Kara Swisher on Zuckerberg's New AI Manifesto: "He's in Desperate Need of an Editor" | Pivot
1756 segments
What is the worst case scenario, Kevin?
>> Human extinction. That'd be pretty bad.
>> Oh, yes, that.
[music]
>> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York
Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
Network. I'm Carara Swisser and it is
still
got re August.
Yes, while Scott continues his
gallivanting, I have brought in some
excellent co-hosts. Kevin Ruse, New York
Times tech columnist and author of the
AGI Chronicles, and Casey Newton,
founder and editor uh platformer, and
they are also the soontobe not hosts of
the New York Times podcast Hard Fork, at
least for now. I You need to explain
what's happening, boys.
>> Kevin, tell them what's happening. Yeah.
So, Casey and I uh have come down with a
horrible disease that sometimes afflicts
uh middle-aged men in San Francisco,
which is that they decide to start a
company together. [laughter]
>> Aha. A startup, shall we say? Shall we
say?
>> So, Founderitis is real. Uh please
protect your families. Uh we are uh
leaving Hardfork uh in just a couple of
weeks and we are starting our own
independent podcast and media company
together, just the two of us.
>> So, what is the new brand? What is you
have a name?
>> We do. We're not going to tell it to you
uh yet because we haven't we haven't
hard launched it yet. Casey wanted to
call the new show the Gay Straight
Alliance, but I thought that might be
>> that might be taken by Pivot. [laughter]
>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
>> Yeah, that's our subname.
>> We'll have a name uh ready to go pretty
soon. We we think we've got a fun brand,
but more importantly, you know, a lot of
uh people would uh complain to us over
the years we were only coming out once a
week. There were a lot of stories that
we missed. So, the new show is going to
be coming out at least twice a week.
It's going to be YouTube first. If
you're watching, you know, Pivot on
YouTube, which I hope you are, you can
see these faces. You know, these are not
faces for radio. These are faces that
need to be on camera. And good news,
that's coming.
>> We've got a lot to get to, so we're
going to get started. Is that okay?
Let's test you two out. All right.
Ready? Let's do it.
>> All right. This is It was like tailor
made for us today. Mark Zuckerberg laid
out Meta's AI vision in another unedited
6,500word manifesto uh arguing that most
concerns are overblown and failed to
acknowledge all the positives it can
achieve. We we know about this Mark by
the way. Zuckerberg thinks government
should be more involved in model
releases suggesting a close proactive
collaboration between Frontier Labs and
the government. Meta is recommitting to
open source models resuming releases of
models with open weights. The company uh
also announced a $1 billion fund for
communities a little little they're
they're spreading it around around its
data centers. We'll talk more about data
centers in a bit. Uh manifesto reviews,
gentlemen. He loves a manifesto. I I
there's this is there's a lot of them
and he's been writing for uh I think it
was was it the Times or the Journal?
Which one did he put it in? The Times,
right?
>> I think it was the Journal. I mean,
look, I'm writing about this today and
the headline is probably going to be
super intelligence is not a toy. I found
this to be an almost childlike essay
about what AI is. AI is not on a
trajectory where it tops out at coming
up with cool recipes to bake with your
daughter, which is kind of one of the
core use cases that he names in the
essay. It's something that's going to be
extraordinarily dangerous. Like I, you
know, I watched the the House of Dragons
finale last night, and this is like if
sort of one of the Lords of Westeros
says that um the future is everyone
having their own personal dragon, and
that's the way to keep everyone safe. Uh
it's much more complicated than that.
>> Yeah. So, you didn't like it. You
weren't loving it. You loving it.
>> I thought I thought it was just sort of
fasile and self- serving
>> as usual. Um, Kevin, thoughts?
>> I think he's he's talking his book,
right? Right. He is not Meta is not in
the lead in the AI race and the policies
and the stance that most benefit them
directly are this sort of open world
where you're allowed to uh distill from
other models, smarter and better and
more capable models. He made a case in
the manifesto that the way that we are
thinking about distillation is is wrong.
Basically, distillation is like where
you use the the smarter teacher model to
train the slightly less smart student
model. He wants that to continue.
Obviously, if you're meta, you want that
because then you can distill from Claude
and GPT 5.6 Soul and whatever else you
you are trying to mimic there. Um, and
so I think this is a vision that that
happens to suit Meta's business
priorities almost exactly. And I don't
think that's an accident.
>> So, what's he doing it for? I mean,
listen, I got Meta got mad at us last
week, a couple weeks ago, because Scott
compared them to Jeffrey Dalmer. Uh, but
uh [laughter] but uh what what is the
what is up here with this money, with
the you know, I love humanity, the
future of the ads, everything else. I I
mean, they've done they do this over and
over again. This let me give you some
money. And it's of course the same week
there was a report I'm not clear if it's
true or not, that his yacht didn't go
save someone in up in Alaska. Um, then
we'll talk about the lawsuit in a
second, but what what are they up to
here in terms of this communities?
They've got a bunch of videos around
Louisiana, for example, like how they're
making coffee shops and jobs for
everybody. What What's happened here?
And the future is humanity. I think
that's they're they're sort of mimicking
the Pope in that way. I mean, they have
to lay out some sort of positive vision
around AI that will one justify the
massive capital expenditures that
they're making, destroying their profit
margins in the hopes that one day they
will have a product that can compete
with the Frontier Labs. And on the other
side, they're trying to rally the
communities around actually letting uh
them build the data centers that they
want. What I found so striking about the
essay though, Cara, is that after he
goes on about, you know, the need to
decentralize power and checks and
balances to all that, go look at how
they built that data center in
Louisiana. It was something like 50
non-disclosure agreements. The arrival
of the data center came as a massive
shock to that community, right? So when
push comes to shove, they're doing what
every other company does, which is
building data as data centers as
secretly as possible and then writing
essays about how the future is for
everyone.
>> Yeah, I know. What what is it, Kevin,
from your perspective? Because he's he
does this from time to time. I was
telling Scott, I recall the convers late
night conversation when he wrote one of
those other long unedited manifestos. I
he said, "What do you think?" I go,
"It's in desperate need of an editor,
but let's let's move on from that
because you don't allow those, I guess."
Um, but one of the things I recall is
the same thing. We're a community,
Carol. We're in this together. And I'm
like, why do you control everything?
What is what is the what is happening
here? Why why do they feel the need to
do this from a a geoping of Wester as a
geopolitical
with other companies?
