Big Technology Podcast
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...
00:18:05 · Alex Kantrowitz
[00:18:05] S0: Yeah. Yeah. I I think it all it it all boils down to data centers effectively. Is will these will these companies have... Well, will these companies... Ultimately, they need public support to be able to build data centers and they need to build data centers to grow. I mean, we're living in the middle of a pretty big compute shortage. And there have been a few states that have been friendly for these companies to build their data centers in Virginia, Texas. And Texas actually had a pretty interesting result where the... I I would say mostly pro, although recently somewhat more lukewarm governor. Abbott has Yeah. Has lost. And now there's a Democrat that's gonna come in. And in fact, like, was speaking with somebody recently who's like... Who watches this very closely. And I said, how are feeling about the midterms? And this person said, up until recently, I was feeling fine until I saw the Texas polling numbers. And now it could be a real issue. So I'm curious to hear your perspective on on what could happen there.
00:19:09 · Teddy Schleifer
[00:19:09] S1: Yeah. I mean, Texas, think, you know, is like... I saw some stat that it was, 30% of, like, data center development is in Texas. Like, you know, this is this is a a state that has embraced it, and Abbott, you know, has embraced the issue. And he's a powerful, I think, three term governor now, that he's ending its third term. And, you know, that's an earthquake there. Right? I mean, you know, Gina Hinojosa has, like, really tried to use that as a as a millstone around Abbott and has been pretty successful or, you know, she won based in part on that. And, you know, that's why there was so much kind of tech spending and... Or one one reason why there was so much tech spending to try to save Greg Abbott. Mean, Elon Musk gave $5,000,000 to the Abbott campaign in September. And clearly, I mean, obviously, his companies are based in Texas, and there was an effort by the Musk operation to make sure this did not happen. And now it's a sea change in Texas politics. I mean, I started... My first job was in Houston, Texas covering the Wendy Davis campaign in 2014. And, you know, it took twelve years for that to finally pay off and, you know, still sort of feels unbelievable given the PTSD that I think lots of Texas Democrats and lots of Texas based reporters have had Right. About this ever actually happening. To see it actually happen, you know, it's it's cool to witness history.
00:20:36 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:20:36] S0: Darlene Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, she was one that was supported in a major way by this data center Super PAC. Industry super packet that you reported on. Yeah. I don't think she lost in particular because of her perspectives. I think she was asked in one debate, you know, foreign policy questions. She said, I don't really pay attention much to foreign policy or something along that line, but it does seem like she was one of the main candidates they were hoping to get elected, and that's not gonna happen for them [00:21:05] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's always a lot of reasons why people lose lose or or win. And I think one of the one of the challenges about kind of super PACs and political spending in general is, like, people... You know, if everyone who wins is a genius, everyone who loses is an idiot. And, like, the reality is, you know, this is a wave election, and and I don't really know if any of these kind of campaign interventions, like, really worked. You know, whether we could talk about Musk if you want, but I mean, everybody who spends in these races is trying to shift public opinion, and public opinion here was pretty baked, and it didn't quite succeed.