EVERY SPOKEN WORD
60 min read · 11,939 words- 0:00 – 0:25
Intro
- SGScott Galloway
If we take the Senate and the House, be clear, it wasn't that Democrats are back. It's just that for this moment, the American public decided they hate Democrats less.
- KSKara Swisher
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
- KSKara Swisher
We've got a lot to get to today, so let's dig in. There's so much.
- 0:25 – 4:21
Global Elections
- KSKara Swisher
First, first, I mean, we got the Anthropic IPO. We'll get to that in a second, but it's a busy time for elections. Let's hit those quick. Brazil's leftist President Lula, uh, just won re-election, though his right-wing opponent, Bolsonaro, who's the son of the previous Bolsonaro, is refusing to accept the results. And Serbia's longtime leader, this is a big deal, just conceded defeat to a student-led opposition movement. This was exciting. Israel is also going to the polls this week, voting on whether Netanyahu gets to stay in power. Uh, it looks like he's not going to, but who knows? The other guy might not-
- SGScott Galloway
It is prowess
- KSKara Swisher
... be able to form a government. Um, and here in the US, the midterms are now just one week away. Before we get to midterms, talk about what these elections... Something's, something's coming. I don't know what it is, but it's gonna be great. It feels very, uh, change moment. Thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
You can read it either way. I don't know how much of a litmus test Brazil is, 'cause Brazil has m- compulsory voting. And also, while it looks like, uh, the populous or the more progressive is gonna take the election, the son of someone incarcerated looks like they're inheriting what's the equivalent of the MAGA movement. So you could, I think, interpret that other ways. The, the most, um, encouraging thing is what's come out of, is it Serbia?
- KSKara Swisher
Serbia. Serbia, yes.
- SGScott Galloway
And, and that is... And I've, you know, I've been talking about, I think young people are the immune system here. Like, there, there's a variety of things plaguing the world right now, but, uh, if you look at what's going on in France, if you look at the election results in Serbia, I think what has happened is that young people are saying, "We're sick of old people voting themselves more power, more ability to engage in corruption, and voting themselves more money." This was a student-led electoral victory. Now, unfortunately, in America, young people don't show up to the voting polls. They get a Robinhood account and start trading crypto. I'm not sure. I hope we see an uptick in young people voting. You know, that'll remain to be seen. But loosely speaking, if you had to be reductive about it, you would say that there is a pushback on corruption that is being led by young people who are fed up, uh, with not only corruption, but a lack of affordability, and also what... For example, in France, the statistic that is just sort of, I think, rolling over the world right now in a variety of measures is the following: In France, a third of the education budget goes to paying the pensions of retired teachers that are no longer teaching. That is just not sustainable, and I think young people have kind of... Now granted, th- there'll be opportunists and just thugs and just people who are angry who will, who will join in and take advantage of it and are anarchists and, you know, uh, that's unacceptable. But the, the, the, the kerosene waiting for matches of different flavors here is the notion that there is a corruption, a scandal across the world right now, and that young people feel like, "Okay-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... enough of using my credit card so that you can keep going to Mazatlan."
- KSKara Swisher
You're right. I think p- But I do think young people are engaged politically, much more so than you think. I think you're seeing it.
- SGScott Galloway
I hope so.
- KSKara Swisher
Um, and, and I hope they do vote, but I, I think they are tired of older people sort of running the table f- for them. Now, it'll be interesting to see what happens in Israel, and if this govern- if, if Netanyahu loses, if the new person can, um, form a government.
- SGScott Galloway
Form a coalition. Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
It's very difficult.
- KSKara Swisher
We'll see. I mean, it's, uh, difficult in Is-
- SGScott Galloway
Or challenging
- KSKara Swisher
... I mean, all the-
- SGScott Galloway
Election Day almost doesn't matter in Israel.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
It's their ability to kind of play chess, which Netanyahu has been a grand master at-
- KSKara Swisher
Correct
- SGScott Galloway
... to form coalitions.
- KSKara Swisher
That's correct, right.
- SGScott Galloway
And unfortunately, the way he's stayed in office is by forming coalitions with very far-right ultra-religious groups. I've, I've been watching that election closely. I mean, obviously I'm more focused on this one, but that-
- KSKara Swisher
A lot of protests going on
- SGScott Galloway
... is a really important one.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, a lot of-
- SGScott Galloway
Led by students
- KSKara Swisher
... students. Yeah. That's, that's really interesting. And we'll see where we're going. We are seeing the numbers here, uh, move in the, again,
- 4:21 – 11:42
One Week to Midterms
- KSKara Swisher
the Democratic's direction. Let's, let's talk about that. Former President Barack Obama is back. He hit the campaign trail this weekend accusing Trump of bringing chaos and cruelty and corruption to the country. Nice bunch of Cs. He even channeled his inner Logan Roy, saying administration officials like Pete Hegseth are, quote, "not serious people." Obama then took a shot at Trump's White House makeover. Let's listen.