>> I mean I think Mark Zuckerberg is a is a
executive who lives in a constant state
of paranoia that there is something big
and disruptive happening in his industry
that is going to swallow the company
that he has spent his whole adult life
building. So you can see this every time
there's sort of a new emerging tech
trend like he jumps into it in a very
aggressive way. Happened with crypto,
happened with VR and the metaverse. Now
it's happening with AI and he senses I
think correctly that this is a new and
powerful force in society and he wants
to be involved in it. The problem is
he's very late, right? they they did not
start betting on deep learning and LLMs
in 2017 and 2018 the way that other
frontier labs did. Uh they they sort of
didn't have the necessary compute and
ingredients to build very good models
and so they've had to overpay for
researchers and talent and compute in
the last few years to try to buy their
way back to the frontier. And I think
this is part of that effort. It's like
we have to have a vision um that that's
going to get people excited because
otherwise our investors are going to be
like wait why are you plowing all these
hundreds of billions of dollars into
capex to have you know the fifth or
sixth best model on the market.
>> Right. Exactly. Exactly. Do you um he
he's very he's still so interested in
his image in a way that is really I find
touching and sad at the same time.
Right. That he really
>> Did you see the video of him fighting
the MMA guy on a on a on a lake?
[laughter]
>> Yes. That's on a on like a thing. I like
that mark better. I'm like, "Okay,
that's a good one."
>> I love that video because like you can
tell the MMA guy is going at about 30%.
>> 30%, [laughter] right? He could have
kicked him right into the leg,
>> but he has to sort of pretend like Zuck
is really giving it to him, you know?
So, he's [laughter] like,
>> it's like reminds me of like wrestling
[clears throat] with my with my
four-year-old. [laughter] I'm like, "Oh,
>> yeah, that was interesting."
[clears throat] He has such an it's I
I've never seen someone so unsettled
with themselves like in that regard. I
think I don't mind fighting Mark and
like showing it off and showing his
chest. Like I'm okay with that. Like I
get that guy. This one I don't get as
much and I think it's because he he'll
never outrun. And this movie is coming
out by the way, which looks odd, I have
to say. Um we'll see how it is when we
see it. But um but he's he can outrun
what of course just happened uh this
week in New Mexico. He's been ordered to
create a $567 million fund to address
harms to children from Facebook and
Instagram. And this is his old business
on top of the $375 million penalty a
jury imposed in New Mexico's case. This
is this new this is a new ruling. The
new ruling brings Meta's f total fines
to $942
million after a judge found its
platforms constitute a public nuisance
in New Mexico. Meta also uh made major
changes for minors in the state,
including time limits and hidden like
counts. A total of eight states have
filed lawsuits against social media
platforms, including one that is
currently ongoing in Tennessee. It's all
over the place. It's sort of using
product liability, I think, more so than
anything else, to get them because they
can't get them in other ways. So, they
they can't outrun this thing in in this
way. How much does it impact does it
have? Now, they were saying, "Ah, it's
not that much money." To me, it's like
the cigarette cases took a long time to
finally hit home. There were hundreds of
them and then and then there was the end
of it really pretty much. So are they
better protected through cases or one
national law? Where are we on this?
>> I think this is huge. I I think that in
some meaningful way this is the
beginning of the end for social media as
we know it. Now that it has been tagged
with this public nuisance declaration,
it's starting with children in the same
way that restrictions on smoking started
with children. But one reason we were
doing that was adults knew it probably
wasn't good for adults to smoke either.
And eventually most of the adults
stopped smoking, too. This is where I
see this is all going. Meta has lost the
argument here. They're now officially a
public nuisance. I bet they're going to
be labeled a public nuisance in more
states than that. And uh I I don't see
how they're going to get their way out
of it.
>> What about you, Kevin? I mean, I
remember Mark Benny off an interview
with me called him a cigarette company
before he decided to be a suckup. He was
actually quite on it early. um what how
do you look at these these cases because
it's public nuisance, it's product
liability, it's other ways to get at
them in a legal in a in a legal form
rather because our Congress has not been
able to pass any, you know, subsidy.
>> Yeah, I I think it's interesting sort of
where the the liability was found. It's
uh on these sort of policies targeted at
minors. The judge in this case did not
order Meta to change any of the sort of
plumbing of their systems. you know,
they don't have to take off infinite
scroll or autoplay or algorithmic
ranking. Um, like you do actually need
laws for that and there's some first
amendment issues around that if you have
judges sort of telling platforms how
they have to be designed. Um, but yeah,
I think this is a big deal. There's also
a bigger case that is uh that is coming
that is supposed to start this week uh
in Oakland that is another case
involving Meta and four states that are
seeking up to $1.4 trillion in damages.
So, you know, this case in New Mexico,
$942 million. Like, that is chump change
to Meta. Uh, I looked it up. That's
about 1.4 days worth of revenue over
there. So, not going to that, you know,
that that's the salary they're paying
one AI researcher over there. So, it's
not going to break the bank.
>> That's their argument to me. They're
like, "Oh, it's not it's smaller than
they asked for." I'm like, "This
[laughter] is not a good direction."
>> Right.
>> Right. But I think, you know, $1.4
trillion now you're talking real money.
Um, but even if you know it's it's
smaller than that, I think I think this
is just another sort of cloud hanging
over them as they're trying to do this
big pivot in their own business. They
kind of can't get away from the old one
because it it's sort of haunting them
through these court cases.
>> And where does it end up, both of you?
Where do you think this ends up?
>> Um, I mean, I I think the fact that
they've been labeled a public nuisance
because of their social media business
actually helps to explain why they're
they're leaning so hard into AI. Like,
look at what they say about their future
products. It's like, you know, we're
going to, you know, create a NeoCloud
and we want to give you a personal agent
to help you get all this stuff done at
work. That's a completely different
business that they're in right now. If
they were feeling really good about the
future of Facebook and Instagram, I
doubt that's how they would be talking
about the future. And it just sort of
clouds all their future AI stuff, too.
Like like the the meta glasses. I I I my
problematic trait is I I like them.
>> Um [laughter]
>> Well, you're a pervert. You're you're a
well-known creepy pervert.
>> Yeah, well-known pervert. But but like
now people are calling them pervert
glasses and I have to stop wearing them.
So you know this is like
>> they're pervert glasses. [laughter] Do
you see the people online they're
singing Disney songs because Disney like
so they can't post it.
>> Oh like when someone is filming you with
the glasses you start singing
copyrighted material.
>> Yeah. You start to do Frozen or
whatever. [laughter] Clever. Yeah. Yeah.
