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Kara Swisher on Zuckerberg's New AI Manifesto: "He's in Desperate Need of an Editor" | Pivot

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Kara Swisher on Zuckerberg's New AI Manifesto: "He's in Desperate Need of an Editor" | Pivot

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1756 segments

0:00

What is the worst case scenario, Kevin?

0:02

>> Human extinction. That'd be pretty bad.

0:03

>> Oh, yes, that.

0:07

[music]

0:10

>> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York

0:12

Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast

0:13

Network. I'm Carara Swisser and it is

0:16

still

0:18

got re August.

0:23

Yes, while Scott continues his

0:25

gallivanting, I have brought in some

0:27

excellent co-hosts. Kevin Ruse, New York

0:29

Times tech columnist and author of the

0:32

AGI Chronicles, and Casey Newton,

0:35

founder and editor uh platformer, and

0:38

they are also the soontobe not hosts of

0:41

the New York Times podcast Hard Fork, at

0:43

least for now. I You need to explain

0:46

what's happening, boys.

0:48

>> Kevin, tell them what's happening. Yeah.

0:49

So, Casey and I uh have come down with a

0:52

horrible disease that sometimes afflicts

0:54

uh middle-aged men in San Francisco,

0:56

which is that they decide to start a

0:57

company together. [laughter]

0:58

>> Aha. A startup, shall we say? Shall we

1:01

say?

1:01

>> So, Founderitis is real. Uh please

1:04

protect your families. Uh we are uh

1:06

leaving Hardfork uh in just a couple of

1:09

weeks and we are starting our own

1:10

independent podcast and media company

1:14

together, just the two of us.

1:15

>> So, what is the new brand? What is you

1:17

have a name?

1:18

>> We do. We're not going to tell it to you

1:20

uh yet because we haven't we haven't

1:22

hard launched it yet. Casey wanted to

1:24

call the new show the Gay Straight

1:25

Alliance, but I thought that might be

1:27

>> that might be taken by Pivot. [laughter]

1:30

>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:32

>> Yeah, that's our subname.

1:34

>> We'll have a name uh ready to go pretty

1:36

soon. We we think we've got a fun brand,

1:39

but more importantly, you know, a lot of

1:41

uh people would uh complain to us over

1:43

the years we were only coming out once a

1:45

week. There were a lot of stories that

1:46

we missed. So, the new show is going to

1:48

be coming out at least twice a week.

1:50

It's going to be YouTube first. If

1:52

you're watching, you know, Pivot on

1:53

YouTube, which I hope you are, you can

1:55

see these faces. You know, these are not

1:56

faces for radio. These are faces that

1:58

need to be on camera. And good news,

2:00

that's coming.

2:01

>> We've got a lot to get to, so we're

2:02

going to get started. Is that okay?

2:04

Let's test you two out. All right.

2:05

Ready? Let's do it.

2:06

>> All right. This is It was like tailor

2:08

made for us today. Mark Zuckerberg laid

2:10

out Meta's AI vision in another unedited

2:14

6,500word manifesto uh arguing that most

2:17

concerns are overblown and failed to

2:19

acknowledge all the positives it can

2:20

achieve. We we know about this Mark by

2:22

the way. Zuckerberg thinks government

2:24

should be more involved in model

2:25

releases suggesting a close proactive

2:27

collaboration between Frontier Labs and

2:29

the government. Meta is recommitting to

2:31

open source models resuming releases of

2:33

models with open weights. The company uh

2:36

also announced a $1 billion fund for

2:38

communities a little little they're

2:40

they're spreading it around around its

2:42

data centers. We'll talk more about data

2:44

centers in a bit. Uh manifesto reviews,

2:47

gentlemen. He loves a manifesto. I I

2:49

there's this is there's a lot of them

2:50

and he's been writing for uh I think it

2:53

was was it the Times or the Journal?

2:54

Which one did he put it in? The Times,

2:56

right?

2:56

>> I think it was the Journal. I mean,

2:58

look, I'm writing about this today and

3:00

the headline is probably going to be

3:02

super intelligence is not a toy. I found

3:04

this to be an almost childlike essay

3:06

about what AI is. AI is not on a

3:09

trajectory where it tops out at coming

3:11

up with cool recipes to bake with your

3:13

daughter, which is kind of one of the

3:15

core use cases that he names in the

3:17

essay. It's something that's going to be

3:18

extraordinarily dangerous. Like I, you

3:20

know, I watched the the House of Dragons

3:22

finale last night, and this is like if

3:24

sort of one of the Lords of Westeros

3:26

says that um the future is everyone

3:27

having their own personal dragon, and

3:29

that's the way to keep everyone safe. Uh

3:31

it's much more complicated than that.

3:32

>> Yeah. So, you didn't like it. You

3:33

weren't loving it. You loving it.

3:35

>> I thought I thought it was just sort of

3:37

fasile and self- serving

3:38

>> as usual. Um, Kevin, thoughts?

3:41

>> I think he's he's talking his book,

3:43

right? Right. He is not Meta is not in

3:45

the lead in the AI race and the policies

3:48

and the stance that most benefit them

3:50

directly are this sort of open world

3:52

where you're allowed to uh distill from

3:55

other models, smarter and better and

3:57

more capable models. He made a case in

4:00

the manifesto that the way that we are

4:02

thinking about distillation is is wrong.

4:04

Basically, distillation is like where

4:05

you use the the smarter teacher model to

4:07

train the slightly less smart student

4:09

model. He wants that to continue.

4:12

Obviously, if you're meta, you want that

4:13

because then you can distill from Claude

4:15

and GPT 5.6 Soul and whatever else you

4:18

you are trying to mimic there. Um, and

4:21

so I think this is a vision that that

4:22

happens to suit Meta's business

4:24

priorities almost exactly. And I don't

4:26

think that's an accident.

4:26

>> So, what's he doing it for? I mean,

4:28

listen, I got Meta got mad at us last

4:31

week, a couple weeks ago, because Scott

4:33

compared them to Jeffrey Dalmer. Uh, but

4:36

uh [laughter] but uh what what is the

4:38

what is up here with this money, with

4:40

the you know, I love humanity, the

4:42

future of the ads, everything else. I I

4:44

mean, they've done they do this over and

4:46

over again. This let me give you some

4:48

money. And it's of course the same week

4:50

there was a report I'm not clear if it's

4:53

true or not, that his yacht didn't go

4:55

save someone in up in Alaska. Um, then

4:58

we'll talk about the lawsuit in a

4:59

second, but what what are they up to

5:01

here in terms of this communities?

5:03

They've got a bunch of videos around

5:05

Louisiana, for example, like how they're

5:07

making coffee shops and jobs for

5:10

everybody. What What's happened here?

5:12

And the future is humanity. I think

5:14

that's they're they're sort of mimicking

5:15

the Pope in that way. I mean, they have

5:17

to lay out some sort of positive vision

5:20

around AI that will one justify the

5:23

massive capital expenditures that

5:25

they're making, destroying their profit

5:27

margins in the hopes that one day they

5:29

will have a product that can compete

5:30

with the Frontier Labs. And on the other

5:32

side, they're trying to rally the

5:34

communities around actually letting uh

5:37

them build the data centers that they

5:39

want. What I found so striking about the

5:41

essay though, Cara, is that after he

5:43

goes on about, you know, the need to

5:44

decentralize power and checks and

5:46

balances to all that, go look at how

5:48

they built that data center in

5:50

Louisiana. It was something like 50

5:51

non-disclosure agreements. The arrival

5:53

of the data center came as a massive

5:55

shock to that community, right? So when

5:58

push comes to shove, they're doing what

6:00

every other company does, which is

6:02

building data as data centers as

6:03

secretly as possible and then writing

6:05

essays about how the future is for

6:06

everyone.

6:07

>> Yeah, I know. What what is it, Kevin,

6:09

from your perspective? Because he's he

6:10

does this from time to time. I was

6:12

telling Scott, I recall the convers late

6:14

night conversation when he wrote one of

6:15

those other long unedited manifestos. I

6:19

he said, "What do you think?" I go,

6:20

"It's in desperate need of an editor,

6:21

but let's let's move on from that

6:23

because you don't allow those, I guess."

6:25

Um, but one of the things I recall is

6:27

the same thing. We're a community,

6:29

Carol. We're in this together. And I'm

6:31

like, why do you control everything?

6:34

What is what is the what is happening

6:36

here? Why why do they feel the need to

6:38

do this from a a geoping of Wester as a

6:41

geopolitical

6:42

with other companies?