- SGScott Galloway
[laughs] If you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations.
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- SGScott Galloway
He should be on HGTV.
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- SGScott Galloway
The guy's building a, a ballroom that's bigger than the White House. It's paved over the Rose Garden. Put a hel- helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and, and there's gold everywhere. What's up with the gold?
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, uh, everything, uh, the, more gold. He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- KSKara Swisher
You gotta miss him, I gotta say. He was funny. But, you know, he did this for Kamala. It didn't really work, but, uh, it was, was sort of on a roll. Um, I'd love you to, uh, talk a little bit... We have a bunch of other election-related items, um, including the more serious ones with elected officials around the country preparing for potential federal interference. In midterms, there's already cause for concern in Alaska. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit at Trump's request seeking to block certification of the Senate race. If the Republican incumbent loses, it's because of the name. The, it's, it's ridiculous. Attorney General Todd Blanche says Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape, or form, which is precisely what he's trying to do. Um, and of course, Elon Musk is pouring even more money into the midterms. He just gave another $76 million to his PAC, bringing his total contributions to Republican groups this cycle to more than $445 million. The PAC has spent more than $12 million attacking Texas Democratic James Talarico, and, uh, T- Talarico's pushing back against Elon. Let's listen.
- SPSpeaker
Elon Musk wants our land? He wants our water, he wants our taxpayer dollars, and he wants his very own personal United States senator. He is trying to buy Texas. But on November 3rd, we're gonna deliver a crystal clear message to the world's first trillionaire: Texas is not for sale. [crowd cheering]
- KSKara Swisher
He's been using this line all over the place. So let's start with Obama. Uh, thoughts on this? He's, he's going all over the place. You know, he did... Again, he did this for Kamala. It was not effective.
- SGScott Galloway
I think Saddam Hussein, it's as if Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory is sort of the line of the midterms. And what Obama gets that the rest of the Democratic Party doesn't get is that ridicule is more powerful than indignance.
- KSKara Swisher
Or, or being righteous, right?
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, outrage.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
And that is, [sighs] you know, comedy is a strategy. Like, outrage is a hobby. And he's just very powerful. He doesn't come across as mean or Trump Derangement Syndrome. He just ridicules the guy. We don't have anyone like him.
- KSKara Swisher
No.
- SGScott Galloway
And what he does is he creates an atmosphere where he comes in late. He is very... Few people understand brand management like the Obamas. They are very, very prude and manicured in terms of their appearances, who they associate with, when they say and when they don't say, and they're smart to hold back until the very end. And what he does is he probably o- he probably adds ten or fifteen bips to every Democrat running, and that's a, that's a, that's powerful. He's not gonna save a bad candidate. But he might-- He, quite frankly, just creates... He's, he's another, you know, couple million gallons of water forming a wave. Now, how big? You know, a- a- again, it's the candidate more than anything, but he provides cloud cover.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
And what, what this also means... I mean, going forward, the thing I'm most worried about is November the fourth.
- KSKara Swisher
Yes, you and Hillary Clinton.
- SGScott Galloway
I really hope the Democrats don't mistake this. You know, this, this isn't a blue wave, it's a red riptide. And what it comes right down to is if we take the Senate and the House, be clear, it wasn't that Democrats are back, it's just that for this moment, the American public decided they hate Democrats less. Because [chuckles] Democrats are not polling. And if the Democrats and Speaker Jeffries don't immediately move to a series of bold proposals about affordability, restoring a progressive tax structure, taking away the anxiety that Americans feel around healthcare insecurity, more sanity around our foreign policy, specifically our tariff policy, we're gonna find out that, yeah, they had a one-night stand with us, but they're not interested in having a relationship with us.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. They've gotta follow up. They will. And they also have to worry, this is something Hillary Clinton brought up last week, is let's worry about what he's gonna do between now and January when they have to seat this new Congress. Um, he's gonna try all manner of hijinks to-
- SGScott Galloway
He's already trying in Alaska.
- KSKara Swisher
He is. That-- But he'll continue to do so, and he'll get more and more possibly demented, 'cause he really is... Well, someone who covers him closely, I was like, "Well, maybe this will finally shut him up." She-- And this person was like, "Absolutely not. It's gonna get worse. Worse and worse."