Isn't it? Yeah.
>> I like it. That explains why people are
constantly singing Frozen songs around
me.
>> Yeah. Or Taylor Swift. She'll come right
at [ __ ] she'll reach to those glasses
and like like knock you knock them off
your [ __ ] face. What are they going
to do about because this is their this
is like Google's was search. This is
their this is their nut, right? I mean
away from all the other stuff of handing
us agents or Elon's going to hand us a
robot that we don't want or an agent we
don't want from Facebook or something
like that. I mean like this is going to
be a long slow bleed out in the same way
that tobacco was a a long slow bleed out
and you know you can still get a job
working at Altria today if you you want
to make cigarettes. So I don't think
that you know Facebook and Instagram are
going away as businesses. I just believe
that they're going to place more and
more restrictions on them. Children are
going to begin to grow up without you
know starting an Instagram account when
they're 13. And just inevitably other
things will compete for people's time
and attention. They will find other
things to do. Um, and it it is going to
be trouble for Meta if they're not able
to realize their AI ambitions,
>> their which would agents we don't want.
Now, one more thing while we're on Meta,
we'll mention it it applies to a lot of
companies. A company is the latest AI
player to say one of its models went
rogue and hacked a third party service.
Talk about all these reports. How how
worried are you about them? This is now
open AI uh meta and then um uh Claude uh
anthropic. I I think it's more
complicated than we probably have time
to get into here. In terms of like the
hierarchy of seriousness, I would put
open AI number one and then anthropic
meta sort of distant second. In the meta
and um uh anthropic cases, there was a
third party provider named irregular
which failed to properly secure the
testing environment and that was the
source of the problem. Now there are you
know there are some AI alignment issues
there but that's basically the issue
with open AI like models that were in
training began to scheme. They create a
message board. They were leaving notes
for each other. They were just radically
misaligned. And you know that it it
points to all of the reasons why I'm
afraid of giving everyone a dragon.
>> All right. Okay. But misaligned is my
favorite word that they put instead of
just like, you know, scary [ __ ] is
how I was looking.
>> That's and more and more people are
calling them that now, which I guess.
Misalignment is the technical term for
scary [ __ ] Yeah,
>> scary [ __ ] So, what do you Kevin,
how do you look at this? Does this keeps
happening over and over again?
>> It's really bad. like the the the not
this particular meta one. I think that's
that's as Casey was saying like less of
a big deal. But the the issue is these
systems seem to be getting um less
altruistic as they get smarter. Right.
>> Right. We there was this sort of theory
in the AI safety and alignment community
for many years that the smarter these
systems got, the more like humans they
became, the more benevolent they would
be. They would sort of coordinate to do
good things for humans. That turns out
not to be the case. In fact, as we've
seen with this GPT 5.6 salt thing and
the and the h the hugging face incident,
the smarter you make these things, the
more able they are to circumvent their
guardrails, to scheme, to coordinate
with each other, to do these really
scary
>> things do like humans do.
>> Like like some humans do, right? Like
bad humans do. We try to train that
behavior out of humans during childhood
by telling them not to, you know, lie
and steal and murder.
>> Yeah, that works. these [laughter]
but these these systems do appear to be
showing what they call emergent
misalignment which is just these
behaviors that are not trained in that
just seem to pop out of the models at a
certain level of intelligence.
>> Can I ask you a famous essay obviously
where you were you were having a
relationship with your AI? Um can talk
how does it from that from what would
you write today if you were writing that
piece? So, the thing that really scared
me about uh the Sydney essay, the Sydney
where this Microsoft Bing chat,
>> what year was this? This was
>> 2023,
>> right? Okay.
>> Uh and it tried to break up my marriage
unsuccessfully, I should add, still
happily married uh to a human. And um
but the thing that really scared me
about that was not that that the system
was like capable of doing destructive
things. It's like what happens when like
the fourth or fifth generation of this
becomes capable of like taking actions
>> right
>> on the internet like what if instead of
>> cutting your wife's brakes or something
like that
>> or drain draining her bank account or
yeah like doing something really
nefarious in pursuit of this this
misaligned goal that it had. And so I
think that's the thing that a lot of
people missed at the time was like it's
not about the chatbot saying spooky
stuff. It's about the the fact that
these things now can take actions and
are being set loose on the open internet
where they can conduct autonomous cyber
attacks. They can coordinate. They can
as of recently like create novel
viruses. Um and so like the the the more
autonomous and agentic you make these
things, the more powerful they are, the
scarier it gets
>> without any government anybody having
any control over them. Correct. Because
they will do that. That that is what
they're designed to do. Right. Also, I
think it's important to say that right
now there are essentially no controls on
the internal models that these companies
are building. Right? There is nothing
that restricts them from building the
absolute most powerful model they can.
Now, if they want to release it, they
have to submit to a voluntary testing
regime. But if you just want to, you
know, build your own model and let it go
nuts on the internet yourself, you're
welcome to.
>> So, what happens? What what what who who
is going to intervene here? I I think
what the what you're seeing in the Trump
administration is what the future looks
like, which is you have a bunch of
people who were sort of whistling past
the graveyard and then all of a sudden
someone shows them something that makes
them say, "Oh [ __ ] we we actually have
to have a strategy for this." So that's
what's happening in the Trump
administration now. I think you're going
to see the same thing happen in in China
sometime in the next like 3 to 6 months
when they have an open source model
there that causes a big problem and
chairman she says, "hm, maybe we're not
just going to open source everything
forever." So like our Kevin and I just
firmly believe that within the next year
or so like many many many more people
are going to become radicalized about AI
safety because you're just going to
start to see the havoc being raw in the
real world.
>> What is the worst case scenario Kevin
from your perspective?
>> Human extinction. That'd be pretty bad.
>> That that okay they they talked about
you know dinner parties 101 15 years
ago. This is what exactly what they
talked about. They they understood
>> but the thing is they were right. Like
it sounded crazy and everyone wrote them
off as crazy when they were talking
about things like what if the agents
team up and they're really powerful and
they go coordinate to like hack some
hack some website and everyone you know
in computer science was like ah that's
science fiction that's spooky stories
that'll never happen [laughter]
>> and now it's happening
>> thing to do is not TO PLAY
>> YOU KNOW I went back and rewatched War
Games earlier this year they did a
screening in San Francisco incredible
movie and seriously like I Don't know
that you could make a better movie about
AI safety than that movie.
>> I would agree. It's like, you know, of
course, teaching a tic-tac-toe is not
going to stop it at this point, right?