6:44

>> I mean I think Mark Zuckerberg is a is a

6:46

executive who lives in a constant state

6:48

of paranoia that there is something big

6:51

and disruptive happening in his industry

6:53

that is going to swallow the company

6:56

that he has spent his whole adult life

6:58

building. So you can see this every time

7:00

there's sort of a new emerging tech

7:02

trend like he jumps into it in a very

7:04

aggressive way. Happened with crypto,

7:06

happened with VR and the metaverse. Now

7:09

it's happening with AI and he senses I

7:12

think correctly that this is a new and

7:14

powerful force in society and he wants

7:17

to be involved in it. The problem is

7:19

he's very late, right? they they did not

7:22

start betting on deep learning and LLMs

7:24

in 2017 and 2018 the way that other

7:28

frontier labs did. Uh they they sort of

7:31

didn't have the necessary compute and

7:33

ingredients to build very good models

7:36

and so they've had to overpay for

7:38

researchers and talent and compute in

7:41

the last few years to try to buy their

7:43

way back to the frontier. And I think

7:46

this is part of that effort. It's like

7:48

we have to have a vision um that that's

7:50

going to get people excited because

7:52

otherwise our investors are going to be

7:53

like wait why are you plowing all these

7:55

hundreds of billions of dollars into

7:56

capex to have you know the fifth or

7:58

sixth best model on the market.

8:00

>> Right. Exactly. Exactly. Do you um he

8:02

he's very he's still so interested in

8:04

his image in a way that is really I find

8:07

touching and sad at the same time.

8:09

Right. That he really

8:10

>> Did you see the video of him fighting

8:11

the MMA guy on a on a on a lake?

8:14

[laughter]

8:14

>> Yes. That's on a on like a thing. I like

8:16

that mark better. I'm like, "Okay,

8:18

that's a good one."

8:18

>> I love that video because like you can

8:20

tell the MMA guy is going at about 30%.

8:22

>> 30%, [laughter] right? He could have

8:24

kicked him right into the leg,

8:26

>> but he has to sort of pretend like Zuck

8:27

is really giving it to him, you know?

8:29

So, he's [laughter] like,

8:30

>> it's like reminds me of like wrestling

8:32

[clears throat] with my with my

8:33

four-year-old. [laughter] I'm like, "Oh,

8:36

>> yeah, that was interesting."

8:38

[clears throat] He has such an it's I

8:39

I've never seen someone so unsettled

8:41

with themselves like in that regard. I

8:44

think I don't mind fighting Mark and

8:46

like showing it off and showing his

8:47

chest. Like I'm okay with that. Like I

8:49

get that guy. This one I don't get as

8:51

much and I think it's because he he'll

8:53

never outrun. And this movie is coming

8:55

out by the way, which looks odd, I have

8:57

to say. Um we'll see how it is when we

8:59

see it. But um but he's he can outrun

9:01

what of course just happened uh this

9:04

week in New Mexico. He's been ordered to

9:06

create a $567 million fund to address

9:09

harms to children from Facebook and

9:10

Instagram. And this is his old business

9:12

on top of the $375 million penalty a

9:15

jury imposed in New Mexico's case. This

9:18

is this new this is a new ruling. The

9:20

new ruling brings Meta's f total fines

9:22

to $942

9:25

million after a judge found its

9:27

platforms constitute a public nuisance

9:29

in New Mexico. Meta also uh made major

9:33

changes for minors in the state,

9:34

including time limits and hidden like

9:36

counts. A total of eight states have

9:38

filed lawsuits against social media

9:39

platforms, including one that is

9:41

currently ongoing in Tennessee. It's all

9:43

over the place. It's sort of using

9:44

product liability, I think, more so than

9:47

anything else, to get them because they

9:48

can't get them in other ways. So, they

9:50

they can't outrun this thing in in this

9:53

way. How much does it impact does it

9:56

have? Now, they were saying, "Ah, it's

9:57

not that much money." To me, it's like

9:59

the cigarette cases took a long time to

10:01

finally hit home. There were hundreds of

10:03

them and then and then there was the end

10:06

of it really pretty much. So are they

10:08

better protected through cases or one

10:11

national law? Where are we on this?

10:13

>> I think this is huge. I I think that in

10:15

some meaningful way this is the

10:17

beginning of the end for social media as

10:19

we know it. Now that it has been tagged

10:21

with this public nuisance declaration,

10:24

it's starting with children in the same

10:26

way that restrictions on smoking started

10:27

with children. But one reason we were

10:29

doing that was adults knew it probably

10:30

wasn't good for adults to smoke either.

10:32

And eventually most of the adults

10:33

stopped smoking, too. This is where I

10:35

see this is all going. Meta has lost the

10:37

argument here. They're now officially a

10:39

public nuisance. I bet they're going to

10:40

be labeled a public nuisance in more

10:42

states than that. And uh I I don't see

10:44

how they're going to get their way out

10:45

of it.

10:46

>> What about you, Kevin? I mean, I

10:48

remember Mark Benny off an interview

10:49

with me called him a cigarette company

10:51

before he decided to be a suckup. He was

10:53

actually quite on it early. um what how

10:56

do you look at these these cases because

10:58

it's public nuisance, it's product

10:59

liability, it's other ways to get at

11:02

them in a legal in a in a legal form

11:05

rather because our Congress has not been

11:07

able to pass any, you know, subsidy.

11:09

>> Yeah, I I think it's interesting sort of

11:10

where the the liability was found. It's

11:13

uh on these sort of policies targeted at

11:16

minors. The judge in this case did not

11:18

order Meta to change any of the sort of

11:21

plumbing of their systems. you know,

11:22

they don't have to take off infinite

11:24

scroll or autoplay or algorithmic

11:27

ranking. Um, like you do actually need

11:29

laws for that and there's some first

11:30

amendment issues around that if you have

11:32

judges sort of telling platforms how

11:34

they have to be designed. Um, but yeah,

11:36

I think this is a big deal. There's also

11:38

a bigger case that is uh that is coming

11:40

that is supposed to start this week uh

11:42

in Oakland that is another case

11:45

involving Meta and four states that are

11:47

seeking up to $1.4 trillion in damages.

11:51

So, you know, this case in New Mexico,

11:53

$942 million. Like, that is chump change

11:56

to Meta. Uh, I looked it up. That's

11:58

about 1.4 days worth of revenue over

12:00

there. So, not going to that, you know,

12:02

that that's the salary they're paying

12:03

one AI researcher over there. So, it's

12:06

not going to break the bank.

12:07

>> That's their argument to me. They're

12:08

like, "Oh, it's not it's smaller than

12:09

they asked for." I'm like, "This

12:10

[laughter] is not a good direction."

12:13

>> Right.

12:13

>> Right. But I think, you know, $1.4

12:14

trillion now you're talking real money.

12:17

Um, but even if you know it's it's

12:18

smaller than that, I think I think this

12:20

is just another sort of cloud hanging

12:21

over them as they're trying to do this

12:23

big pivot in their own business. They

12:25

kind of can't get away from the old one

12:26

because it it's sort of haunting them

12:27

through these court cases.

12:28

>> And where does it end up, both of you?

12:30

Where do you think this ends up?

12:31

>> Um, I mean, I I think the fact that

12:35

they've been labeled a public nuisance

12:36

because of their social media business

12:37

actually helps to explain why they're

12:38

they're leaning so hard into AI. Like,

12:40

look at what they say about their future

12:42

products. It's like, you know, we're

12:43

going to, you know, create a NeoCloud

12:44

and we want to give you a personal agent

12:46

to help you get all this stuff done at

12:48

work. That's a completely different

12:49

business that they're in right now. If

12:50

they were feeling really good about the

12:52

future of Facebook and Instagram, I

12:53

doubt that's how they would be talking

12:54

about the future. And it just sort of

12:56

clouds all their future AI stuff, too.

12:58

Like like the the meta glasses. I I I my

13:03

problematic trait is I I like them.

13:05

>> Um [laughter]

13:06

>> Well, you're a pervert. You're you're a

13:08

well-known creepy pervert.

13:09

>> Yeah, well-known pervert. But but like

13:11

now people are calling them pervert

13:12

glasses and I have to stop wearing them.

13:14

So you know this is like

13:15

>> they're pervert glasses. [laughter] Do

13:16

you see the people online they're

13:18

singing Disney songs because Disney like

13:21

so they can't post it.

13:22

>> Oh like when someone is filming you with

13:24

the glasses you start singing

13:25

copyrighted material.

13:26

>> Yeah. You start to do Frozen or

13:28

whatever. [laughter] Clever. Yeah. Yeah.

13:29

Isn't it? Yeah.

13:31

>> I like it. That explains why people are

13:33

constantly singing Frozen songs around

13:35

me.