- SGScott Galloway
The way I see it is [chuckles] when I was building, when I was, when I was renovating a, a home, our neighbor basically found out. He didn't want construction while he was there, so he came up, he hired a lawyer, and just got in the way of development and showed up to the local review board and said we were threatening the manatee population. W- w- anyway, just literally through... You know, tried to obstruct it. But eventually, at least in Florida, eventually you get to renovate your house, and that's kinda like, kinda-- 'cause the law kind of weighs in, and you can, you can delay and obfuscate, but you can't change the law. I think so far... So for example, Kal Sheets has Democrats, uh, uh, puts them at seventy-six percent chance of winning the seat in Alaska, and that's... Trump carried Alaska by thirteen points in '24. In, in other words, I think all this bullshit attempt to interfere in the elections, I'm not saying it's not important. I'm not saying we shouldn't be worried about it. I'm not saying we shouldn't push back on it and have lawyers at the ready. But I do think ultimately, the person with the most votes... And this happened in, you know, this happened in twenty-twenty, the, our democracy did hold. What unfort- what is unfortunate about it, and what Sacha Baron Cohen was talking about, is I love the term shared lies, and what he said that really struck me and what's kind of the longer lasting thing about this is that if you were in the bubble that those January 6th rioters were in, were they really guilty?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Because they thought they were being patriots.
- KSKara Swisher
They did.
- 11:42 – 20:34
Elon Musk Midterm Spending Spree
- KSKara Swisher
That said, Elon Musk continues to pour money, and I suspect he'll do the same for the presidential to try to get J.D. Vance, uh, made president. Um, what-- This money is staggering, Scott. This is staggering amounts of money. And I know, uh, uh, Bloomberg, uh, Michael Bloomberg gave eighty million dollars, but this is nothing like that. This is crazy.
- SGScott Galloway
It's staggering, and at the same time it isn't. Because while numbers create a metric, above a certain amount, the metrics begin to become very opaque, and our brain can't even wrap our head around it. So, okay, first off, four hundred and forty million dollars. A staggering amount of money. It has an impact. It has a lower impact. The ROI is going down, and I'll come back to that. But to give you a sense for that and how Until we overturn Citizens United, our democracy is gonna be whittled away one cut at a time. It just is. To give you a sense for what that means, he's a trillionaire. So $443 million. Oh my God, what a staggering amount of money. Okay, let's put it in relative terms. You're a millionaire. You're worth a million dollars, okay? And if this, if this group of politicians gets elected, it might get in the way of your car wash, and so you'll do anything to keep this representative out of Congress, 'cause they don't like your car wash, 'cause your car wash, they have tur- deemed, is bad for America, and you have government contracts, and you're getting tax credits.
- KSKara Swisher
And your state. That's why he's so demented against Talarico, obviously.
- SGScott Galloway
You're a millionaire. This candidate is a, you see, is an existential threat to your ability to stay a millionaire. Let, let's just not even go to politics. Would you be willing to spend $443 on the campaign? That's what it is to him. $443 million to a trillionaire is $443 to a millionaire. So for the cost of a really good dinner, if you saw huge advantage and leverage to you getting one candidate elected over the other, would you spend $443?
- KSKara Swisher
Absolutely. Absolutely.
- SGScott Galloway
So the, so the, the question is, and I'm, I now believe this, I think we should let our trillionaires cook. I want them to make a lot of money, but on one side, you have to have campaign finance reform, and two, I do think much more progressive taxation protects us for th- from this type of corruption.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
There's really nothing good from someone becoming a trillionaire, and people will say, "Well, he can... He's, he's smarter than us on business," granted, or most people on business, and he deploys capital in a, in incredible ways that benefit the economy. I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be allowed to make trillions. I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be able to invest it and take the CapEx write-off. I don't wanna decrease his genius or his investment. What I'm suggesting is when he decides to take the money and recognize that gain, and do things such as spend it on a boat or spend it on a political campaign, which is not tax deductible, before he does that, it should be taxed at, at s- at, at a minimum AMT of 40% and possibly more than that.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Okay. I agree. I think, uh, this, this-
- SGScott Galloway
Okay [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
... I-
- SGScott Galloway
Okay, shut the fuck up [laughs] .
- KSKara Swisher
No, y- this is something you've been saying. I can't believe that the Democrats... This is something Democrats could win on, this, they've have enough money. They have enough money, and they're now fucking with us, and I think it really is, it, it's, it is coalescing people, the amount of money he's giving, you know? He's sort of become the Bond villain of our country, and I think especially with Talarico, the obsession, the obsessive, you know? And he doesn't even have Natalie Harp to write those for him, and, and just, like, on and on and on. There were, like, 20 of them in a row in s- one evening, late into the evening, and the reason he, of course, is going for Talarico is 'cause all his stuff is, he moved to Texas to get away from pe- By the way, California helped him a lot, but they just, they-
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, you think?
- KSKara Swisher
But they, th- but they didn't like one thing he did, and so he had to leave in a big old flounce. Now, with Talarico in Texas, he's gonna have a problem, and it's-
- SGScott Galloway
Kara, he left for taxes.
- KSKara Swisher
I, I get that.