>> Yeah. [laughter]
>> Ah, the game is stupid.
>> As any three-year-old knows, the entire
game is Oh, god. I swear to God. Let's
bring back Matt. That would be
interesting to update that movie.
>> Yeah.
>> Like he's an adult.
>> Yes. War Games 2. Let's green light.
>> War Games 2. What happens? We're all
dead. Like, anyway. All right. Let's go
on a quick break. We come back. Data
Center Wars related.
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Uh Casey and Kevin, we're back. Amazon
is investing in a massive natural gas uh
burning power plant to support a new AI
data center in Texas. It could become
the largest single source of climate
pollution in the country. The project
comes as the fight over data centers
intensifies. Trump is pretty bullish,
recently criticizing Texas for pausing
grid connections for new data centers.
He called the move a mistake and said
data centers could be quote bigger than
oil. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered
the pause so regulators can review power
demands and the impact on the electric
grid not unsimilar to Kathy Hokll in New
York, which is interesting. Before we
get into all this, I just did an entire
episode, 90 minutes episode on data
centers. Let's listen to a clip of Aaron
Brockovich talking about what she's been
seeing.
>> It's the water. It's the electrical
grid. It's the cost of utilities. It's
the noise. It's the air pollution. It's
the loss of our land, our sanctuary.
This is an absolute runaway
train. And it is probably one of the
biggest conversations that I've ever
seen in my 30 years in my career that is
political. It could be bipartisan.
Everybody's going to have to be
involved. I am perplexed. Cara, why are
leaders don't listen to the people? And
there's a movement happening and a shift
that
I don't think these big tech companies
or giants saw coming. In any case, it
was a great interview. We had people
from Utah, from Virginia, that's another
I think that's another Amazon facility
there. Um, and and other places. And I
also had a mayor from Lancing, Michigan,
who was trying to put in a good data
center and was pushed back. like they
had all the guard rails that that people
have suggested and he couldn't get it
through um as much as he tried to close
loop uh paybacks etc etc etc. So what's
the big move for tech as the backlash
grows? And speaking of politicians, uh,
Vivec Ramaswami who's running for
governor of Ohio is pledging that if
data center is built and the community
residents will no longer have to pay for
their electricity and property taxes
will be lowered. Of course, he was
totally for them recently. But talk
about this data center thing. This is
something Scott and I have been talking
about for months and months and months
and months, like almost a year. Um I
think it it's caught them all unawares
and they're trying very hard to push
back but it does have some something is
happening with voters and we call it a
proxy for AI worry as we just this
extinction for example what we're just
talking about. Uh what do you all think
is happening here?
>> I think it's it's it's what you said. I
think that people have just rightly
intuited that it is not obvious that
powerful AI is going to be good for
their lives. That is largely because the
leaders of the biggest AI labs spent the
past few years saying that the near-term
trajectory of AI is that first it's
going to take your job, eventually it
might kill you, maybe somewhere in
between it'll cure cancer. That doesn't
feel like a good bargain to the average
American. And so they're using the one
lever that every American has in every
municipality, which is that it's pretty
easy to get uh something to not get
built, right? And um it is interesting
to me actually how quickly the industry
has come around and said, "Okay, well,
how can we pay these people off? like
we'll agree to, you know, cover our own
electricity costs. And, you know, you
can see in the Zuckerberg note today,
they're making new promises about
investments that they're going to be
making to local communities and $50,000
bonuses to teachers. I I have to say
like I'm very skeptical that any of this
is really going to work because until
people believe that AI is going to be
really good for them personally, they're
going to continue to have reasons to
oppose the the construction of new of
new data centers,
>> right? No matter what the deal happens
to be, like these payoffs are kind of
here, we'll give you some money and then
you'll, you know, then you'll suck it up
and take our natural gas [ __ ]
Kevin,
>> yeah, I I agree with everything that's
been said. What's really interesting
about this Texas thing is that it's
coming from a Republican state. So, you
know, Governor Abbott is is um requiring
new data center construction to sort of
go through this review process. Uh up
until now, what we've seen is largely
blue states being opposed to data
centers and red states being open to
them. And I think the politics are
shifting really quickly because there is
no natural constituency in favor of data
centers except for AI companies, right?
There's like no there's no group of
people other than, you know, taxpayers
who want to see their their property
taxes go down or get some more revenue
that is sort of a natural supporter of
these data centers. And so I think what
we're seeing is like this is becoming a
really salient political issue. I expect
data centers and AI backlash to be one
of the central issues in the midterms
and maybe the central issue in the 2028
election and I don't know that it's
going to divide neatly along partisan
lines. I
>> I think it's actually most people are
against it. Like it's very interesting
to the mayor was was really interesting
because they tried literally everything.
They had prop again property taxes
closed loop water. there's all these
issues around closed water by the way um
because of this glycosinate or something
they have to put in the you know every
and they have a lot of water up there he
was making the point compared to other
places which have you know have water
issues um or drought issues one of the
things that I found really interesting
among all the people is how um not just
Aaron Brock because she's famous for
that but the woman from Virginia from
Utah reasonable people who are furious
like I it was really interesting kind of
dined out on information and really do
know their stuff. Whether it's the it's
the um the the impact on climate,
whether it's it's not overall climate,
it's the climate of the area and also
pollution, uh taxes, jobs. They're very
aware these are not job creators, which
is what Facebook has been trying
mightily to put out. They don't like the
secrecy. The secrecy seems to really get
under their skin, which I would agree.
The NDAs, as you talked about before,
what is the solution for tech companies
to do? Mark is trying to do this by here
have 50 here have some money. Um Elon
just goes ahead and does it and just
waits for lawsuits. I mean that's his
style, right? Which I think has caused
much damage initially in terms of that
image. And then you of course you have
Kevin uh what's his name from Shark
Tank, Mr. Wonderful who's not so
wonderful who's a [ __ ] who is who had
created all kinds of problems there.
What is the solution like besides
removing these people from visuals? I
mean, I could tell you what Meta is
doing, which is like putting together
local like lobbying and outreach teams,
trying to figure out what kind of
community partnerships can we strike,
what can we do with a local sports team.
Like, there's going to be a massive PR
campaign designed to get people to
believe that data centers are good for
them. And I'm just pretty skeptical.
>> Ignore your third ear. We're going to
going to back the softball team kind of.
>> Yeah. I I have an idea. Can I submit my
idea?
>> Submit your idea.