13:35

>> Yeah. Or Taylor Swift. She'll come right

13:37

at [ __ ] she'll reach to those glasses

13:39

and like like knock you knock them off

13:42

your [ __ ] face. What are they going

13:43

to do about because this is their this

13:45

is like Google's was search. This is

13:46

their this is their nut, right? I mean

13:49

away from all the other stuff of handing

13:51

us agents or Elon's going to hand us a

13:53

robot that we don't want or an agent we

13:56

don't want from Facebook or something

13:57

like that. I mean like this is going to

13:59

be a long slow bleed out in the same way

14:01

that tobacco was a a long slow bleed out

14:03

and you know you can still get a job

14:05

working at Altria today if you you want

14:07

to make cigarettes. So I don't think

14:08

that you know Facebook and Instagram are

14:10

going away as businesses. I just believe

14:12

that they're going to place more and

14:14

more restrictions on them. Children are

14:15

going to begin to grow up without you

14:17

know starting an Instagram account when

14:19

they're 13. And just inevitably other

14:22

things will compete for people's time

14:23

and attention. They will find other

14:25

things to do. Um, and it it is going to

14:27

be trouble for Meta if they're not able

14:29

to realize their AI ambitions,

14:31

>> their which would agents we don't want.

14:33

Now, one more thing while we're on Meta,

14:34

we'll mention it it applies to a lot of

14:36

companies. A company is the latest AI

14:38

player to say one of its models went

14:40

rogue and hacked a third party service.

14:42

Talk about all these reports. How how

14:44

worried are you about them? This is now

14:46

open AI uh meta and then um uh Claude uh

14:52

anthropic. I I think it's more

14:54

complicated than we probably have time

14:56

to get into here. In terms of like the

14:57

hierarchy of seriousness, I would put

15:00

open AI number one and then anthropic

15:02

meta sort of distant second. In the meta

15:05

and um uh anthropic cases, there was a

15:08

third party provider named irregular

15:10

which failed to properly secure the

15:12

testing environment and that was the

15:14

source of the problem. Now there are you

15:15

know there are some AI alignment issues

15:17

there but that's basically the issue

15:18

with open AI like models that were in

15:21

training began to scheme. They create a

15:23

message board. They were leaving notes

15:25

for each other. They were just radically

15:26

misaligned. And you know that it it

15:28

points to all of the reasons why I'm

15:30

afraid of giving everyone a dragon.

15:32

>> All right. Okay. But misaligned is my

15:33

favorite word that they put instead of

15:35

just like, you know, scary [ __ ] is

15:37

how I was looking.

15:38

>> That's and more and more people are

15:40

calling them that now, which I guess.

15:42

Misalignment is the technical term for

15:44

scary [ __ ] Yeah,

15:45

>> scary [ __ ] So, what do you Kevin,

15:46

how do you look at this? Does this keeps

15:48

happening over and over again?

15:50

>> It's really bad. like the the the not

15:52

this particular meta one. I think that's

15:53

that's as Casey was saying like less of

15:55

a big deal. But the the issue is these

15:58

systems seem to be getting um less

16:01

altruistic as they get smarter. Right.

16:03

>> Right. We there was this sort of theory

16:04

in the AI safety and alignment community

16:07

for many years that the smarter these

16:08

systems got, the more like humans they

16:10

became, the more benevolent they would

16:12

be. They would sort of coordinate to do

16:14

good things for humans. That turns out

16:16

not to be the case. In fact, as we've

16:18

seen with this GPT 5.6 salt thing and

16:21

the and the h the hugging face incident,

16:24

the smarter you make these things, the

16:25

more able they are to circumvent their

16:27

guardrails, to scheme, to coordinate

16:29

with each other, to do these really

16:31

scary

16:32

>> things do like humans do.

16:34

>> Like like some humans do, right? Like

16:35

bad humans do. We try to train that

16:38

behavior out of humans during childhood

16:40

by telling them not to, you know, lie

16:41

and steal and murder.

16:43

>> Yeah, that works. these [laughter]

16:45

but these these systems do appear to be

16:47

showing what they call emergent

16:49

misalignment which is just these

16:50

behaviors that are not trained in that

16:52

just seem to pop out of the models at a

16:54

certain level of intelligence.

16:55

>> Can I ask you a famous essay obviously

16:57

where you were you were having a

16:58

relationship with your AI? Um can talk

17:01

how does it from that from what would

17:03

you write today if you were writing that

17:05

piece? So, the thing that really scared

17:07

me about uh the Sydney essay, the Sydney

17:10

where this Microsoft Bing chat,

17:12

>> what year was this? This was

17:14

>> 2023,

17:14

>> right? Okay.

17:15

>> Uh and it tried to break up my marriage

17:18

unsuccessfully, I should add, still

17:19

happily married uh to a human. And um

17:22

but the thing that really scared me

17:24

about that was not that that the system

17:26

was like capable of doing destructive

17:27

things. It's like what happens when like

17:29

the fourth or fifth generation of this

17:32

becomes capable of like taking actions

17:34

>> right

17:35

>> on the internet like what if instead of

17:37

>> cutting your wife's brakes or something

17:38

like that

17:39

>> or drain draining her bank account or

17:41

yeah like doing something really

17:43

nefarious in pursuit of this this

17:45

misaligned goal that it had. And so I

17:49

think that's the thing that a lot of

17:50

people missed at the time was like it's

17:52

not about the chatbot saying spooky

17:54

stuff. It's about the the fact that

17:56

these things now can take actions and

17:58

are being set loose on the open internet

18:00

where they can conduct autonomous cyber

18:02

attacks. They can coordinate. They can

18:04

as of recently like create novel

18:07

viruses. Um and so like the the the more

18:11

autonomous and agentic you make these

18:13

things, the more powerful they are, the

18:15

scarier it gets

18:16

>> without any government anybody having

18:19

any control over them. Correct. Because

18:20

they will do that. That that is what

18:22

they're designed to do. Right. Also, I

18:23

think it's important to say that right

18:25

now there are essentially no controls on

18:27

the internal models that these companies

18:29

are building. Right? There is nothing

18:30

that restricts them from building the

18:31

absolute most powerful model they can.

18:33

Now, if they want to release it, they

18:34

have to submit to a voluntary testing

18:37

regime. But if you just want to, you

18:38

know, build your own model and let it go

18:39

nuts on the internet yourself, you're

18:41

welcome to.

18:42

>> So, what happens? What what what who who

18:44

is going to intervene here? I I think

18:47

what the what you're seeing in the Trump

18:49

administration is what the future looks

18:50

like, which is you have a bunch of

18:52

people who were sort of whistling past

18:53

the graveyard and then all of a sudden

18:55

someone shows them something that makes

18:56

them say, "Oh [ __ ] we we actually have

18:57

to have a strategy for this." So that's

18:59

what's happening in the Trump

19:00

administration now. I think you're going

19:01

to see the same thing happen in in China

19:03

sometime in the next like 3 to 6 months

19:05

when they have an open source model

19:06

there that causes a big problem and

19:08

chairman she says, "hm, maybe we're not

19:09

just going to open source everything

19:11

forever." So like our Kevin and I just

19:13

firmly believe that within the next year

19:15

or so like many many many more people

19:18

are going to become radicalized about AI

19:20

safety because you're just going to

19:21

start to see the havoc being raw in the

19:23

real world.

19:23

>> What is the worst case scenario Kevin

19:25

from your perspective?

19:26

>> Human extinction. That'd be pretty bad.

19:28

>> That that okay they they talked about

19:30

you know dinner parties 101 15 years

19:32

ago. This is what exactly what they

19:33

talked about. They they understood

19:35

>> but the thing is they were right. Like

19:37

it sounded crazy and everyone wrote them

19:39

off as crazy when they were talking

19:40

about things like what if the agents

19:43

team up and they're really powerful and

19:44

they go coordinate to like hack some

19:47

hack some website and everyone you know

19:49

in computer science was like ah that's

19:51

science fiction that's spooky stories

19:53

that'll never happen [laughter]

19:55

>> and now it's happening

19:56

>> thing to do is not TO PLAY

19:59

>> YOU KNOW I went back and rewatched War

20:01

Games earlier this year they did a

20:03

screening in San Francisco incredible

20:04

movie and seriously like I Don't know

20:06

that you could make a better movie about

20:07

AI safety than that movie.

20:09

>> I would agree. It's like, you know, of

20:10

course, teaching a tic-tac-toe is not

20:12

going to stop it at this point, right?

20:14

>> Yeah. [laughter]

20:14

>> Ah, the game is stupid.

20:16

>> As any three-year-old knows, the entire

20:18

game is Oh, god. I swear to God. Let's

20:21

bring back Matt. That would be

20:22

interesting to update that movie.