- SGScott Galloway
He left for taxes-
- KSKara Swisher
I, I understand
- SGScott Galloway
... and to get a bunch of subsidies from the government
- KSKara Swisher
I, I get it, but now he doesn't, he's very upset about a Talarico-led se- I mean, a senator from, from Texas. Anyway, we'll see what happens, but it's an enormous amount of money for an un- uh, unaccountable trillionaire to be able to spend-
- SGScott Galloway
But even, even, okay, so the Democrats have vastly outraised Republicans in terms of number of people, and underraised in terms of the amount of money.
- KSKara Swisher
That's right.
- SGScott Galloway
Why? Because there is regulatory capture among billionaires and think, "Oh, these guys-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... will wash my back. They'll scratch my back."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Yep.
- SGScott Galloway
So-
- KSKara Swisher
Yep, yep. That's probably it
- SGScott Galloway
... I'm all over them. The silver lining here-
- 20:34 – 30:42
Anthropic Files for Its IPO
- SGScott Galloway
now on our new website at pivotshow.com. That's pivotshow.com.
- KSKara Swisher
Scott, we're back. Anthropic's officially filed its IPO, which everyone knew was coming. Let's go through some of the details. The company's revenue has skyrocketed, bringing in sixteen point three billion dollars in the first half of twenty twenty-six, up from just one point two billion dollars a year earlier. But the company reported an eighty billion dollar net loss in the first half of the year. This had been reported previously. Anthropic has committed more than six hundred billion dollars to future cloud computing deals. Five of the company's customers accounted for about a quarter of its revenue for the first nine months of the year. Ninety-four pages of the filing are spent on risk factors, with the company warning investors about rogue AI models and opposition to data centers. Anthropic's co-founders, including CEO Dario Amodei, uh, would retain a combined fifty point one percent of voting power. The company hasn't yet revealed how much it plans to raise or its offering price. Um, it's a really interesting situation, and by the way, at the very same time they're doing this, Elon is trashing data centers because of course he's in the data center business, and he's trying to kill all the other Neo cloud businesses. But talk a little bit on Anthropic.
- SGScott Galloway
Look, it's, it's staggering. It may, it may be the fastest scaling software company. It is the fastest scaling software company in history. So effectively, let, let's just talk a little bit about the numbers. So what it shows is, okay, revenue in twenty twenty-four was three hundred and eighty-six million. In twenty-five it was four and a half billion, so up twelve X. And so far this year, in the first half it's clocked sixteen, so call it an annual rate of forty. So it's ten X-ing in twenty-six. Uh, so first half, so it, it basically fourteen X'd its revenue from the first half of last year. I, I've been trying to sort through the numbers. They called it a net loss of eighty-one billion. Ignore that because seventy-two billion of that loss was the accounting loss you have to take when you take a convertible bond and convert it to equity.
- KSKara Swisher
Yes. Explain that. They ga-- They, they borrowed money, and then they turned it to equity.
- SGScott Galloway
So an incredible innovation in the debt markets is something called a convertible bond, where you pay them kind of a below market interest rate, but you have the opportunity to convert your debt into equity if the, if the equity goes up. And so it's a chance to kind of have the downside protection of a bond. The company gets cheap capital, which it can pay back in cheap equity if the stock goes up. It's, it's kind of a... It's a great innovation. But when a debt converts to equity, which is kind of a good thing for everybody, shareholders get a l- get a little bit of dilution, but you take the debt off the balance sheet, you no longer owe that money, and then debtors get to participate in that sweet, sweet returns of a growth company. But if you-- When it converts, you have to take that as, as an accounting loss. The actual conversion from debt to equity, if you go, if it's a billion dollars, uh, in convertible debt that converts to equity, you have to recognize that billion dollars as a, quote-unquote, "accounting loss." So the numbers I've sussed out is basically it did twenty-five billion and lost nine, but if it's growing four or five X at high margins, it should be able to get to profitability. Now, they've done a bunch of like, you know, hocus pocus to try and show that they're sort of profitable. I hate this fucking adjusted EBITDA shit. So for example, what Anthropic does, and OpenAI doesn't to their credit, Anthropic books the full revenue of a token sale, whereas OpenAI only takes the twenty percent that they recognize 'cause the rest goes to the Neo clouds and stuff like that. But this is-
- KSKara Swisher
It's impressive. It's impressive. Correct.
- SGScott Galloway
[chuckles] Of course. Th- this is... There's just no getting around it. This company is scaling unbelievably fast. Uh, uh, this is anecdotal evidence, but quite frankly, the permissions from... I get from Claude Cowork have probably, in my opinion, been the greatest innovation for me in terms of a change in my life since Uber.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay, so let me ask you, what's the problem? What, what are you worried about? Like, be the, be the-
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, there's tons of risk here.
- KSKara Swisher
Besides AI rogue, obviously.
- SGScott Galloway
Okay, first off-
- KSKara Swisher
Government.