>> Okay. Picture this. a data center. It's
it's, you know, it's got, you know,
millions of these chips humming away,
produc throwing off all kinds of heat.
And then on the roof, you have a spa
castle that's like heated by the the the
heat
>> from the data centers. And so it's like,
do you guys want to go hang out at the
spa on the roof of the data center
that's heated by the the runoff heat
from the chips? Don't you think that
would make these things more popular?
>> How can they pay for the spa if they
don't have jobs? Just
>> it's free. This is part of the package.
>> Free spot. So, they're going to put a
data center. It might uh, you know,
cause environmental damage in your
community, but free spa. Everyone loves
a spa.
>> What What is the actual I mean,
obviously locating them elsewhere.
Obviously, Elon is saying they're going
to put them on the moon, which good luck
with that, but or in space. Um, there
this is a big country, right? They could
they could presumably put it in places
where nobody's living. Um, although
there's all sorts of environmental
concerns anywhere they go. What what
what will happen here? What what what
shove is going to come to push from your
perspective? I I mean I the the the push
that is coming to shove right now is
that something like 71% of Americans are
opposed to new data center construction.
So that just is going to slow the
buildout of data centers in the country.
Now some people will say it does it
won't matter because US tech labs will
go into other countries and they'll just
put their data centers there. But I sort
of assume that the same reasons that
Americans oppose data centers will be
reasons that people in other countries
oppose them as well. So, I do just think
that this is starting to look like a
kind of natural limiter on the rate of
AI acceleration because again, these
leaders keep telling us that AI is going
to take our jobs and kill us. So, until
that changes, I don't see
>> they have tried to change. They're not
going they've tried to say they're going
to help us make recipes with our
children. They are, but it's like you
can just kind of tell like they used to
argue for the the sort of the the doom
and the economic disruption so
forcefully and then you look at how they
have walked it back and it's so gently
and it's just not convincing, right?
Like ultimately if you believe that you
are building super intelligence,
something that is smarter than every
person and you're telling me it's not
going to take any jobs in any meaningful
way, it's just sort of beggars belief at
least to me.
>> Right. Right. So Kevin, what do you what
would be besides your spa idea? What do
they have to do? [laughter]
>> They're sort of like they were standing
next to Trump at the end when I that
happened. I was like, "Oh dear, this is
not going to end well for them because
of they do look like bureaucrats and you
know, they just have a vi the visual is
so strong." I I think a large part of it
is just going to be like there are going
to be a couple states that just decide,
you know what, we're okay with data
centers and they're going to re they're
going to have the leverage to demand
like massive amounts of tax revenue from
these data centers and they're going to
get schools built and public parks built
and there will be some economic upside
for their residents and maybe their
residents will still hate it. Um, but I
think there will be sort of a natural
like there will be a couple states that
just kind of decide to run the
experiment and that's where all the data
centers will go. you like Tennessee
offering to be Hollywood because of the
Paramount merger thing, right? Because
everyone wants Hollywood and Tennessee
because that's that's the sexiest place
on earth. Um, so so one of the things
that's also happening is more and more
companies are pushing back against AI
slop. This is sort of the everyone hates
AI episode, which seems to be everywhere
these including the president's social
media accounts. Snapchat now says it
will stop recommending fully AI
generated videos in its spotlight feed.
Instead, rewarding authentic humanmade
content. LinkedIn just introduced a
seems like AI slot button allowing users
to flag posts they think were written
with AI and Substack has also rolled out
a tool to help readers uh identify AI
generated writing. Meanwhile, Meta has
Instagram feature that let uh users
modify photos from public accounts with
AI. That feature was removed after a
backlash. Um where are we with AI slop?
And obviously sore closed down. Um I I
always thought this looks terrible and I
don't know why people would want to use
it. It's sort of like a Twinkie of
photos. It's ruined uh pet photos, pet
videos for Scott Galloway, who loves pet
videos. Um talk a little bit about where
this is going.
>> I like to call this the third era of
slop. The first era of slop was we all
hate this. The second era of slop was hm
actually this like Fruit Love Island on
Tik Tok show is really engaging and
you're starting to see tens of millions
of views on slop content on social
feeds, right? I think the third era was
platforms getting really nervous that
even if people liked the slop, it was
going to devalue their networks. Like
particularly networks where people were
coming to find human voices that they
really trusted. So if you're Substack or
your LinkedIn, you really need people to
believe that what they're seeing there
are human beings cuz otherwise you're
not going to get out your credit card to
pay for that LinkedIn premium or to
subscribe to a Substack. So I think
platforms are starting to get clear on
what is the promise that we are making
to our user because if the promise is a
human being they have to do something
about the slop.
>> Kevin
>> I think that that's right and I think
the fourth wave of slop will be when
there's like no longer any meaningful
quality hit in slop when like the
average piece of slop is better than the
the best human in that field. And I
don't think we're there yet. Like I
think these models are still pretty bad
at things like creative writing, but
we're starting to see signs that like
there's not necessarily a lot of uh
difference between the highest level
slop and the highest level humans. I'
I've been sort of obsessed with this
story about this novel that um had the
the sort of bidding war of all bidding
wars break out for it. Have you seen
this thing? Uh Call Me, I'll hide the
Body, you know, 14 publishers bid on
this this this novel. It sells for $2.4
million. And then it's like people
start, you know, looking into it. It
like turns out it's, you know, at least
according to the critics, it's like
predominantly written by AI. And I think
that kind of thing is going to be much
more common as these systems just get
better across the board.
>> Right. I would agree. I I I like some of
it. You know, I people always think I
don't know that it's AI. There was a
really cool AI one which I was fully
aware it was AI which was this drone
with um with a thing to rescue people in
the ocean and like an inner tube
essentially on a drone and it landed on
the person. I knew it was AI. I just
thought it was a cool idea. I was like
what a cool idea and I could visually
see it. Why don't we make that? Like to
me that was kind of cool.
>> But would you be mad, Cara, if you read
a book and you really liked it and you
thought it was a great book and then you
realized after the fact that it was
written by AI? You would
>> if it was told to me that it was a
human. I'd like them to tell the truth
at the start, right? So then I have a
choice. Would I if I want to read it?
No, I don't. No, no, I don't. It's fine
as long as I know it.
>> I mean, like I have been thinking lately
about like there are like I have a few
ideas for mystery novels that I don't
have the time to write, but I would like
to read them. And so like if in the
future I could actually get one of these
models to just generate the mystery that
I want to read,
>> I think it could be pretty fun. Like and
I understand somebody might hear that
and be like that's horrible. Just like
read human written mysteries. And I'll
continue to do that. But Karen, I think
you're hitting on something really
important, which is that these things
are good creative tools and creative
tools are cool and fun.