20:23

>> Yeah.

20:24

>> Like he's an adult.

20:25

>> Yes. War Games 2. Let's green light.

20:27

>> War Games 2. What happens? We're all

20:29

dead. Like, anyway. All right. Let's go

20:31

on a quick break. We come back. Data

20:33

Center Wars related.

20:35

This is advertiser content from Harvey

20:37

AI. We have a choice over who we work

20:39

with and who we don't. Specifically, who

20:40

we allow to advertise and who we don't.

20:42

And for those of you who watch my

20:43

content, [music] I am not an AI

20:45

catastrophist. I'm an AI optimist. I

20:47

think it's going to create more jobs

20:49

than it destroys. And I think our job as

20:51

professionals is to figure out how to

20:53

leverage these these tools. AI more than

20:56

almost anything I do in terms of what I

20:57

could point to for real economic

20:59

leverage and savings [music] is 100% in

21:02

the legal fields. Harvey is the AI

21:04

designed specifically for legal work,

21:06

trusted by leading law firms and

21:07

enterprise legal teams. All right, so

21:10

now I'm looking at their demo. It plugs

21:14

into tools that lawyers already work

21:16

with, Lexus, Nexus, Microsoft, and this

21:19

is a key, and I do this internally with

21:20

my LLMs with permissions. It lets you

21:24

look at the firm's own files and

21:27

databases. [music]

21:29

So here it's answering a question, reads

21:31

the complaint, pulls the relevant terms,

21:34

checks [music] the web, weighs the

21:35

evidence, and drafts a response. But it

21:38

also can do this in a shared workspace

21:40

between the [music] firm and the client.

21:42

So they both have visibility into the

21:44

work being done and can both add value

21:45

to it. I I think this space is clearly

21:50

sort of handinand glove for AI, right?

21:52

So there's no doubt about it. This I

21:54

think is uh is going to be super helpful

21:57

not only for law firms themselves but

21:59

internally for general counsels at

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[music] companies. Harvey is AI tailored

22:05

for law. You can learn more at

22:07

harvey.ai.

22:11

Uh Casey and Kevin, we're back. Amazon

22:14

is investing in a massive natural gas uh

22:16

burning power plant to support a new AI

22:18

data center in Texas. It could become

22:20

the largest single source of climate

22:22

pollution in the country. The project

22:23

comes as the fight over data centers

22:25

intensifies. Trump is pretty bullish,

22:27

recently criticizing Texas for pausing

22:29

grid connections for new data centers.

22:31

He called the move a mistake and said

22:33

data centers could be quote bigger than

22:35

oil. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered

22:37

the pause so regulators can review power

22:39

demands and the impact on the electric

22:41

grid not unsimilar to Kathy Hokll in New

22:44

York, which is interesting. Before we

22:45

get into all this, I just did an entire

22:47

episode, 90 minutes episode on data

22:49

centers. Let's listen to a clip of Aaron

22:51

Brockovich talking about what she's been

22:53

seeing.

22:54

>> It's the water. It's the electrical

22:56

grid. It's the cost of utilities. It's

22:59

the noise. It's the air pollution. It's

23:01

the loss of our land, our sanctuary.

23:04

This is an absolute runaway

23:08

train. And it is probably one of the

23:12

biggest conversations that I've ever

23:14

seen in my 30 years in my career that is

23:19

political. It could be bipartisan.

23:22

Everybody's going to have to be

23:23

involved. I am perplexed. Cara, why are

23:27

leaders don't listen to the people? And

23:31

there's a movement happening and a shift

23:35

that

23:36

I don't think these big tech companies

23:39

or giants saw coming. In any case, it

23:42

was a great interview. We had people

23:43

from Utah, from Virginia, that's another

23:46

I think that's another Amazon facility

23:48

there. Um, and and other places. And I

23:50

also had a mayor from Lancing, Michigan,

23:53

who was trying to put in a good data

23:54

center and was pushed back. like they

23:56

had all the guard rails that that people

23:59

have suggested and he couldn't get it

24:02

through um as much as he tried to close

24:04

loop uh paybacks etc etc etc. So what's

24:09

the big move for tech as the backlash

24:11

grows? And speaking of politicians, uh,

24:13

Vivec Ramaswami who's running for

24:15

governor of Ohio is pledging that if

24:17

data center is built and the community

24:19

residents will no longer have to pay for

24:20

their electricity and property taxes

24:22

will be lowered. Of course, he was

24:23

totally for them recently. But talk

24:25

about this data center thing. This is

24:27

something Scott and I have been talking

24:28

about for months and months and months

24:29

and months, like almost a year. Um I

24:32

think it it's caught them all unawares

24:33

and they're trying very hard to push

24:35

back but it does have some something is

24:38

happening with voters and we call it a

24:39

proxy for AI worry as we just this

24:43

extinction for example what we're just

24:45

talking about. Uh what do you all think

24:47

is happening here?

24:48

>> I think it's it's it's what you said. I

24:50

think that people have just rightly

24:51

intuited that it is not obvious that

24:53

powerful AI is going to be good for

24:55

their lives. That is largely because the

24:58

leaders of the biggest AI labs spent the

25:00

past few years saying that the near-term

25:03

trajectory of AI is that first it's

25:05

going to take your job, eventually it

25:06

might kill you, maybe somewhere in

25:07

between it'll cure cancer. That doesn't

25:09

feel like a good bargain to the average

25:11

American. And so they're using the one

25:12

lever that every American has in every

25:14

municipality, which is that it's pretty

25:16

easy to get uh something to not get

25:18

built, right? And um it is interesting

25:20

to me actually how quickly the industry

25:22

has come around and said, "Okay, well,

25:23

how can we pay these people off? like

25:24

we'll agree to, you know, cover our own

25:26

electricity costs. And, you know, you

25:28

can see in the Zuckerberg note today,

25:30

they're making new promises about

25:32

investments that they're going to be

25:33

making to local communities and $50,000

25:35

bonuses to teachers. I I have to say

25:36

like I'm very skeptical that any of this

25:39

is really going to work because until

25:40

people believe that AI is going to be

25:42

really good for them personally, they're

25:44

going to continue to have reasons to

25:45

oppose the the construction of new of

25:47

new data centers,

25:47

>> right? No matter what the deal happens

25:49

to be, like these payoffs are kind of

25:51

here, we'll give you some money and then

25:53

you'll, you know, then you'll suck it up

25:55

and take our natural gas [ __ ]

25:57

Kevin,

25:58

>> yeah, I I agree with everything that's

26:00

been said. What's really interesting

26:01

about this Texas thing is that it's

26:02

coming from a Republican state. So, you

26:05

know, Governor Abbott is is um requiring

26:07

new data center construction to sort of

26:09

go through this review process. Uh up

26:11

until now, what we've seen is largely

26:13

blue states being opposed to data

26:14

centers and red states being open to

26:16

them. And I think the politics are

26:17

shifting really quickly because there is

26:19

no natural constituency in favor of data

26:22

centers except for AI companies, right?

26:24

There's like no there's no group of

26:25

people other than, you know, taxpayers

26:27

who want to see their their property

26:29

taxes go down or get some more revenue

26:31

that is sort of a natural supporter of

26:33

these data centers. And so I think what

26:35

we're seeing is like this is becoming a

26:36

really salient political issue. I expect

26:39

data centers and AI backlash to be one

26:41

of the central issues in the midterms

26:43

and maybe the central issue in the 2028

26:46

election and I don't know that it's

26:48

going to divide neatly along partisan

26:49

lines. I

26:50

>> I think it's actually most people are

26:51

against it. Like it's very interesting

26:53

to the mayor was was really interesting

26:55

because they tried literally everything.

26:57

They had prop again property taxes

26:59

closed loop water. there's all these

27:01

issues around closed water by the way um

27:03

because of this glycosinate or something

27:05

they have to put in the you know every

27:07

and they have a lot of water up there he

27:08

was making the point compared to other

27:10

places which have you know have water

27:12

issues um or drought issues one of the

27:15

things that I found really interesting

27:16

among all the people is how um not just

27:19

Aaron Brock because she's famous for

27:21

that but the woman from Virginia from

27:23

Utah reasonable people who are furious

27:26

like I it was really interesting kind of

27:28

dined out on information and really do

27:30

know their stuff. Whether it's the it's

27:33

the um the the impact on climate,

27:36

whether it's it's not overall climate,

27:38

it's the climate of the area and also

27:39

pollution, uh taxes, jobs. They're very

27:43

aware these are not job creators, which

27:45

is what Facebook has been trying

27:47

mightily to put out. They don't like the

27:49

secrecy. The secrecy seems to really get

27:52

under their skin, which I would agree.