- SGScott Galloway
First off-
- KSKara Swisher
Government regulation
- SGScott Galloway
... if, if the government can't come up with some sort of regulatory policy that lets these guys understand the rules by which they're playing by and gives the public some type of certainty for what is going on here or not going on here- Uh, the IRGC figures out a way to just hack a, a light signal at a busy intersection and then blames it and then spins up their bots and blames it on AI. Y- y- you know, the... States are gonna start banning AI models. People are scared of this shit right now, and people don't trust it. 75% of Chinese trust AI, only 25% of Americans.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
There's an existential risk-
- KSKara Swisher
Americans hate it.
- SGScott Galloway
What's that?
- KSKara Swisher
It's not just not like it. They hate it. They... It's, it-
- SGScott Galloway
So-
- KSKara Swisher
The, the terms are very... You know, it's really interesting to see the attitudes.
- SGScott Galloway
Everyone was saying that the scarcity was around chips. It's not, it's electrons. It looks like it's power. There is huge risk around the levels of CapEx they have to make, and if these things don't keep 10X'ing, all of a sudden those... I added up Anthropic's commitments to 400 billion. People are saying it's 6 to 800. I don't know how they got to that math. But regardless, unless they keep 10X'ing, which they are doing right now, someone's gonna go, "Uh-oh, the, the math doesn't work."
- KSKara Swisher
Right. You can't pay the bills, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And then competitive risk. NVIDIA's talking about taking their GPUs and putting them directly on a c- a client, a phone, which quite frankly might leapfrog LLMs, and then you have Meta with its own LLM that is free, that is number one in the App Store, that has a direct relationship with half a billion businesses and, and three billion consumers. There are threats everywhere. But the reason there are threats everywhere is this is a blue whale that... And there are orcas everywhere thinking, "How do we take this thing down?" But the blue whale is 10X'ing right now.
- KSKara Swisher
It's the Google essentially is how I think of it. Like, is it the Google versus anything else? And, and where will it go? And I think the issues are what'll happen to the OpenAI IPO post this, depends on what it does. At the same time, if it doesn't have as impressive of a bottom line here, they're gonna have a real problem. And then what do, what do the big companies do? What does a Microsoft do? What does a... What do the rest of them do? Because there is a precariousness that I think Elon was pointing out, which is all these Neo cloud businesses are gonna go belly... He called them guppy, guppy level extension or something like that.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
I forget. Something with guppies. And he's talking his own book 'cause he sells compute himself. It's p- That's how he's making money. He's not making money in people using it as much as it is renting out his space. And so it's important to him for these things to happen. It's all sort of... It feels a little Jenga-like, some of this. Y- There where it's like, "Mm."
- SGScott Galloway
A lot of circular deals, but-
- KSKara Swisher
But consumers are using it. Consumers are using Claude.
- 30:42 – 38:37
Elon Musk Admits Restricting Ukraine's Starlink Access
- KSKara Swisher
admitting that SpaceX restricted Ukraine's access to Starlink. You think? This is what Scott and I said he did. Um, he's claiming Ukraine violated Starlink's terms of service by using it for offensive drone strikes to kill people, which Ukraine disputes. But Elon also said Starshield is a different system controlled by the US government, and what they decide to do is up to them. It's, again, a bunch of lying. Ukraine says Starlink and Starshield are now operating at normal speeds after more than a week of disruptions that impacted military operations and led to the deaths of people in Ukraine. That incident, again, reminded people how much power this guy has, and w- and, and whether they'll do anything at all about keeping him in check. I will also note, Musk also reportedly invested about one billion dollars in David Ellison's Skydance. They need the money, but guess what, Scott? I'm leaving. Sorry, I just had to say that 'cause I know you like it. Um, though they're trying to get me to stay again. They're trying to get me to stay.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, God, here we go.
- KSKara Swisher
I'm telling you.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
They're trying to get me to stay.
- SGScott Galloway
It's all economic. The, the costs of you leaving are, are minimal because-
- KSKara Swisher
I get it
- SGScott Galloway
... you make a lot of money on a podcast with a jar head, so.
- KSKara Swisher
I, I get it. I'm just telling you. I was surprised 'cause I keep yelling, "I'm leaving."
- SGScott Galloway
I'm surprised too. I'm surprised they want you to stay.
- KSKara Swisher
I know. I don't know why. I don't... I, maybe David doesn't know. But t- this, this, this... L- We can make very quick... Look, we said he was lying about it. He was lying about it. He is in a position to influence battlefield decisions, and he shouldn't be. S- Trump seems to be out of it or lying, either one, not good. Neither choice is good. Um, and Hegseth doesn't seem to be anywhere here, should be the one m- having decision-making power here. Who knows? And a, a, un- unaccountable trillionaire should not be making these decisions. I don't know how else to say anything. Anything to add?
- SGScott Galloway
I'm very exercised about this, so I wanna talk about it, but I just, just briefly wanna return to Anthropic for a moment. Just in the risks, uh, section of the S1, I just wanna highlight some of my favorite things. Open quote, uh, "Advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risk to humanity." [laughs] That's my favorite. Uh, "Our AI models may behave in unintended, misaligned, or autonomous ways."