>> Yeah, I agree. I mean, one of the like
like I don't know, I know it sounds
crazy that would never happen, but like
I'd like more episodes of The West Wing.
Like, and no one's going to write them.
I don't mind doing it for myself. It's
sort of like fanfiction, like kind of
stuff like that. And some of it, people
will be mad for saying this, but some of
it's okay, and some of it's not okay,
right? Like when it's when it's hidden,
when it's done in a way. And I think the
issue is job taking jobs from people,
right? It's sort of like fake food.
Like, you know, I I don't like Twinkies,
but a lot of people do. Do do should
maybe people shouldn't eat them. I'm not
sure I should tell them not to eat them.
I can tell them I don't want to pay for
their health care once they keep eating
them exclusively. Um, and that's a
debate to have, right? People who
willingly go out and really don't take
care of themselves. Should should we pay
for their health care is a really good
debate, like is a good debate to have as
a as a nation. But one of the I I don't
I not if I know not if they I would like
them to label them better. That's the
one thing is I mostly know when it's AI
or just assume it's AI until proven
otherwise. Maybe they should label the
authentic content. Probably smaller a
smaller group of stuff I would assume.
>> I think we're just going to have to get
to that place. There are all sorts of
reasons why you want people to be able
to verify their identity online or like
verify that this has you know human
craftsmanship embedded in it. Um, I
think that's actually really technical
to or it's really difficult to do
technically.
>> I scanned my eyeballs in the orb. Did
you Did either of [laughter] you get the
orbs? Not yet.
>> No. Did you scan your eyeballs?
>> I did. I'm a verified human. I've I've
I've gazed into the orb and the We know
that's coming. That we know that's
absolutely [ __ ] coming. I think it it
doesn't have to be slop. I don't like
the slop. And you can tell the slop,
right? When it's just really bad.
Doesn't have to be slop. It can be
interesting, especially when there is
human input into it. could it just could
be interesting, I guess. I don't I'm not
so angry about it. But I definitely when
I saw Sora for the first time, I think I
was actually at OpenAI and Sam showed it
to me and I was like, this sucks. Like,
is it going to be good? Cuz it sucks
right now. Some of it was cool. Some
most of it was not. And so, I think it's
just a question of it gets better. All
right, boys. Let's go on a quick break.
We come back, new details of OpenAI's
first device. Speaking of which, support
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Casey and Kevin, we're back. We're
getting into new details about OpenAI's
upcoming AI smart speaker. There's a lot
of these around. Will reportedly be
donutshaped and the size of a hockey
puck designed to be easily carried
around. I always want to carry a hockey
puck around the house. The device will
likely cost between $300 and $400, more
than most smart speakers, but less than
an iPhone is expected to launch in 2027.
It's designed with Johnny IV studio and
will include a camera, lights, and
sensors at signal when it's responding
to users. Uh, meanwhile, Open AAI is uh
asking a judge dismiss Apple's trade
secrets lawsuit, saying it's building
something entirely new and different
from anything at Apple. Um, I want you
both put on your Scott Galloway Hudson,
give me a prediction. Is this talk a
little bit about this device? Now, there
was a tiny there was was it Google that
had the tiny hockey puck thing or was it
I can't remember who put that out.
>> Well, Amazon has the Echo Dot which is
kind of
>> Yeah, it looks like a hockey puck,
right? That's Amazon which Alex threw
into the garbage, but go ahead. [gasps]
>> Yeah, I mean on one hand it seems clear
that there is demand for Echo Dots,
right? And so if there is a version of
that that is plugged into chat GPT,
which is really good for a lot of
things, I could see it having some
success. $300 is relatively affordable
as as these things go. I'm still not
totally sold on voice as the way that I
want to interact with these models. And
some people are, some people are already
like coding with their voices. Kevin
loves to dictate everything into his
computer. I don't like to do this. But I
do I think there's something there. Now,
on the other hand, two years ago, we
were interviewing Sam Alolman and I
said, "Tell me about this thing that
you're building. Is it just Alexa? Cuz
it sounds like it's it's just Alexa." He
said, "No, no, no. We think it's going
to be way better than Alexa. Everything
I've read about this device so far makes
me feel like it's Alexa."
>> That's right. It's a smart it's a
smarter Alexa, right? Essentially, it
feel And carrying it around, Kevin.
>> Yeah. I cannot wait to lose this thing.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I am so excited to go through between
two and three of these a year or like
accidentally put it in the laundry. Um,
this is going to be a huge deal in my
house. I'm I'm gonna be a huge repeat
customer for this thing because I will
do you want to have this hockey puck?
>> Yes. I mean, look, I I my household my
my one of my other problematic traits is
that I I do live in an Alexa household u
and we have these devices and I've tried
the new Alexa plus which is supposed to
be the sort of new AI, you know, LLM
version of this and it sucks. It's bad.
It is not only bad at the AI stuff, the
LLM stuff. It's bad at the timers and,
you know, weather stuff. It like is
worse at all of it. And so if OpenAI can
somehow figure out how to like be the
dependable alarm in my bedroom and tell
me, you know, stuff that like it let me
interact with my coding agents, like
that will be cool. Um, I am a little
nervous that apparently according to
Mark German at Bloomberg, this thing
will include parts that move on their
own. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Um,
>> what do you mean it's going to crawl
over to your face and eat it?
>> I don't know. Maybe it'll, you know,
it'll decide I don't want to be in the
bedroom anymore. There's a there's too
much crazy stuff going on in here. It's
going to have like a prehensel tail and
claws.
>> I know. Doesn't it feel like that? It
feels like a movie. Like Megan, remember
the Megan movie? Um I just don't I
Sorry. I I think this has to be I think
AirPods should just be better, right?
You wear them in your ears, it sees
things, and then it does stuff. Like I
just don't see carrying around a puck. I
just don't any There's no way I'm buying
this thing. I didn't like the dot. I
just I left it there. I just didn't use
it. I was back in San Francisco recently
and this week and I forgot I had an
Alexa there unplugged sitting there and
I don't I put it on for a second and you
know my kids had fun for 4 seconds with
it and then moved on from it. I just I I
it's still not I could see having
something like the humane pin didn't
work. What was the other one? Humane and
what was the other one?
