Speaker · 34:25
Scared, you know, reacting emotionally and so on is they wanna try to regulate the underlying thing instead of the applications of the thing. And so, you know, the simple example I could give you would be, you know, you you don't wanna regulate knives. You wanna regulate murder. So, you know, you can use a knife to murder somebody, but you don't wanna say the solution to that is to eliminate knives.
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Speaker · 34:49
You wanna say, let's make murder illegal.
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Guest · 34:53
already is.
Kara Swisher · 34:54
It already is. Like, I just can't... This interview was ridiculous. First of all, he's like, I love the idea of superintelligence versus AI. And he's just become such a ridiculous suck up. And in terms of what Bezos is saying here is, duh. Like, I don't know what else to say. Yeah. Let's regulate murder, including you make a product that's dangerous, you go to jail. Love it. Love the idea of that. But they're all trying to pretend that this is all gonna be great because it's gone very wrong for them from a marketing point of view. And and I think regular people get it. And so here he is calling regular people emotional. We're emotional about things that might affect us. You're damn right.
Guest · 35:33
Wasn't only the women.
Kara Swisher · 35:34
Right.
Guest · 35:34
Because usually Yeah. It's usually those of us with the estrogen.
Kara Swisher · 35:38
Yeah. Exactly. And and, and I just feel like these people continue to dismiss regular people's normal con... And legitimate concerns, and I think it's gonna bounce back on them. And they look like... They all look like the monopoly man on... You know, they look like the Gilded Age, and they're so out of touch with regular people that it's it's become almost ridiculous.
Guest · 35:58
Yeah. I would just say that you can see as Bezos is talking to Bret Baer that he's running through all of the criticisms of Amazon and, you know, how he treats his employees. Because the contrast between, you know, you'll be able to have a three day work week and you spend more time with your family is versus the fact that there are people not getting paid enough who are having to pee in bottles because they can't miss, you know, the next delivery because we've now been trained to think we can get something between four and 8AM when we push, you know, purchase by midnight is the sheen that he wants to give himself and doing it at Blue Origin. You know, it's very cool, obviously, what's going on, and it's the the focus he wants on the spectacular, oh my god, I can't believe we're doing this kinds of things. Right. But to your point about the regular people, they're not thinking about Blue Origin as much as they're thinking about, will my job be here tomorrow, or is a data center popping up in my backyard? And is our government actually refusing to participate in any sort of regulatory framework that might protect society. Not that they wanna be backwards and poor, as Trump would put it, but that they want to know that folks in positions of leadership are hearing them and understanding their anxieties and would actually put people over profits for once.
Scott Galloway · 37:20
Every major technology that has increased productivity, and I agree with him, AI will make us more productive, but it's... But everyone has been sold with the same promise, the Internet, the PC, the washing machine, and that is this will free up your time. That's the promise. And in every case, instead of working less, we've absorbed the productivity gains in... Into doing more, not resting more, and shareholders have benefited from those productivity gains. Keynes predicted a fifteen hour work week back at the beginning of the twentieth century, and we're nowhere close. And the the obvious follow-up question of mister Bezos, is spending either the most or the second most of any enterprise in the world on AI is, okay, bitch. When and where exactly is your workforce going to reduce their hours from a man who has created a system, whereas Jess referenced, his drivers can't take bathroom breaks. So, Jeff, memo from Jeff... Memo to Amazon employees. According to Jeff Bezos, spends more on AI than anyone in the world, your work week is about to go to, what, four days, three days? Jeff, when's it gonna happen?
Kara Swisher · 38:31
He... But he says people are gonna be rewarded, and this is not the case. They... He has... You're right. He has taken advantage of people's work more than anyone in terms of efficiency. Years ago, one of these congressmen, they were putting an Amazon warehouse in these, in a town, and he said, oh, he's... They tell me it's good for jobs. I said, they're gonna automate the thing as soon as they can. No. Like, they're not telling you that part. And I think this promise that Elon has made that we'll all be in abundance and we won't have to work is just nonsense at this point. I don't know how we're gonna pay for it with our def... Speaking of deficits, how we're gonna do it.
Guest · 39:09
But it's also not what people want. That's the thing. I I... It's reminiscent to me of conversations that we were having, you know, ten years ago about coal miners. Right? And, you know, putting people out of it, and you'll learn to code, or we're moving to all renewables. And I'm not saying that we don't have to innovate and we don't have to progress, especially if it means taking care of our planet. But sometimes I feel like these tech guys are just speaking, like, Klingon to regular people who are not mad about the fact that they need to work a full day. They wanna do it. They're proud people. Good point. Politicians and tech folks sometimes really misunderstand the character of American people, which is strong and work... The dignity of work underpins all of this.
Kara Swisher · 39:57
Yeah. Don't you wanna sit on a yacht like we do? Yeah.
Guest · 40:00
Right. Like, wouldn't you love to be able to, like, put on some, you know, Google glasses and, like, beam into your job for three out of five days and they say, I'm not mad at a nine to five, a nine to six. I don't mind working with my hands. I don't mind getting dirty. I wanna put in the work so my kid can have a better... That's what the American dream is. And they're rewriting it in their own crazy brains in a way that does not fit with average people.
Kara Swisher · 40:26
You know, one of the quotes I read this week from Neil deGrasse Tyson, I thought was perfect. He goes, I've come to conclude that AI knows everything yet understands nothing.
