Big Technology Podcast
00:10:09 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:10:09] S0: Okay. And as much as you can say, is the vibe around the people that you speak with, like, this is not gonna be a big deal or or, oh, goodness, we're in trouble. Like, what is their, basically, emotional state today? [00:10:20] S1: I think it's the latter. I think it'll be a big deal for the tech industry, and it'll be it'll be painful. [00:10:28] S0: And they realize that? [00:10:30] S1: I don't know. I don't know if they realize that yet, but the the the... I think there's there's... They're beginning to realize that. These things are... I think there's there's still... The the the election last time was very shocking in a way that people are not totally grappling with the results yet. Also, this is... I'm saying this is only two years. Like like, you know, a lot of these US senators were obviously just elected for six years. So, you know, there's gonna be a lot of Democrats who ran for the Senate on a agenda, at least when they ran on, like, taking on the billionaire class, taking on the AI industry, taking on data centers, and these people are gonna be in office for the next six years. So it is not as if these things will be easily reversed. So they have six years to grapple with it. And then in a lot of ways that shows kind of the generational impact of this election is that there's all these accidental senators or accidental congressmen who are gonna be here for... At least some of them will be here for a while, and and that's gonna reshape kind of the political political context of tech.
00:11:34 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:11:34] S0: Mhmm. You know, it is interesting because the tech leadership did embrace Trump and the Republican Party pretty intensely. Now there's nuance there. Right? It's like, of course, like David Sacks, the All In Podcast, and Jensen Huang have been, like, very big, you know, supporters of... Supporters of Trump. They've praised him. So, you know, Sax works in the administration. But to Democrats, that's also... You know, that there are... And and not everybody has been on that level. But I think what really matters is what it looks like to Democrats. And to Democrats, you know, they're gonna look back at those pictures of all the tech CEOs at the inauguration. They're gonna look at the vibe that they're getting from Silicon Valley. They're gonna look at the polling numbers for AI, which are miserable, right, in in the toilet. And I'm curious what you think... Whether you think that will embolden them to, you know, take more aggressive action or make this one of their bigger issues. [00:12:38] S1: Yeah. I I I think that's true. I mean, I mean, tell me what you think is gonna be... What do you... What what what... What's striking you with that question?
00:12:47 · Alex Kantrowitz
[00:12:47] S0: Well, I I I think so. I mean, I... It's one of... It's almost a perfect storm. Like, we're we're about... Just think about this. The elections swayed on, you know, depending on who you ask, swayed on a couple of things. I would say number one is cost of living. And and maybe one a is the war in Iran, which comes back to cost of living because of, you know, the... Because of the... What... Its impact on fuel prices and hence goods. And you have... So you have a nation upset about cost of living and ready to, like, legitimately vote out any party that they think is making it worse. On the other hand, you're... Or on... In column b, you're gonna see these AI IPOs come out. And we talked about it on the show on Friday. How many multimillionaires the Anthropic IPO is gonna is gonna mint? How many multimillionaires the OpenAI IPO is gonna mint? The fact that NVIDIA is a $5,000,000,000,000 company, etcetera, etcetera. It goes down the line. And so if you're if you're... It's interesting because regulating tech has never been a winning political issue. Like, think about Elizabeth Warren's campaign. She went big into regulating tech. You know how she placed, you know, as a nonfactor? That was one of her bigger issues. So the political calculation is not straightforward. But if you look around and you see what's going on in the country, somebody's gonna make that a big issue. And if they start to get traction, you know, you could see a pile on effect. That's my perspective here.
00:14:25 · Teddy Schleifer, Alex Kantrowitz
[00:14:25] S1: Yeah. I I I see that for sure. I mean, clearly, there's gonna be... These elections are are are in addition to being meaningful for policy for... Criteria. I mean, like, these politicians read these election results and act in ways that responds to them. Right? I mean, the twenty twenty eight campaign is is shaped by the twenty twenty six campaign, and 2024 was shaped by 2022, etcetera. And and if you're a Democratic politician right now, you're you're sort of observing what types of messages are getting through, what types of things are working. And Republicans as well. Right? I mean, I think, you know, JD Vance is, you know, put out a statement today that was laced with twenty twenty eight presidential campaign intrigue because it's like a response to what he sees the electorate is saying in 2026. And that sort of politics is is responding to elections and responding to what the perceived narrative or or mandate is that that arises out of those. [00:15:30] S0: Senator Ed Markey, Democrat, responded to a post on x live televised trials of big tech executive... Executives when. And he wrote, they are gonna need to plant new forests for all the subpoenas we'll be printing. Yeah. Is that bluster, or you think we could see a march of AI CEOs and big tech [00:15:50] S1: CEOs Sure. Sure. [00:15:51] S0: Turn down to Washington? [00:15:52] S1: Yeah. Def... Definitely. I don't think I don't think it's bluster. That's that's that's that's I mean, you know, some Republicans will probably join them in that. Right.
00:15:52 · Teddy Schleifer, Alex Kantrowitz
[00:15:52] S1: Yeah. Def... Definitely. I don't think I don't think it's bluster. That's that's that's that's I mean, you know, some Republicans will probably join them in that. Right. [00:16:01] S0: And so what do you think the the... Is it just like bully pulpit stuff where you sort of you talk down to Sam Altman from your high desk and it becomes viral on YouTube? Or is [00:16:12] S1: it That's what everyone else has done to date. Right? I mean Right. Yeah. Sure. Let's... I mean, run run back the the same aesthetic and logistics of the... Of all the the, you know, social media trials, so to speak, in in... Before Congress in the in the Trump term and the Biden term. I think there's gonna be a lot of scrutiny on on all these AI company CEOs. Yeah. [00:16:37] S0: Do you think those are actually effective? Like, I I look back and it's interesting because I was in the room for the Mark Zuckerberg hearing. Yeah. The famous one where he said, senator, we run ads. And, you know, you almost expected it to be this excruciating moment for Zuckerberg, but he handled it well enough. It almost shifted the public sentiment on Facebook to a degree, and nothing happened to the company. And, you know, the the the meme became, you know, Zuckerberg stands up to the bullies as opposed to Zuckerberg is the bad guy. So I I am curious, like, if you think these things are effective and what you think the impact could be on AI companies.
00:16:37 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:16:37] S0: Do you think those are actually effective? Like, I I look back and it's interesting because I was in the room for the Mark Zuckerberg hearing. Yeah. The famous one where he said, senator, we run ads. And, you know, you almost expected it to be this excruciating moment for Zuckerberg, but he handled it well enough. It almost shifted the public sentiment on Facebook to a degree, and nothing happened to the company. And, you know, the the the meme became, you know, Zuckerberg stands up to the bullies as opposed to Zuckerberg is the bad guy. So I I am curious, like, if you think these things are effective and what you think the impact could be on AI companies. [00:17:16] S1: I don't... I I mean, the the... They're effective and then they... That are, like, public spectacles. Right? And that's... You know, if if you're a Democratic politician who wants to kinda keep the spectacle, you know, make it make it as spectacular as possible, you know, these are easy targets. Right? I mean, Altman or Dario or, you know, Dennis or whomever, I mean, I think there's an element of their spectacles because the public is kind of on your side. So there's a flogging of them and clearly, I mean effective and what? In kind of making... You you can successfully flog them if you do these things. What is that what is that achieving? I guess is a kind of a question about what is it... Why are these people in Congress to begin with? Is just a kind of...