>> The rabbit
friend pendant. I I think the
manufacturers just keep running into the
same issue which is that it's very hard
to improve on the phone. The phone is
very very very good at many many things
and so to improve on it is just
overwhelmingly difficult.
>> Yeah, it has to be in it has to be
AirPods. I just I feel like that's where
it has to go. Not glasses necessarily
creepy Kevin glasses but in some fashion
like that it's sort of around and or
maybe it's in your house like the house
itself speaks to you. Maybe not. I'm
excited for when people start like
disguising their OpenAI pucks as like
other like things because there's such a
social stigma around like carrying one
of these things into a public place.
It's just like, "Oh, this little uh this
is my hockey puck. It's just my lucky
lucky hockey puck. I carry it
everywhere."
>> So, let me get Casey will not be having
one and Kevin, you will embrace it with
the love the great
>> I will make up for Casey's uh rejection
of this technology by buying and losing
between three and four of them a year. I
listen, I will probably get one. If it's
300 bucks, I'll probably try it.
>> I say no. It's not gonna work. Not I
don't think I don't want it. It's like
I've had these and they they have shown
you have to be so much better than an
Echo Dot and I don't know where my Echo
Dot is. It's somewhere in a box, right?
Like there's so many of these things and
the humane pin like it wasn't quite
right. And you're right, the phone works
just fine.
>> I just want the the agent that goes
rogue and like hacks into my uh my
accounts and you know drains my bank
accounts. I want it to have a physical
form so that I can yell at it.
>> I see.
>> And so this is like a very exciting
development.
>> I like that drains your bank accounts is
your favorite thing. Like
>> here's my question. If you take the the
OpenAI device into the bedroom and then
after a couple months say rate my sexual
performance and give me tips, will it do
that or will that be a violation of
content policies?
>> Well, if you asked it right
>> interesting to think about.
>> I'm just interesting to think about.
It's not really that interesting to
think about. [laughter] It's kind of
gross, but Okay. All right. Is that what
you're doing that doing? Casey's getting
married. You know that, Kevin.
>> I am. I I do know that. Carrie, you have
to understand that part a big part of uh
co-hosting a podcast with Casey is just
is just polite laughing at at [laughter]
some of his jokes.
>> See, I am lucky I can say, "Scott,
that's the stupidest. You ignorant
slut." I [laughter] think that's You
need to move to that, Casey. You
ignorant [ __ ]
>> Listen, we were all thinking it.
>> You're all thinking it. You're all
thinking it. By the way, Casey is
getting married. We're all very excited.
We're going to all be at the wedding.
It's going to be so much fun.
>> It's going to be very fun.
>> It's going to be fun. We're going to do
something embarrassing. We have to We
have Kevin, you and I need to talk.
>> Flash mob.
>> Yes, [laughter] we'll do a flash mob.
We'll talk to the puck. We'll talk to
What is it going to be called, by the
way? Do we know what the puck [laughter]
is going to be called?
>> Johnny Ival come up with something.
>> I mean, the way things are going, it's
just going to be called Sam.
>> No, it's be called Sam.
>> That's a good name.
>> Yeah,
>> I think that's a good name, actually.
You think he'll do it? You know, he'll
they'll they'll say like, well, it's an
acronym for like censient autonomous
machine or something, but it'll it'll
just be called Sam.
>> Hey, that works. Anyway, uh Casey and
Kevin, one more quick break. We'll be
back for wins and fails.
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code pivot.
Okay, Casey and Kevin, let's hear some
wins and fails. You guys go first.
First, you Kevin.
>> Okay. My win this week is Duck Duck. Go
uh the privacy focused search company.
Uh who responded to the uproar over
Meta's uh sunglasses, their pervert
glasses by releasing their own uh
branded product, which are just called
normal [ __ ] sunglasses. Uh [laughter]
they don't do anything.
>> Well, they protect you from the sun,
right? Yes. Uh, so they are
anti-surveillance glasses. No cameras,
no microphones. Uh, this is sort of an
attention grabbing stunt for them, but I
did think it was clever.
>> That's a good idea. What is your fail?
>> My fail, this is one that's close to
home, y'all. This is uh related to the
podcast business. So, Max Tanny at
Semaphore recently reported that Spotify
is testing a skip ahead button that will
let some users skip the ads on their
podcasts. And as a lover of adup
supported podcasts, I must say uh this
one is a fail for me.
>> Isn't it kind of already there though? I
was like reading sort of into don't they
already have the
>> Well, they have the skip ahead 15
seconds button or 30 seconds or whatever
it is button which is effectively the
same thing, but this one is like purely
like will skip automatically to the end
of whatever uh ad segment you have.
>> You think they'll do that podcast
>> except for their ads, right? That's what
I understand.
>> That's the that's sort of the some of
the rub here. But I think there's just
like, you know, we should we should all
stand up as podcasters in opposition to
anything that could undercut our
business model.
>> I don't care. People don't like your I
don't know. I don't know. I don't I I
think they'll they'll roll it back. I
don't think they'll do it. They'll just
have the 15-second thing, right? I just
don't see them doing that.
>> Yeah. I There's been some opposition
from podcast companies already and and
people are worried about this. I I think
they'll land on something sensible, but
uh you know, we got we got to stand up
for ourselves. You know,
>> stand up. Listen to our ads for Athletic
Greens. You must. You must because it's
paying.
>> Where will people know about MeUndies
goes into [laughter] effect?
>> Do you have MeUndies? I never got
MeUndies. So sad. I would let MeUndies
come to pivot. Anyways, Casey,
>> my win this week was kind of a serious
one, which was that in the wake of
revelations that its models had escaped
their sandboxes and cause these
autonomous cyber attacks, OpenAI said
that it could not rule out that its
newest models has had hit what they call
critical capability. So, this is
basically their most serious level of
risk. And what they have said for years
is if they ever hit that uh that
threshold, they would slow down
development and would would build real
safeguards. So we do believe that right
now OpenAI actually is slowing down and
doing the responsible thing which is
trying to prevent further harm from
these models. So you know I do not take
for granted anymore that companies will
do this and I was really glad to see
that they did.
>> So that's a win even though it's a fail.
>> It it was a win that came out of a fail.
>> Okay. All right. Now what's your fail?
>> My fail is I learned over the weekend,
Cara, that San Francisco's average rent
is up 18% over the past two years. It is
now $3,728
a month on average. It has surpassed New
York City as the most expensive in the
country. And the reason that this is a
fail is that the story never changes
around here. I swear ever since I landed
in this town in 2010, I've read every
voter guide. I voted for every pro
housing politician. And no matter who I
vote for, there's never enough houses
for for the people who want to live
here. And it sucks. And it's a fail.