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Kara Swisher · 40:36
Tech people. I'm like, they know everything. They understand nothing. And they... They're so out of touch. Someone like Bezos is so out of touch with people's real lives. People want dignity of work. They wanna be paid well. They want health care. And that's why, you know, whatever you think of a lot of the DSA stuff, this stuff is is resonating with young people, universal health care, decent wage, that that I have something meaningful to do. And I think just the way they talk about it as they suck up to the most grifty president in history so explicitly is is... And they and they all look, you know, they're they're all sort of they all look like freak shows in a way that we don't wanna be you. Right? You know? And I think
Guest · 41:18
Like, you're a longevity show.
Kara Swisher · 41:19
Yeah. I
Guest · 41:20
feel like that was on display.
Kara Swisher · 41:22
And and it reminds me of that last moment of the devil wears Prada where they're in the car, the first movie, where she goes, everyone wants to be us. Andy, everyone wants to be us kind of thing, and she gets out of the car. And that's what I feel like. We wanna get out of your car, you people. We don't wanna be like you. Anyway, we have to move on. One more quick break, and we'll be back for predictions.
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Kara Swisher · 42:26
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 43:16
Let's hear a prediction. We have time for one short prediction because of my lack of knowledge about central time.
Scott Galloway · 43:23
This one's easy. Within five years, they'll... And bankers will make more money. Time Warner... Every CEO who buys Time Warner gives the exact same speech. They use the term synergies every other line. And then in five years, the same CEO will be saying, we need to focus on our core business and start splitting this thing apart or selling it. Basically, Time Warner has destroyed more shareholder value than a Peloton at a WeWork. This thing this thing is a hot potato with the debt of Greece. Everyone buys it. Everyone thinks they have a vision for it. They can't sustain the debt. It starts fucking with their core business, and they decide five years on that they're gonna sell it. Dad has paid a $120,000,000,000 so his son could play media. It's not gonna be worth it. After three or four years of declining revenues, somebody like a Zaslow is gonna make a bunch of money selling it yet again. Within five years, whatever we're calling this, Time Warner, Skydance, HBO Max, Joey Bag of Donuts, this thing will be sold again or split up for parts.
Kara Swisher · 44:28
Okay. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 will be announced on the day this episode airs. We're taping on Thursday. So let's make some predictions.
Scott Galloway · 44:37
It's probably gonna be the Doctors Without Borders or Sudan's emergency response rooms.
Guest · 44:42
Well, it's not Donald Trump. It's not Donald Trump. That's my prediction.
Kara Swisher · 44:46
Who would you like it to be? Mark Carney. I feel Mark Carney.
Guest · 44:49
Mark Carney is gonna have a big year first.
Scott Galloway · 44:51
He'll be man of the year. I don't think he'll get this. He'll be man of the year.
Guest · 44:54
It's too early also in the cycle. I feel like once Canada's really like a EU satellite and maybe, you know, he and Zelensky do some more together. I like that.
Kara Swisher · 45:05
The pope?
Guest · 45:06
Oh, and his AI thing was the most interesting. I'm
Kara Swisher · 45:09
sure he's Magnificent humanity. The pope. I'm gonna go with the pope. Pope. We're going pope.
Scott Galloway · 45:14
I changed my mind on Time Warner. It'll be successful if they can convince MacCraw, Zelensky, and Carney to do, like, a Cinemax style soft porn drama. Skinnymax. Think it works.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 45:25
Skinnymax. Skinnymax. It works. That's not porn. Scott comes porn. With the erudite part of it. Anyway, I'm really sorry for being late. We wanna hear from you. Send us your questions on business tech or whatever on
Scott Galloway · 45:36
your website. Worried.
Kara Swisher · 45:37
Oh my god.
Scott Galloway · 45:38
We were
Kara Swisher · 45:38
so worried. Mindpag.com
Scott Galloway · 45:40
slash Your father's so worried.
Kara Swisher · 45:42
To submit a question for the show. Recall eight five five five one pivot elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week on on with Karis Fisher. I spoke with writer Justine Musk and filmmaker Alex Gibney ahead of the release of Musk, the four hour Elon documentary. Let's listen to a clip.
Speaker · 45:57
There's a... That that joke that he used to make, like safety third. And, when we're going into the era of AI, you have to wonder about that because of his sense that it has to be now, now, now, no matter the cost. Right.
Kara Swisher · 46:19
He's...: Yeah, those 70 people don't matter.
Speaker · 46:21
It's just the cost of doing Yeah. The animals in Neuralink don't matter. And the pain and the trauma that that other people go through because of of, you know, the way reality gets wrenched around or the way that that value gets determined, who has it and who doesn't. Like, that doesn't matter. That's just, you know, feelings. So we'll just, you know, brush that aside. Ruin question civilization. Yeah.
Kara Swisher · 46:49
And the entire interview will be in the Pivot podcast feed on Sunday, so check it out here. Reminder, Scott and I are hitting the road next month for a Pivot tour. Get tickets at pivottour.com. Toronto is sold out. We're getting close in a lot of cities. Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. And, Jess, thank you for filling in and calming the waters for me. And be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week.
Scott Galloway · 47:13
Today's show is produced by Lara Nayman, Sonya Marcus Taylor Griffin, and Todd Wiseman. Ernie or Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Gibrales, mister Variant, Dan Chillan, the Shock Kurosvox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Thanks to our great cohost of Raging Moderates, Jess Tarlov, for stepping in. Kara, thank god you're back. And it's pretty clear that the dog is gonna take Justine Musk and Lauren Sanchez to Club Med Puerto Vallarta together. It could happen.
Kara Swisher · 47:47
It could happen. It could never happen.
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