- KSKara Swisher
They could blow us up.
- SGScott Galloway
[laughs] Uh, "Capabilities may advance more rapidly than our ability to develop, validate, and implement safety measures." Okay, that means your product shouldn't be out in the public, folks.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
[laughs] Anyways, uh, so Musk.
- KSKara Swisher
Speaking to, uh, speaking of an unguided missile, go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
I'm shocked he's not spending more, 'cause I can't imagine the first person that's gonna be held in front of Congress-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, in front of this one
- SGScott Galloway
... on November the 4th-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... is Elon Musk. And for all of his lawyers, he's not gonna be able to, to avoid that for very long because imagine Charles Lindbergh, a hero, an innovator, an idol. He was on the side, to be fair, as a lot of Americans were. And they said in World War I, it wasn't worth it. The Jews wasn't worth the squeeze for us. That's their problem. Now they want us to send our young men back. Let's partner with Hitler. He's not that bad. Imagine if Lindbergh had purchased McDonnell Douglas, and he could've raised the money, which at the time was the premier aircraft manufacturer, and then it was converted for military use. There was a, there was a military business version of McDonnell Douglas, and FDR started, started converting DC-3s into bombers and giving them to Churchill to try and stave off fascism. But there was a guidance system on these, these, uh, DC-3s. And what if Charles Lindbergh had the ability to remotely turn off the guidance systems, and all of a sudden, London was burning because they didn't have the ability to deploy-
- KSKara Swisher
Yep
- SGScott Galloway
... their defensive bombers?
- KSKara Swisher
Yep.
- SGScott Galloway
That has happened here. What would they have done in the middle of the last century if they found out that a private citizen was purposefully throttling back the defense capabilities of who the American public supports and considers an ally in the defense of a murderous autocrat? So this is, this is nothing short of, in my opinion, and I've used this term, if w- what went down here, or what was alleged to go down here, went down here, and unilaterally Elon Musk decided to throttle back Starshield/Starlink such that they could not launch defensive drones, and our ally has been weakened strategically and there has been civilian deaths, then in sum, he is a traitor to the West, and our government is at fault for not putting in place guardrails such that one person who is not elected can have that type of power over history.
- KSKara Swisher
Why do you think he admitted it this week after lying about it essentially or-
- SGScott Galloway
I think he's gonna have to go before Congress, and I think his lawyers... I think his lawyer said, "No, no, no, no. Don't say-
- KSKara Swisher
"Stop tweeting-"
- SGScott Galloway
Stop.
- 38:37 – 52:12
Elizabeth Holmes' Doc Becomes Box Office Hit
- KSKara Swisher
documentary about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes gave a comic book movie a run for its money this weekend. You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, was the second highest grossing movie at the box office, just behind Clayface. The film has now made $45 million in two weeks, the biggest debut for a non-musical documentary since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. It also cost just $7 million to make. It's also generating Oscar buzz, possibly becoming the first documentary ever nominated for Best Picture, and maybe picking up an acting nomination. I'm gonna spoil the movie, so just deal with it. And by the way, this has been written about a lot, so I'm really not spoiling it. But listeners, skip ahead now if you don't wanna hear it. I have some thoughts. Um, this is a... I, I, I liked parts of it. I didn't like other parts. He's full of trickery. This is what he's known for. I am awar- I, I, I put something out that I said, one, Amanda Seyfried is the best thing ever in this movie. She deserves an Oscar. Secondly, the sh- Elizabeth Holmes reminds me of every tech person I've ever met, constantly denying account... What we just talked about, denying accountability, lying through her teeth, committing all manner of criming, and acting as if she's the victim. This remi- She r- She is sort of the distillation of every single bad tech person I've met. And by the way, um, uh, she, uh, she, she sh- maybe shouldn't be in jail compared to them. She absolutely should be in jail, but maybe they should be, too, but you can have that as a separate debate. Um, it's a really interesting movie. I, I suspect there's a lot there. I think he's playing with them. He's well known for that. They're... He's pretending he's, you know, on their side a little bit. Who knows where he is, 'cause he's such an interesting filmmaker. Um, I don't usually like his stuff, but I, I tell you, it is riveting, and it's really interesting about identity and lying and truth in this society. So that's what I have to say about that. But the fact that it's making so much money, Scott, I mean, people are sitting through th- this is a three-hour movie. This is not a short movie. My, my s- showing last night was packed, um, at an Alamo Drafthouse in Crystal City, Virginia. That's how, I was unable to get tickets except for there, and I barely got those. Um-
- SGScott Galloway
Alamo White House or Crystal-
- KSKara Swisher
Al- Alamo Drafthouse
- SGScott Galloway
... City, Virginia. In case anyone forgot, you're whiter than a snowflake. [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
Well, it was the only place I could get tickets. It was crazy. Um, but it's really-
- SGScott Galloway
I love Alamo Drafthouse
- KSKara Swisher
... popular. I know. We had a good time. It was delicious.
