PivotKara Swisher Says New AI Executive Order Is “Idiotic” | Pivot
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Kara Swisher Blasts Trump’s ‘Idiotic’ AI Order, Media and Guns
- Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with the weekend’s mass shootings at Brown University and Sydney’s Bondi Beach, linking them to broader trends in gun access, radicalization, and rising antisemitism, while contrasting U.S. inaction with Australia’s likely policy response.
- They discuss the murder of Rob Reiner and Trump’s inflammatory reaction, using it to highlight the normalization of cruelty and illiberalism, and then pivot into AI: OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ posture, Disney’s partnership with OpenAI, and Oracle’s risky AI bet tied to its OpenAI deal.
- The conversation turns sharply political with Trump’s new AI executive order, which they describe as an anti-regulation power grab designed to pre-empt state-level AI rules, calling it legally dubious, idiotic, and a pure play for big tech interests.
- Closing segments cover media consolidation (Paramount–Warner–Netflix–Disney–Apple chess), a stinging critique of CBS/Face the Nation’s Mifepristone framing, and personal reflections on friendship, mortality, and the importance of having people to love and advocate for you.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasGun violence frequency is a policy choice, and the U.S. keeps choosing inaction.
Australia’s first mass shooting in 27 years versus America’s 1.2 mass shootings per day underscores that strong gun regulation measurably reduces massacres; Swisher and Galloway expect Australia to respond decisively while predicting another U.S. shooting “tomorrow.”
Antisemitism today is framed less as dislike and more as conspiracy, which legitimizes violence.
Galloway distinguishes typical prejudice (“I don’t like your customs”) from antisemitism as a belief in a Jewish conspiracy to oppress others, arguing that chants like “Globalize the Intifada” and normalized hate speech create “cloud cover” for violent actors.
Physical infrastructure (‘atoms’) creates more durable business moats than pure software (‘bits’).
Comparing SpaceX and OpenAI, Galloway notes SpaceX grows slower yet is more valuable because no one can quickly replicate its rockets and launch capacity, while OpenAI’s digital products are easier to disrupt—an “atoms are more defensible than bits” thesis.
Content owners should treat AI firms as bidders, not saviors, to avoid value leakage.
Disney’s OpenAI deal is portrayed as a pragmatic move to learn and retain leverage—provided the term is short and non-exclusive—so that Disney can later play OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others against each other rather than let a single AI platform capture the value of its IP.
Oracle’s massive AI spend highlights how fragile the current AI investment boom may be.
Oracle’s stock drop, huge CapEx, and loosely defined $300B OpenAI ‘framework’ deal are seen as more PR than firm commitment, illustrating how quickly investor sentiment can swing against infrastructure-heavy AI bets that may not be fully contracted or sustainable.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesWe live in a country with a passive majority weaponized by well-funded special interest groups.
— Scott Galloway
Atoms are more defensible than bits.
— Scott Galloway
They don’t want to pass federal laws that would make sense. They just want to stop all regulation.
— Kara Swisher (on Trump’s AI executive order)
This is the mandatory federal regulation they’ll have. DICK. They won’t have anything.
— Scott Galloway (on the administration’s AI posture)
The happiest people aren’t the ones who are loved the most, it’s the ones who have the most people to love.
— Scott Galloway
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