succeeded.
00:31:33 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:31:33] S0: The interesting thing, I think a lot of folks were like, if if the billionaire tax passes, I'm gonna move to Texas, and now Texas is blue. [00:31:42] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, now and now the tax now the tax says if the tax is... If the tax repeal Right. The tax loses, people can move back. Right? I mean Yep. Like like, I I... I've been joking with some people today on this. So... [00:32:01] S0: I can only wait for California's new slogan to be California open for business. [00:32:06] S1: Yeah. Come back. Escape. You know, there's a there's a blue state governor in Texas and a blue state governor in California, but at least California has banned wealth taxes, which I don't think Texas has done. [00:32:17] S0: That's correct. Very important. Any thoughts on actual legislation being passed? I mean, there's these bans that will probably happen locally. There was a story in transformer, what the blue tsunami means for AI policy. The likelihood of strong frontier AI legislation passing next year shot up. Democrats have signaled repeatedly that AI is a top priority. Some citing it in victory speeches with such large majorities. The need for them to compromise is much lower. I'll just say personally, I don't I don't see any coherent AI legislation outside of, like, we're banning something come out of the US government or the federal government at least.
00:32:17 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:32:17] S0: That's correct. Very important. Any thoughts on actual legislation being passed? I mean, there's these bans that will probably happen locally. There was a story in transformer, what the blue tsunami means for AI policy. The likelihood of strong frontier AI legislation passing next year shot up. Democrats have signaled repeatedly that AI is a top priority. Some citing it in victory speeches with such large majorities. The need for them to compromise is much lower. I'll just say personally, I don't I don't see any coherent AI legislation outside of, like, we're banning something come out of the US government or the federal government at least. [00:32:58] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's still gonna be a Republican in the White House. Right? So, like, you know, the way things passed, just as a refresher, you need both houses of Congress to sign... To pass something, and then the president has to sign it. And and and that seems unlikely to happen, but who knows? I mean, there's gonna be a deal making... There's gonna be some desire for deal making somewhere, maybe. So I don't know if AI is in the Venn diagram of of kinda what Republicans, Democrats can agree on, but that's certainly I think something to watch. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. [00:33:31] S0: Any any big picture thoughts about what happens from here?
00:33:31 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:33:31] S0: Any any big picture thoughts about what happens from here? [00:33:36] S1: None. No. I mean I mean I mean, this is like a a massive massive new story, obviously, and I think there's gonna be significant fallout in both parties. And try... And, you know, this was a highly newsworthy... In terms of the the in terms of the possible outcomes here. I mean, this is probably the newsiest possible outcome. So, you know, we're just getting started in figuring it out and coming to terms of what it all means. So I'm humble and humble and not knowing what happens next. [00:34:07] S0: Alright, folks. I'll I'll leave you all with one stat before we leave. Adam Kovacevic, who is a big tech friendly policy guy. I don't know if he was trying to make the point that it wasn't a big deal. Data centers weren't a big deal or he was. Just giving some context. He tweeted this poll, how important was AI in data centers to your vote, with NBC NewsLink. 23% said crucial. 77% said major factor, minor factor, nonfactor. I think the point is that most people didn't see it as a as a crucial election election issue, but 23% saying crucial is still... That's a lot of people to say that data centers are crucial. Okay. We'll leave it at that. I I know you've been working nonstop for, like, forty eight hours, and it's busy. And I appreciate you spending the time with us to help help us figure out what's going on. Thanks, Teddy. [00:34:58] S1: All good. You bet. [00:35:00] S0: Folks, if you wanna follow Teddy's writing, obviously, go to nytimes.com. What's your Twitter handle, Teddy?
00:35:00 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:35:00] S0: Folks, if you wanna follow Teddy's writing, obviously, go to nytimes.com. What's your Twitter handle, Teddy? [00:35:07] S1: At at Teddy Schleifer. [00:35:08] S0: At Teddy Schleifer. Easy. Okay. Thank you, Teddy. Thanks everybody for listening and watching. We'll see you next time on Big Technology Podcast.