27:53

The NDAs, as you talked about before,

27:55

what is the solution for tech companies

27:57

to do? Mark is trying to do this by here

27:59

have 50 here have some money. Um Elon

28:02

just goes ahead and does it and just

28:03

waits for lawsuits. I mean that's his

28:05

style, right? Which I think has caused

28:07

much damage initially in terms of that

28:10

image. And then you of course you have

28:11

Kevin uh what's his name from Shark

28:13

Tank, Mr. Wonderful who's not so

28:15

wonderful who's a [ __ ] who is who had

28:17

created all kinds of problems there.

28:19

What is the solution like besides

28:21

removing these people from visuals? I

28:24

mean, I could tell you what Meta is

28:26

doing, which is like putting together

28:27

local like lobbying and outreach teams,

28:30

trying to figure out what kind of

28:31

community partnerships can we strike,

28:33

what can we do with a local sports team.

28:35

Like, there's going to be a massive PR

28:37

campaign designed to get people to

28:39

believe that data centers are good for

28:41

them. And I'm just pretty skeptical.

28:44

>> Ignore your third ear. We're going to

28:47

going to back the softball team kind of.

28:49

>> Yeah. I I have an idea. Can I submit my

28:51

idea?

28:51

>> Submit your idea.

28:52

>> Okay. Picture this. a data center. It's

28:54

it's, you know, it's got, you know,

28:56

millions of these chips humming away,

28:58

produc throwing off all kinds of heat.

29:00

And then on the roof, you have a spa

29:02

castle that's like heated by the the the

29:04

heat

29:05

>> from the data centers. And so it's like,

29:07

do you guys want to go hang out at the

29:09

spa on the roof of the data center

29:11

that's heated by the the runoff heat

29:13

from the chips? Don't you think that

29:14

would make these things more popular?

29:16

>> How can they pay for the spa if they

29:17

don't have jobs? Just

29:19

>> it's free. This is part of the package.

29:21

>> Free spot. So, they're going to put a

29:22

data center. It might uh, you know,

29:24

cause environmental damage in your

29:25

community, but free spa. Everyone loves

29:27

a spa.

29:28

>> What What is the actual I mean,

29:29

obviously locating them elsewhere.

29:31

Obviously, Elon is saying they're going

29:32

to put them on the moon, which good luck

29:34

with that, but or in space. Um, there

29:37

this is a big country, right? They could

29:39

they could presumably put it in places

29:41

where nobody's living. Um, although

29:43

there's all sorts of environmental

29:44

concerns anywhere they go. What what

29:46

what will happen here? What what what

29:48

shove is going to come to push from your

29:50

perspective? I I mean I the the the push

29:52

that is coming to shove right now is

29:54

that something like 71% of Americans are

29:56

opposed to new data center construction.

29:57

So that just is going to slow the

29:59

buildout of data centers in the country.

30:01

Now some people will say it does it

30:03

won't matter because US tech labs will

30:06

go into other countries and they'll just

30:07

put their data centers there. But I sort

30:09

of assume that the same reasons that

30:11

Americans oppose data centers will be

30:13

reasons that people in other countries

30:14

oppose them as well. So, I do just think

30:16

that this is starting to look like a

30:18

kind of natural limiter on the rate of

30:21

AI acceleration because again, these

30:24

leaders keep telling us that AI is going

30:26

to take our jobs and kill us. So, until

30:28

that changes, I don't see

30:29

>> they have tried to change. They're not

30:30

going they've tried to say they're going

30:32

to help us make recipes with our

30:34

children. They are, but it's like you

30:35

can just kind of tell like they used to

30:38

argue for the the sort of the the doom

30:40

and the economic disruption so

30:42

forcefully and then you look at how they

30:44

have walked it back and it's so gently

30:46

and it's just not convincing, right?

30:48

Like ultimately if you believe that you

30:50

are building super intelligence,

30:51

something that is smarter than every

30:53

person and you're telling me it's not

30:54

going to take any jobs in any meaningful

30:56

way, it's just sort of beggars belief at

30:58

least to me.

30:59

>> Right. Right. So Kevin, what do you what

31:00

would be besides your spa idea? What do

31:03

they have to do? [laughter]

31:05

>> They're sort of like they were standing

31:06

next to Trump at the end when I that

31:08

happened. I was like, "Oh dear, this is

31:09

not going to end well for them because

31:11

of they do look like bureaucrats and you

31:14

know, they just have a vi the visual is

31:16

so strong." I I think a large part of it

31:18

is just going to be like there are going

31:20

to be a couple states that just decide,

31:21

you know what, we're okay with data

31:22

centers and they're going to re they're

31:24

going to have the leverage to demand

31:26

like massive amounts of tax revenue from

31:28

these data centers and they're going to

31:30

get schools built and public parks built

31:32

and there will be some economic upside

31:35

for their residents and maybe their

31:36

residents will still hate it. Um, but I

31:38

think there will be sort of a natural

31:40

like there will be a couple states that

31:42

just kind of decide to run the

31:43

experiment and that's where all the data

31:45

centers will go. you like Tennessee

31:46

offering to be Hollywood because of the

31:48

Paramount merger thing, right? Because

31:50

everyone wants Hollywood and Tennessee

31:52

because that's that's the sexiest place

31:54

on earth. Um, so so one of the things

31:57

that's also happening is more and more

31:59

companies are pushing back against AI

32:01

slop. This is sort of the everyone hates

32:03

AI episode, which seems to be everywhere

32:05

these including the president's social

32:07

media accounts. Snapchat now says it

32:08

will stop recommending fully AI

32:10

generated videos in its spotlight feed.

32:12

Instead, rewarding authentic humanmade

32:14

content. LinkedIn just introduced a

32:16

seems like AI slot button allowing users

32:19

to flag posts they think were written

32:20

with AI and Substack has also rolled out

32:22

a tool to help readers uh identify AI

32:25

generated writing. Meanwhile, Meta has

32:27

Instagram feature that let uh users

32:30

modify photos from public accounts with

32:32

AI. That feature was removed after a

32:34

backlash. Um where are we with AI slop?

32:37

And obviously sore closed down. Um I I

32:40

always thought this looks terrible and I

32:42

don't know why people would want to use

32:43

it. It's sort of like a Twinkie of

32:45

photos. It's ruined uh pet photos, pet

32:49

videos for Scott Galloway, who loves pet

32:52

videos. Um talk a little bit about where

32:54

this is going.

32:55

>> I like to call this the third era of

32:56

slop. The first era of slop was we all

32:58

hate this. The second era of slop was hm

33:01

actually this like Fruit Love Island on

33:03

Tik Tok show is really engaging and

33:04

you're starting to see tens of millions

33:06

of views on slop content on social

33:08

feeds, right? I think the third era was

33:10

platforms getting really nervous that

33:12

even if people liked the slop, it was

33:14

going to devalue their networks. Like

33:16

particularly networks where people were

33:18

coming to find human voices that they

33:20

really trusted. So if you're Substack or

33:22

your LinkedIn, you really need people to

33:25

believe that what they're seeing there

33:26

are human beings cuz otherwise you're

33:28

not going to get out your credit card to

33:29

pay for that LinkedIn premium or to

33:31

subscribe to a Substack. So I think

33:33

platforms are starting to get clear on

33:34

what is the promise that we are making

33:36

to our user because if the promise is a

33:38

human being they have to do something

33:39

about the slop.

33:40

>> Kevin

33:41

>> I think that that's right and I think

33:42

the fourth wave of slop will be when

33:44

there's like no longer any meaningful

33:46

quality hit in slop when like the

33:48

average piece of slop is better than the

33:50

the best human in that field. And I

33:54

don't think we're there yet. Like I

33:55

think these models are still pretty bad

33:56

at things like creative writing, but

33:58

we're starting to see signs that like

34:00

there's not necessarily a lot of uh

34:02

difference between the highest level

34:04

slop and the highest level humans. I'

34:06

I've been sort of obsessed with this

34:07

story about this novel that um had the

34:10

the sort of bidding war of all bidding

34:11

wars break out for it. Have you seen

34:13

this thing? Uh Call Me, I'll hide the

34:15

Body, you know, 14 publishers bid on

34:17

this this this novel. It sells for $2.4

34:21

million. And then it's like people

34:23

start, you know, looking into it. It

34:25

like turns out it's, you know, at least

34:27

according to the critics, it's like

34:28

predominantly written by AI. And I think

34:31

that kind of thing is going to be much

34:34

more common as these systems just get

34:36

better across the board.