- SGScott Galloway
I'm bored, bring me a beer.
- KSKara Swisher
I know. We had beer and, uh, delicious everything.
- SGScott Galloway
Bring me some sliders. It's the dark, so I can't see what I'm eating.
- KSKara Swisher
I know. It was good.
- SGScott Galloway
Bring me some of those.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
I love ordering cuisine in a movie theater.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs] It was good food.
- SGScott Galloway
Then you know you're in for some, for some fine dining.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, it was actually not bad. Nonetheless, you, this is interesting that people are sitting through in a theater, the theater stuff is going really well for it, and, uh, I think that is an, that in and of itself is an interesting phenomena. Any thoughts on why?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, I, I'll just go, I don't wanna see the movie. It's, uh, as you said, second-biggest opening ever for a documentary behind Fahrenheit 911 in 2004, and, uh, per theater, it's outperforming Clayface-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... which probably spent 10 times that. Clayface-
- KSKara Swisher
Which is supposed to be good, by the way
- SGScott Galloway
... yeah, cost $40 million, uh, to make. This cost, um, what did-
- KSKara Swisher
Seven
- SGScott Galloway
... this cost $7 million to make. I'm super excited. The documentary, I'm super excited to see. I wanna see the documentary on, uh, the guy who skied down Everest, that, I think it's called Everest. That looks really cool. But it's nice to see documentaries having their time in the sun. The only thing I'm sure of about this, so I've told you, it's not easy to feel sorry for Elizabeth Holmes, but it struck me that the only reason she's not, she's in jail is 'cause her board got very, very angry. [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And felt like they were taken. Uh, the-
- KSKara Swisher
And she took a lot of money from a lot of rich white guys. All black.
- SGScott Galloway
Rich, powerful white guys.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Anyways, the only thing I'm certain of is what her punishment should be.
- 52:12 – 1:01:41
Wins and Fails
- KSKara Swisher
hear some wins and fails. Would you like to go first?
- SGScott Galloway
So my win is, um, just in terms of media, um, I watched something called, uh, and I'm, I'm, I haven't seen a war movie that I didn't like. There's a new war movie out, um, uh, screenplay and directed by Peter Berg, who's, I think, a great, um, uh, a great artist or a great f- uh, uh, filmmaker. It's from Imagine Entertainment called The Mosquito Ball. It, it's an American war sports drama, and it's basically, it's based on the 2022, uh, Buzz Bissinger book, The Mosquito Ball: A Game of Life and Death in World War II. It's about a game played during World War II, and it's essentially these, these four top American football players were enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after the attacks on Pearl Harbor while preparing for the Battle of Okinawa. And most World War II movies are about the European theater, and this just shows just the brutality and cost of war. It's well done. These things are very hard. It's very hard to recreate battle scenes and do it well. I don't think anyone's done it as well as Steven Spielberg did, uh, in terms of his depiction of the, the landing on Omaha, but this comes pretty close.
- KSKara Swisher
Hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
And it's also Berg, the, Berg and Grazer also collaborated on Friday Night Lights, which was another great sports film.
- KSKara Swisher
Great film.
- SGScott Galloway
Um, anyways, I, I, I'm, I think it's, I think war movies a- are, are really a really good reminder for a c- uh, people like me who have a tendency to be a bit more war hawkish of just the real costs that these, that we outsource, uh, mostly, not all, but mostly in terms of combat to young men. Because the reality is young men are disposable anthropologically. If 10-- If you have a village of, of 100 people and 40 of the men die, the village survives. If 40 of the women die, the, the, the village goes out of business. So especially in a society where young people don't have as much opportunity, we find wars for them. I don't think that's true with America in most instances. But you just see, you see the brutality of war up close, and they do a good job. It is a very difficult thing to recreate. Anyways, my win is the movie The Mosquito Ball. My loss is very straightforward. If a general, um, of NATO was found out that he was somehow involved in the scaling up or scaling down of Starlink or Starshield, and we found out that that individual had throttled back, a private citizen or someone in the military had throttled back the capabilities of, of Starlink- Uh, you know, what would we do? [scoffs] And why is it any different from Elon Musk? If the CEO of Delta Air-- If the CEO of Boeing figured out a way to inhibit the defense mechanisms and defense... If, if the head of Northrop Grumman, if we found out the CEO had throttled back the guidance systems on our nuclear submarines, what would we do to that CEO? How is this any different? We have normalized a standard of behavior and given the mother of all dangerous hall passes to people because they are billionaires, and th-this cannot continue. And if, if, if he got permission from the president, then the president needs to be held accountable. But the CEO of Boeing is not allowed to throttle back military aircraft mid-flight defending our allies, and that is exactly what happened here, or appears to have happened. So I'm, I'm, I'm super excited. I'm hoping there's gonna be a blue wave. I've been bringing on candidates. I've-- The, the vibes are pretty good. But on November the fourth, these candidates have to do a couple things. It's about affordability, and it's about accountability. And I don't-- First off, when I say accountability, for God's sakes, please don't try and impeach the president. Please don't. But f- but absolutely, in terms of corruption, haul people in front of Congress, and we're gonna see a lot of names we've been talking about over the last two years who are under the impression that they're immune from all this shit. But absolutely, my fail here is America has normalized a private citizen becoming the most powerful person in terms of military technology and potentially the fate of the West. Haul this person in front of Congress.