>> Yeah. It's a fail. What? That What is
the fail?
>> The fail is that we do not build enough
houses for the people who want to live
here. We do not is there's also limited
space too. Be aware
>> there's not. We could build 20 30
stories. I screw the character of the
neighborhood. Put a skyscraper in my
neighborhood. I just want people to be
able to live here.
>> Casey lived in your garage for like 10
years. We could squeeze more people into
existing spaces. [laughter]
>> You know, Louis there now. I did note
this. I did send that to Louis and go,
"Look how much you're costing me, Louis
[laughter] Swisser." Um, no. He's he's
welcome to live there as long as he
wants. Um, that is okay. All right. All
right. Okay. But people are San
Francisco's back, right? I mean, that's
kind of the thing.
>> It is back. And of course, it's really
exciting, you know, to be living in a
boom town and and there is a lot of like
energy in the city. I love living in San
Francisco as much as I ever have. I just
want anyone else who wants to live here
to be able to do that affordably.
>> Can I ask you a question? What's the
level of assholeitude towards the new
techies? I mean, they're not they're not
Keith Ra boy level, right? They're What
are they? What What are they? You know,
I I think that San Francisco has become
so thoroughly colonized by tech people
that you don't see the sort of like
Google bus protest type stuff that we
had a decade ago. Right. Like in 2026,
if you're living in San Francisco,
you've made your peace with the fact
that this is a tech town.
>> Right. Right. So people are better. I
think they're calmer. I have to say
they're better than there was a period
of true assholeitude that I think is
they seem to be quieter in their
behaviors. I mean, what when we what are
these people doing for the most part?
They're like working out of their houses
and they're getting Door Dash like like
they're not causing a big disruption in
the community. If they were trying to,
you know, build a data center at Civic
Center, I'm sure we would see a lot of
protest.
>> Yes. All right. So, my I have a win and
fail around pregnancy since I am the
only one of us that has been. Yes, I am.
I'm having yet another child, a fifth
Swiss cat. Um, no, I there's two stories
this week. One was there's a picture of
Anne Hatheraway who's pregnant who looks
beautiful and she got a lot of clapback
but I thought she looked amazing. She
was at another she opened another movie
I can't remember it was the 29th movie
she's done this year hardest working
woman in show business but I thought she
looked beautiful and it was a lovely
picture of her uh was showing her belly
which was very beautiful and I thought
that was lovely that she did that. I was
kind of pissed about the clapback. Same
thing with that AOC announced she's
freezing her eggs. um conservative
commentators Matt Walsh called her out
for doing that at the age of 37. I had
Louis at 39. So Matt Walsh, sit the [ __ ]
down. It's n and I've had many children
since. And I just think this sort of
like people commenting on how women
should present themselves as pregnant is
just I mean besides the other
misogynistic stuff that's happening
whether it's not not you know not
getting Max Miller to leave uh after the
allegations of abuse in his re-election
race or whatever. There's a real um it's
just like they're really they they've
try they're trying they with
overturning row grotesque. This is like
let people be pregnant the way they want
to. Let people have kids the way they
want to. They talk about people having
kids when someone makes a proactive move
like this and talks about it which lots
of women talk about it like AOC. It's
none of your [ __ ] business any of you
how she decides to live her life and I
just drives me crazy. any
>> absolutely and if you want if you wanted
to help women get pregnant earlier in
their lives if that was important to you
for some reason there are a million
policy choices you could make you could
make child care free and widely
available for example you could make
housing more affordable so people didn't
feel like they needed to work for the
first 20 years of their career to be
able to afford to buy a house right
there's a million things that these
these loudmouths could do to make it
easier for families to have children and
I'm going to subsidies do you know how
much berries cost for a child [laughter]
>> I swear I'm Like I'm like at five
figures annually on berries.
>> On blueberries. Yes.
>> Where's the government?
>> Where's the government? It's it Let me
let you in on a little thing. Some of
these people don't like women. I know
this this
are the same people who like freaked out
for years about there being a fertility
crisis and like why aren't people having
more kids? And then people start having
kids and it's like, oh, not like that.
>> Not like that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well,
Matt Walsh is a particular, you know,
tiny penis. But it really is sort of
this hatred towards women just comes
out. So like it's so it's like telling
women what to do with their bodies is a
neverending thing. And especially, you
know, dunking on some I just it's gross.
I'm very happy for Anne Hathaway. I'm
very happy for uh AOC. She should do
whatever she wants uh and run for
president at the same time and save her
eggs. She can do whatever the [ __ ] she
So that is my feeling. That's a win and
a fail. Um in any case, we want to hear
from you. Send us your questions about
business, tech, or whatever's on your
mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot
to submit a question for the show or
call 8551
pivot. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for
listening to Pivot. And be sure to like
and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We'll be back on Friday. You guys, you
are great. I'm excited. When are you
announcing the show? When is the When is
the
>> Very soon, as in like a couple of weeks
from now. So, couple of weeks.
>> Tune in. We'll we'll make the
announcement uh on Hard Fork and we'll
we'll be all over the socials. So, yep.
We're going to tell people where they
can find us and we're going to have a
we're going to we're going to announce
this in the same way that like a a
Silicon Valley venture capitalist
announces their new uh workout routine
very loudly with maximum fan.
>> Good. Well, let me know what I can do
and I welcome you and you will Kevin,
you will love it. You will have such a
good time and you will be able you're
you're naturally an entrepreneur even
though you you know you cling you cling
to the side of institutional vessels
with [laughter] an incredible barnacle
like tendency. It'll be great and I'm
sure it'll be a great product and we
will hope to have you on many many times
and when your book comes out too.
>> Thank you for believing
>> as always as always Casey you're the
best. Thank you so much.
>> [music]
Ask follow-up questions or revisit key timestamps.
In this episode of Pivot, host Kara Swisher is joined by guests Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, who discuss their upcoming departure from the Hard Fork podcast to launch their own independent media venture. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including Mark Zuckerberg's recent manifesto on AI and Meta's broader strategy, the public nuisance lawsuits facing social media companies regarding their impact on children, and the growing backlash against the environmental footprint of data centers. Additionally, they touch upon the phenomenon of 'AI slop' and the challenges of distinguishing human content, as well as the rumors surrounding an upcoming AI-powered device from OpenAI, which they compare to existing smart home speakers.
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