34:38

>> Right. I would agree. I I I like some of

34:40

it. You know, I people always think I

34:41

don't know that it's AI. There was a

34:42

really cool AI one which I was fully

34:44

aware it was AI which was this drone

34:47

with um with a thing to rescue people in

34:49

the ocean and like an inner tube

34:52

essentially on a drone and it landed on

34:54

the person. I knew it was AI. I just

34:56

thought it was a cool idea. I was like

34:57

what a cool idea and I could visually

34:59

see it. Why don't we make that? Like to

35:01

me that was kind of cool.

35:02

>> But would you be mad, Cara, if you read

35:04

a book and you really liked it and you

35:06

thought it was a great book and then you

35:07

realized after the fact that it was

35:09

written by AI? You would

35:10

>> if it was told to me that it was a

35:11

human. I'd like them to tell the truth

35:13

at the start, right? So then I have a

35:14

choice. Would I if I want to read it?

35:16

No, I don't. No, no, I don't. It's fine

35:19

as long as I know it.

35:20

>> I mean, like I have been thinking lately

35:22

about like there are like I have a few

35:24

ideas for mystery novels that I don't

35:25

have the time to write, but I would like

35:27

to read them. And so like if in the

35:29

future I could actually get one of these

35:30

models to just generate the mystery that

35:32

I want to read,

35:34

>> I think it could be pretty fun. Like and

35:35

I understand somebody might hear that

35:37

and be like that's horrible. Just like

35:38

read human written mysteries. And I'll

35:39

continue to do that. But Karen, I think

35:41

you're hitting on something really

35:42

important, which is that these things

35:43

are good creative tools and creative

35:45

tools are cool and fun.

35:46

>> Yeah, I agree. I mean, one of the like

35:48

like I don't know, I know it sounds

35:50

crazy that would never happen, but like

35:51

I'd like more episodes of The West Wing.

35:53

Like, and no one's going to write them.

35:55

I don't mind doing it for myself. It's

35:57

sort of like fanfiction, like kind of

35:59

stuff like that. And some of it, people

36:01

will be mad for saying this, but some of

36:02

it's okay, and some of it's not okay,

36:06

right? Like when it's when it's hidden,

36:09

when it's done in a way. And I think the

36:10

issue is job taking jobs from people,

36:12

right? It's sort of like fake food.

36:14

Like, you know, I I don't like Twinkies,

36:16

but a lot of people do. Do do should

36:19

maybe people shouldn't eat them. I'm not

36:21

sure I should tell them not to eat them.

36:22

I can tell them I don't want to pay for

36:23

their health care once they keep eating

36:25

them exclusively. Um, and that's a

36:28

debate to have, right? People who

36:30

willingly go out and really don't take

36:32

care of themselves. Should should we pay

36:34

for their health care is a really good

36:36

debate, like is a good debate to have as

36:37

a as a nation. But one of the I I don't

36:40

I not if I know not if they I would like

36:43

them to label them better. That's the

36:45

one thing is I mostly know when it's AI

36:48

or just assume it's AI until proven

36:50

otherwise. Maybe they should label the

36:51

authentic content. Probably smaller a

36:54

smaller group of stuff I would assume.

36:57

>> I think we're just going to have to get

36:58

to that place. There are all sorts of

36:59

reasons why you want people to be able

37:01

to verify their identity online or like

37:03

verify that this has you know human

37:05

craftsmanship embedded in it. Um, I

37:07

think that's actually really technical

37:08

to or it's really difficult to do

37:10

technically.

37:10

>> I scanned my eyeballs in the orb. Did

37:12

you Did either of [laughter] you get the

37:13

orbs? Not yet.

37:14

>> No. Did you scan your eyeballs?

37:16

>> I did. I'm a verified human. I've I've

37:18

I've gazed into the orb and the We know

37:20

that's coming. That we know that's

37:22

absolutely [ __ ] coming. I think it it

37:25

doesn't have to be slop. I don't like

37:26

the slop. And you can tell the slop,

37:28

right? When it's just really bad.

37:30

Doesn't have to be slop. It can be

37:31

interesting, especially when there is

37:33

human input into it. could it just could

37:36

be interesting, I guess. I don't I'm not

37:38

so angry about it. But I definitely when

37:40

I saw Sora for the first time, I think I

37:41

was actually at OpenAI and Sam showed it

37:43

to me and I was like, this sucks. Like,

37:45

is it going to be good? Cuz it sucks

37:46

right now. Some of it was cool. Some

37:48

most of it was not. And so, I think it's

37:50

just a question of it gets better. All

37:52

right, boys. Let's go on a quick break.

37:54

We come back, new details of OpenAI's

37:56

first device. Speaking of which, support

37:59

for this show comes from Upwork. If

38:01

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upwork.com/pivot.

39:06

Casey and Kevin, we're back. We're

39:08

getting into new details about OpenAI's

39:09

upcoming AI smart speaker. There's a lot

39:12

of these around. Will reportedly be

39:13

donutshaped and the size of a hockey

39:16

puck designed to be easily carried

39:18

around. I always want to carry a hockey

39:19

puck around the house. The device will

39:21

likely cost between $300 and $400, more

39:23

than most smart speakers, but less than

39:25

an iPhone is expected to launch in 2027.

39:29

It's designed with Johnny IV studio and

39:31

will include a camera, lights, and

39:33

sensors at signal when it's responding

39:35

to users. Uh, meanwhile, Open AAI is uh

39:38

asking a judge dismiss Apple's trade

39:40

secrets lawsuit, saying it's building

39:41

something entirely new and different

39:43

from anything at Apple. Um, I want you

39:45

both put on your Scott Galloway Hudson,

39:47

give me a prediction. Is this talk a

39:48

little bit about this device? Now, there

39:50

was a tiny there was was it Google that

39:53

had the tiny hockey puck thing or was it

39:55

I can't remember who put that out.

39:56

>> Well, Amazon has the Echo Dot which is

39:58

kind of

39:59

>> Yeah, it looks like a hockey puck,

40:00

right? That's Amazon which Alex threw

40:02

into the garbage, but go ahead. [gasps]

40:05

>> Yeah, I mean on one hand it seems clear

40:08

that there is demand for Echo Dots,

40:10

right? And so if there is a version of

40:12

that that is plugged into chat GPT,

40:14

which is really good for a lot of

40:15

things, I could see it having some

40:17

success. $300 is relatively affordable

40:19

as as these things go. I'm still not

40:22

totally sold on voice as the way that I

40:25

want to interact with these models. And

40:27

some people are, some people are already

40:28

like coding with their voices. Kevin

40:30

loves to dictate everything into his

40:31

computer. I don't like to do this. But I

40:33

do I think there's something there. Now,

40:35

on the other hand, two years ago, we

40:37

were interviewing Sam Alolman and I

40:38

said, "Tell me about this thing that

40:39

you're building. Is it just Alexa? Cuz

40:41

it sounds like it's it's just Alexa." He

40:43

said, "No, no, no. We think it's going

40:44

to be way better than Alexa. Everything

40:45

I've read about this device so far makes

40:47

me feel like it's Alexa."

40:48

>> That's right. It's a smart it's a

40:49

smarter Alexa, right? Essentially, it

40:51

feel And carrying it around, Kevin.

40:54

>> Yeah. I cannot wait to lose this thing.

40:56

>> Yeah. Yeah.

40:57

>> I am so excited to go through between

40:59

two and three of these a year or like

41:01

accidentally put it in the laundry. Um,

41:03

this is going to be a huge deal in my

41:05

house. I'm I'm gonna be a huge repeat

41:07

customer for this thing because I will

41:09

do you want to have this hockey puck?

41:11

>> Yes. I mean, look, I I my household my

41:14

my one of my other problematic traits is

41:16

that I I do live in an Alexa household u

41:18

and we have these devices and I've tried

41:21

the new Alexa plus which is supposed to

41:23

be the sort of new AI, you know, LLM

41:26

version of this and it sucks. It's bad.

41:29

It is not only bad at the AI stuff, the

41:31

LLM stuff. It's bad at the timers and,

41:33

you know, weather stuff. It like is

41:35

worse at all of it. And so if OpenAI can

41:37

somehow figure out how to like be the

41:40

dependable alarm in my bedroom and tell

41:42

me, you know, stuff that like it let me

41:44

interact with my coding agents, like

41:47

that will be cool. Um, I am a little

41:50

nervous that apparently according to

41:51

Mark German at Bloomberg, this thing

41:53

will include parts that move on their

41:54

own. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

41:57

Um,

41:58

>> what do you mean it's going to crawl

41:58

over to your face and eat it?

42:00

>> I don't know. Maybe it'll, you know,

42:01

it'll decide I don't want to be in the

42:03

bedroom anymore. There's a there's too

42:04

much crazy stuff going on in here. It's

42:06

going to have like a prehensel tail and

42:08

claws.