- KSKara Swisher
Haul him. Haul him. Bring him in in a, in a, on a dolly. All right, my win. Um, you know, I was traveling a lot in the last couple of days, and I w- end up watching Nobody Wants This, and I was-- I didn't love last season. It's in its third season now. I thought it was kinda silly. I liked it at the beginning. It's on, uh, Netflix. I think this season is wonderful, and I'm s-
- SGScott Galloway
Nobody Wants This?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. I, I d- I-- It's a little too... And it's not because of the main couple, which is Adam Brody and, um, Kristen Bell, who are perfectly fine. They're like a, he's a rabbi, she's a goy. It's, "Oh, are they ever gonna get together on Nobody Wants This?" Um, and it's, it's, uh, it's a very solid comedy, stuff like that. But there are two characters in this, Justine, I think it's Lupe or Lupe, uh, who plays Morgan, and Timothy Si- uh, Simons or Simmons. Si-- I think it's Simons, plays Sasha. Um, the brother-- They're the brother of the man and the sister of the main character woman, have the most beautiful relationship. He's from Veep. He played, uh, the really tall guy, the, the obnoxious guy on Veep.
- SGScott Galloway
He's a, he's supposed to be a wonderful man also.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, he's amazing.
- SGScott Galloway
He's hilarious in Veep.
- KSKara Swisher
This guy, he was on-- What did he play? What was the name of the character he played on Veep?
- SGScott Galloway
Jonah.
- KSKara Swisher
He played Jonah. He was amazing. She played the wife of the, uh, the, the, uh, the, the dumb brother on, um, who was a, I think a prostitute on Succession, and she was great there. The two of them together are one of the most lovely friendships I suspect is moving, I haven't watched the whole thing, to, um, romance, but the way they interact as a man and a woman, it's really refreshing, and I don't know h- I'm sorry if I mispronounced their names. Um, the, my fail has got to be, um, the, the executives now trying to suck up to Democrats. I am getting a lot of incoming from companies now. Um, I think they're suddenly very worried about what's about to happen, um, and, and they're worried about looking like assholes for sucking up to Trump really pretty much, and so they're making all these moves. I find that gr- I've just been invited to four different company parties, tech company parties, which did not happen in the last six months. Um, i-interestingly, um, someone who did, who has gotten in a bit of trouble, Bill Maher, um, went to the White House again for dinner. It's fine if he wants to go to the White House, whatever. Um, but Trump then posted his longest true social post ever, a 1,300-word diatribe against Bill Maher for so- Must, dinner might not have been great. Uh, he just, he got criticized for going. He's getting criticized by Trump. You're gonna see a lot of this kind of stuff, uh, going forward, is people, you know, being angry 'cause you were, you were, uh, canoodling with the president. Um, so it just, it's a fail. They, I don't want them, I didn't want them then, and I want them now. So the, it's gonna be interesting to see them trying to reenter society if he loses as badly as people think he did. He will.
- SGScott Galloway
So just going to the Jonad files, and that is, uh, Jonah was probably the subject or the receptacle for some of the best insults.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
He was called The Cloud Botherer.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
Guy Scraper, The Pointless Giant, uh, The Wrong Shape, Human Scaffolding, The World's Biggest Single-Cell Organism. I'd, I'd still, I'd s- I still think next to Modern Family, I think Veep was the best written show on television. As you have been in my house more times than I have, I don't like stuff. I have no kids. I have no people. I don't like, you know-
- KSKara Swisher
Yes
- SGScott Galloway
... I have, I have yogurt, champagne, and, you know-
- KSKara Swisher
Very expensive champagne
- SGScott Galloway
... some, some, a few, a few pre-rolled, and that's it.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
One, and I get all this tchotchke shit-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm
- SGScott Galloway
... that I throw out immediately. I'm, I'm, I decorate my house like a Swiss architect who's, who's, you know, g- got ADD. Anyways, the, the one thing I have in my room, and it's the first, almost the first thing I see, I wake up every morning, is Tammy Haddad sent me a Veep pillow.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And it's Mount Rushmore with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' face on it.
Episode duration: 1:01:41
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode KMjIPE2FFpg