42:08

>> I know. Doesn't it feel like that? It

42:10

feels like a movie. Like Megan, remember

42:12

the Megan movie? Um I just don't I

42:15

Sorry. I I think this has to be I think

42:18

AirPods should just be better, right?

42:21

You wear them in your ears, it sees

42:23

things, and then it does stuff. Like I

42:25

just don't see carrying around a puck. I

42:28

just don't any There's no way I'm buying

42:29

this thing. I didn't like the dot. I

42:31

just I left it there. I just didn't use

42:33

it. I was back in San Francisco recently

42:35

and this week and I forgot I had an

42:37

Alexa there unplugged sitting there and

42:39

I don't I put it on for a second and you

42:42

know my kids had fun for 4 seconds with

42:44

it and then moved on from it. I just I I

42:46

it's still not I could see having

42:49

something like the humane pin didn't

42:50

work. What was the other one? Humane and

42:52

what was the other one?

42:53

>> The rabbit

42:55

friend pendant. I I think the

42:57

manufacturers just keep running into the

42:59

same issue which is that it's very hard

43:01

to improve on the phone. The phone is

43:02

very very very good at many many things

43:05

and so to improve on it is just

43:06

overwhelmingly difficult.

43:08

>> Yeah, it has to be in it has to be

43:09

AirPods. I just I feel like that's where

43:11

it has to go. Not glasses necessarily

43:13

creepy Kevin glasses but in some fashion

43:16

like that it's sort of around and or

43:19

maybe it's in your house like the house

43:21

itself speaks to you. Maybe not. I'm

43:24

excited for when people start like

43:26

disguising their OpenAI pucks as like

43:28

other like things because there's such a

43:30

social stigma around like carrying one

43:32

of these things into a public place.

43:34

It's just like, "Oh, this little uh this

43:36

is my hockey puck. It's just my lucky

43:38

lucky hockey puck. I carry it

43:39

everywhere."

43:40

>> So, let me get Casey will not be having

43:42

one and Kevin, you will embrace it with

43:44

the love the great

43:45

>> I will make up for Casey's uh rejection

43:47

of this technology by buying and losing

43:49

between three and four of them a year. I

43:51

listen, I will probably get one. If it's

43:52

300 bucks, I'll probably try it.

43:54

>> I say no. It's not gonna work. Not I

43:56

don't think I don't want it. It's like

43:58

I've had these and they they have shown

44:00

you have to be so much better than an

44:03

Echo Dot and I don't know where my Echo

44:05

Dot is. It's somewhere in a box, right?

44:07

Like there's so many of these things and

44:08

the humane pin like it wasn't quite

44:11

right. And you're right, the phone works

44:12

just fine.

44:13

>> I just want the the agent that goes

44:15

rogue and like hacks into my uh my

44:18

accounts and you know drains my bank

44:20

accounts. I want it to have a physical

44:21

form so that I can yell at it.

44:23

>> I see.

44:23

>> And so this is like a very exciting

44:25

development.

44:26

>> I like that drains your bank accounts is

44:27

your favorite thing. Like

44:29

>> here's my question. If you take the the

44:31

OpenAI device into the bedroom and then

44:33

after a couple months say rate my sexual

44:35

performance and give me tips, will it do

44:37

that or will that be a violation of

44:39

content policies?

44:40

>> Well, if you asked it right

44:42

>> interesting to think about.

44:43

>> I'm just interesting to think about.

44:44

It's not really that interesting to

44:46

think about. [laughter] It's kind of

44:47

gross, but Okay. All right. Is that what

44:50

you're doing that doing? Casey's getting

44:52

married. You know that, Kevin.

44:53

>> I am. I I do know that. Carrie, you have

44:55

to understand that part a big part of uh

44:57

co-hosting a podcast with Casey is just

44:59

is just polite laughing at at [laughter]

45:01

some of his jokes.

45:02

>> See, I am lucky I can say, "Scott,

45:04

that's the stupidest. You ignorant

45:06

slut." I [laughter] think that's You

45:07

need to move to that, Casey. You

45:10

ignorant [ __ ]

45:11

>> Listen, we were all thinking it.

45:13

>> You're all thinking it. You're all

45:14

thinking it. By the way, Casey is

45:15

getting married. We're all very excited.

45:16

We're going to all be at the wedding.

45:18

It's going to be so much fun.

45:19

>> It's going to be very fun.

45:19

>> It's going to be fun. We're going to do

45:21

something embarrassing. We have to We

45:22

have Kevin, you and I need to talk.

45:23

>> Flash mob.

45:24

>> Yes, [laughter] we'll do a flash mob.

45:26

We'll talk to the puck. We'll talk to

45:28

What is it going to be called, by the

45:29

way? Do we know what the puck [laughter]

45:30

is going to be called?

45:31

>> Johnny Ival come up with something.

45:33

>> I mean, the way things are going, it's

45:35

just going to be called Sam.

45:36

>> No, it's be called Sam.

45:38

>> That's a good name.

45:39

>> Yeah,

45:40

>> I think that's a good name, actually.

45:42

You think he'll do it? You know, he'll

45:44

they'll they'll say like, well, it's an

45:45

acronym for like censient autonomous

45:47

machine or something, but it'll it'll

45:48

just be called Sam.

45:50

>> Hey, that works. Anyway, uh Casey and

45:53

Kevin, one more quick break. We'll be

45:54

back for wins and fails.

45:57

>> Support for this show [music] comes from

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code pivot.

47:04

Okay, Casey and Kevin, let's hear some

47:05

wins and fails. You guys go first.

47:07

First, you Kevin.

47:08

>> Okay. My win this week is Duck Duck. Go

47:13

uh the privacy focused search company.

47:16

Uh who responded to the uproar over

47:19

Meta's uh sunglasses, their pervert

47:21

glasses by releasing their own uh

47:24

branded product, which are just called

47:26

normal [ __ ] sunglasses. Uh [laughter]

47:28

they don't do anything.

47:31

>> Well, they protect you from the sun,

47:33

right? Yes. Uh, so they are

47:35

anti-surveillance glasses. No cameras,

47:38

no microphones. Uh, this is sort of an

47:40

attention grabbing stunt for them, but I

47:42

did think it was clever.

47:43

>> That's a good idea. What is your fail?

47:45

>> My fail, this is one that's close to

47:47

home, y'all. This is uh related to the

47:49

podcast business. So, Max Tanny at

47:52

Semaphore recently reported that Spotify

47:54

is testing a skip ahead button that will

47:57

let some users skip the ads on their

47:59

podcasts. And as a lover of adup

48:02

supported podcasts, I must say uh this

48:04

one is a fail for me.

48:06

>> Isn't it kind of already there though? I

48:07

was like reading sort of into don't they

48:09

already have the

48:10

>> Well, they have the skip ahead 15

48:11

seconds button or 30 seconds or whatever

48:13

it is button which is effectively the

48:15

same thing, but this one is like purely

48:17

like will skip automatically to the end

48:19

of whatever uh ad segment you have.

48:21

>> You think they'll do that podcast

48:23

>> except for their ads, right? That's what

48:25

I understand.

48:26

>> That's the that's sort of the some of

48:27

the rub here. But I think there's just

48:28

like, you know, we should we should all

48:30

stand up as podcasters in opposition to

48:32

anything that could undercut our

48:34

business model.

48:34

>> I don't care. People don't like your I

48:36

don't know. I don't know. I don't I I

48:38

think they'll they'll roll it back. I

48:39

don't think they'll do it. They'll just

48:40

have the 15-second thing, right? I just

48:42

don't see them doing that.

48:44

>> Yeah. I There's been some opposition

48:45

from podcast companies already and and

48:48

people are worried about this. I I think

48:49

they'll land on something sensible, but

48:51

uh you know, we got we got to stand up

48:54

for ourselves. You know,

48:55

>> stand up. Listen to our ads for Athletic

48:57

Greens. You must. You must because it's

48:59

paying.

49:00

>> Where will people know about MeUndies

49:02

goes into [laughter] effect?

49:03

>> Do you have MeUndies? I never got

49:05

MeUndies. So sad. I would let MeUndies

49:08

come to pivot. Anyways, Casey,

49:11

>> my win this week was kind of a serious

49:14

one, which was that in the wake of

49:16

revelations that its models had escaped

49:18

their sandboxes and cause these

49:19

autonomous cyber attacks, OpenAI said

49:21

that it could not rule out that its

49:23

newest models has had hit what they call

49:26

critical capability. So, this is

49:28

basically their most serious level of

49:30

risk. And what they have said for years

49:31

is if they ever hit that uh that

49:33

threshold, they would slow down

49:35

development and would would build real

49:36

safeguards. So we do believe that right

49:38

now OpenAI actually is slowing down and

49:41

doing the responsible thing which is

49:42

trying to prevent further harm from

49:44

these models. So you know I do not take

49:46

for granted anymore that companies will

49:47

do this and I was really glad to see

49:49

that they did.

49:49

>> So that's a win even though it's a fail.

49:52

>> It it was a win that came out of a fail.

49:54

>> Okay. All right. Now what's your fail?

49:56

>> My fail is I learned over the weekend,

49:59

Cara, that San Francisco's average rent

50:01

is up 18% over the past two years. It is

50:04

now $3,728

50:06

a month on average. It has surpassed New

50:08

York City as the most expensive in the

50:10

country. And the reason that this is a

50:11

fail is that the story never changes

50:13

around here. I swear ever since I landed

50:15

in this town in 2010, I've read every

50:17

voter guide. I voted for every pro

50:19

housing politician. And no matter who I

50:21

vote for, there's never enough houses

50:23

for for the people who want to live

50:25

here. And it sucks. And it's a fail.

50:27

>> Yeah. It's a fail. What? That What is

50:28

the fail?

50:29

>> The fail is that we do not build enough

50:31

houses for the people who want to live

50:32

here. We do not is there's also limited

50:34

space too. Be aware

50:35

>> there's not. We could build 20 30

50:38

stories. I screw the character of the

50:39

neighborhood. Put a skyscraper in my

50:41

neighborhood. I just want people to be

50:42

able to live here.

50:43

>> Casey lived in your garage for like 10

50:45

years. We could squeeze more people into

50:46

existing spaces. [laughter]

50:48

>> You know, Louis there now. I did note

50:50

this. I did send that to Louis and go,

50:52

"Look how much you're costing me, Louis

50:54

[laughter] Swisser." Um, no. He's he's

50:56

welcome to live there as long as he

50:58

wants. Um, that is okay. All right. All

51:00

right. Okay. But people are San

51:02

Francisco's back, right? I mean, that's

51:03

kind of the thing.

51:04

>> It is back. And of course, it's really

51:05

exciting, you know, to be living in a

51:07

boom town and and there is a lot of like

51:09

energy in the city. I love living in San

51:11

Francisco as much as I ever have. I just

51:12

want anyone else who wants to live here

51:14

to be able to do that affordably.

51:16

>> Can I ask you a question? What's the

51:17

level of assholeitude towards the new

51:19

techies? I mean, they're not they're not

51:21

Keith Ra boy level, right? They're What

51:23

are they? What What are they? You know,

51:25

I I think that San Francisco has become

51:28

so thoroughly colonized by tech people

51:31

that you don't see the sort of like

51:33

Google bus protest type stuff that we

51:35

had a decade ago. Right. Like in 2026,

51:38

if you're living in San Francisco,

51:39

you've made your peace with the fact

51:41

that this is a tech town.

51:42

>> Right. Right. So people are better. I

51:44

think they're calmer. I have to say

51:45

they're better than there was a period

51:47

of true assholeitude that I think is

51:49

they seem to be quieter in their

51:52

behaviors. I mean, what when we what are

51:54

these people doing for the most part?

51:55

They're like working out of their houses

51:57

and they're getting Door Dash like like

51:58

they're not causing a big disruption in

52:00

the community. If they were trying to,

52:01

you know, build a data center at Civic

52:02

Center, I'm sure we would see a lot of

52:04

protest.

52:04

>> Yes. All right. So, my I have a win and

52:07

fail around pregnancy since I am the

52:10

only one of us that has been. Yes, I am.

52:13

I'm having yet another child, a fifth

52:14

Swiss cat. Um, no, I there's two stories

52:18

this week. One was there's a picture of

52:20

Anne Hatheraway who's pregnant who looks

52:22

beautiful and she got a lot of clapback

52:24

but I thought she looked amazing. She

52:26

was at another she opened another movie

52:28

I can't remember it was the 29th movie

52:30

she's done this year hardest working

52:32

woman in show business but I thought she

52:34

looked beautiful and it was a lovely

52:36

picture of her uh was showing her belly

52:38

which was very beautiful and I thought

52:40

that was lovely that she did that. I was

52:42

kind of pissed about the clapback. Same

52:44

thing with that AOC announced she's

52:46

freezing her eggs. um conservative

52:48

commentators Matt Walsh called her out

52:50

for doing that at the age of 37. I had

52:52

Louis at 39. So Matt Walsh, sit the [ __ ]

52:55

down. It's n and I've had many children

52:57

since. And I just think this sort of

52:59

like people commenting on how women

53:01

should present themselves as pregnant is

53:03

just I mean besides the other

53:05

misogynistic stuff that's happening

53:07

whether it's not not you know not

53:10

getting Max Miller to leave uh after the

53:12

allegations of abuse in his re-election

53:14

race or whatever. There's a real um it's

53:17

just like they're really they they've

53:19

try they're trying they with

53:21

overturning row grotesque. This is like

53:25

let people be pregnant the way they want

53:26

to. Let people have kids the way they

53:28

want to. They talk about people having

53:29

kids when someone makes a proactive move

53:31

like this and talks about it which lots

53:33

of women talk about it like AOC. It's

53:36

none of your [ __ ] business any of you

53:38

how she decides to live her life and I

53:41

just drives me crazy. any

53:42

>> absolutely and if you want if you wanted

53:44

to help women get pregnant earlier in

53:46

their lives if that was important to you

53:48

for some reason there are a million

53:49

policy choices you could make you could

53:50

make child care free and widely

53:52

available for example you could make

53:55

housing more affordable so people didn't

53:57

feel like they needed to work for the

53:58

first 20 years of their career to be

54:00

able to afford to buy a house right

54:01

there's a million things that these

54:03

these loudmouths could do to make it

54:04

easier for families to have children and

54:06

I'm going to subsidies do you know how

54:08

much berries cost for a child [laughter]

54:11

>> I swear I'm Like I'm like at five

54:12

figures annually on berries.

54:14

>> On blueberries. Yes.

54:15

>> Where's the government?

54:16

>> Where's the government? It's it Let me

54:18

let you in on a little thing. Some of

54:20

these people don't like women. I know

54:21

this this

54:23

are the same people who like freaked out

54:25

for years about there being a fertility

54:26

crisis and like why aren't people having

54:28

more kids? And then people start having

54:29

kids and it's like, oh, not like that.

54:31

>> Not like that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well,

54:33

Matt Walsh is a particular, you know,

54:35

tiny penis. But it really is sort of

54:37

this hatred towards women just comes

54:39

out. So like it's so it's like telling

54:42

women what to do with their bodies is a

54:44

neverending thing. And especially, you

54:46

know, dunking on some I just it's gross.

54:49

I'm very happy for Anne Hathaway. I'm

54:51

very happy for uh AOC. She should do

54:54

whatever she wants uh and run for

54:56

president at the same time and save her

54:58

eggs. She can do whatever the [ __ ] she

55:00

So that is my feeling. That's a win and

55:01

a fail. Um in any case, we want to hear

55:04

from you. Send us your questions about

55:05

business, tech, or whatever's on your

55:07

mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot

55:09

to submit a question for the show or

55:10

call 8551

55:12

pivot. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for

55:14

listening to Pivot. And be sure to like

55:15

and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

55:17

We'll be back on Friday. You guys, you

55:19

are great. I'm excited. When are you

55:21

announcing the show? When is the When is

55:23

the

55:23

>> Very soon, as in like a couple of weeks

55:26

from now. So, couple of weeks.

55:27

>> Tune in. We'll we'll make the

55:28

announcement uh on Hard Fork and we'll

55:30

we'll be all over the socials. So, yep.

55:32

We're going to tell people where they

55:34

can find us and we're going to have a

55:36

we're going to we're going to announce

55:37

this in the same way that like a a

55:38

Silicon Valley venture capitalist

55:40

announces their new uh workout routine

55:43

very loudly with maximum fan.

55:45

>> Good. Well, let me know what I can do

55:47

and I welcome you and you will Kevin,

55:50

you will love it. You will have such a

55:52

good time and you will be able you're

55:54

you're naturally an entrepreneur even

55:56

though you you know you cling you cling

55:58

to the side of institutional vessels

56:00

with [laughter] an incredible barnacle

56:02

like tendency. It'll be great and I'm

56:04

sure it'll be a great product and we

56:06

will hope to have you on many many times

56:08

and when your book comes out too.

56:09

>> Thank you for believing

56:11

>> as always as always Casey you're the

56:13

best. Thank you so much.

56:22

>> [music]

Interactive Summary

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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