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Speaker 1: This is Wall Street Week. I'm David Weston. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: our very special contributor here in Wall Streetek. He is

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Speaker 1: Larry Summons of Harvard. Larry, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: being with us here in New York. It has been

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Speaker 1: quite a week where we lost Charlie Munger, we lost

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Speaker 1: we lost Henry Kissinger, and then on Friday we actually

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Speaker 1: lost Saturday O'Connor as well. I know you knew Henry,

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Speaker 1: well you knew Charliemunger. Talk about Henry Kissinger in your experience.

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Speaker 2: He was an extraordinary man. It was extraordinary to see

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Speaker 2: somebody in their eighties and then in their nineties, and

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Speaker 2: then one hundred years old, so incredibly intellectually vital looking

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Speaker 2: to learn about AI, speaking to most of the world's

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Speaker 2: leading statesman every several months. He was fully engaged and

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Speaker 2: active in the way that many people half his age

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Speaker 2: wouldn't have had the energy and the drive to do.

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Speaker 2: He was somebody who always thought in the large, first

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Speaker 2: understanding broad historical forces or shaping relationships between countries. From that,

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Speaker 2: forming a conception of strategy, From that conception of strategy,

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Speaker 2: working to tactics. It was anything but the day to

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Speaker 2: day political thrust of statements that so often seems to

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Speaker 2: preoccupy leaders these days. He surely didn't get everything right,

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Speaker 2: but he certainly was always trying to reason from the

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Speaker 2: large to reason down, and I learned from his deeply,

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Speaker 2: in a way tragic sensibility. He was the idealist as

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Speaker 2: realist he and the realist as idealist Henry, maybe because

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Speaker 2: of how and where he grew up in Germany in

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Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, feared disorder, feared chaos, feared the complete

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Speaker 2: triumph of passion over reason, and his determination was to

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Speaker 2: bring about stability. Not because he somehow thought that the

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Speaker 2: pride of nations and strength was what was most important,

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Speaker 2: but because when there was the containment of evil, that

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Speaker 2: was when people had an opportunity to live and flourish.

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Speaker 2: Those were powerful, powerful ideas he was. He was a

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Speaker 2: figure who was also very generous to people who he

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Speaker 2: had no compelling reason to be generous too. He was

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Speaker 2: as impressive an extraordinary a person as I've known. He

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Speaker 2: was also in many ways as complex a person as

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Speaker 2: I have known.

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Speaker 1: I was saying I was one of the beneficiaries of that, because,

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Speaker 1: for reasons that are unknown to me, he sort of

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Speaker 1: adopted me a little bit when I came to New

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Speaker 1: York and invited me to various events where we learned

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Speaker 1: about about the economic world and the world of geopolitics,

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Speaker 1: where otherwise wouldn't have Charlie Munger, the partner of Warren

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Speaker 1: Buffett important. What effect did he have on investing writ large?

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Speaker 2: You know, I think the first thing to say is

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Speaker 2: that Charlie and Henry had something very important in common.

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Speaker 2: They had different interests, they had different styles, they had

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Speaker 2: different ways of speaking, but they both had a deep

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Speaker 2: commitment to seeing the world as it was, not as

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Speaker 2: they wanted it to be. And they began by trying

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Speaker 2: to see things as realistically, as clinically accurately as possible.

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Speaker 2: And that was the basis for decision, whether it was

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Speaker 2: political and diplomatic decision in Henry's case, whether it was

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Speaker 2: financial and investment decision in Charlie's case. What I got

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Speaker 2: from both of them was this commitment to detached observation

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Speaker 2: as a prelude to taking action. You know, by Larrence testimony,

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Speaker 2: Charlie provides, I did a really extraordinary insight, he said,

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Speaker 2: and it's different than the old fashioned and traditional value

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Speaker 2: investing credo Charlie rejected the idea of buying fair companies

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Speaker 2: at great prices. He thought you'd ultimately do better buying

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Speaker 2: great companies at fair prices. And that philosophy of finding

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Speaker 2: the best, making sure you weren't overpaying, and then sticking

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Speaker 2: with it is one that has certainly served certainly served him,

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Speaker 2: and certainly served warn well. But I saw it. Charlie

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Speaker 2: was in at wasn't involved a law of Harvard Law

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Speaker 2: School while I was the president of Harvard, and he

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Speaker 2: had a view. It was clear there was a logic.

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Speaker 2: He was prepared to argue and defend it. He too,

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Speaker 2: was an extraordinary figure. And you have to also look

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Speaker 2: at both Henry and Charlie and see the power of

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Speaker 2: staying curious. They stayed with it to the very end.

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Speaker 2: And I think their curiosity, their love of reading, their

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Speaker 2: love of discussion, their love of argument, was part of

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Speaker 2: what caused them to flourish for so very long.

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Speaker 1: Well, maybe a reach, but I think you're really emulating

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Speaker 1: that and staying curious. As you've now taken this role

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Speaker 1: with Open Ai. You talk about Henry Kissinger with open Air,

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Speaker 1: you're taking it on. Let me ask you, frankly, why

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Speaker 1: did you take the job, and what do you hope

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Speaker 1: to do with it?

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Speaker 2: I thought that, as I said on your show, that

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Speaker 2: this was something that was extraordinarily important. You know, no

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Speaker 2: one could be certain whether this is a once a

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Speaker 2: decade technology, a once a half century technology, a once

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Speaker 2: a century technology, a once a millennium technology. You know

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Speaker 2: and can know that for sure, but it sure looks

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Speaker 2: like it's awfully important to develop rapidly and safely and

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Speaker 2: to disseminate effectively and well, so when I was offered

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Speaker 2: an opportunity to be part of contributing to that, overseeing

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Speaker 2: to make sure that that was effectively done, and to

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Speaker 2: do it working with some very great people, I thought

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Speaker 2: it was a real opportunity and I was glad to

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Speaker 2: do it.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to take anything way for your technological expertise,

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Speaker 1: but when what you just said safely strikes me as

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Speaker 1: probably part of what you're going to be focused on,

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Speaker 1: and that gets to questions of governance about how you

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Speaker 1: handle this technology wherever it's going and how a powerful

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Speaker 1: may be. Do you have an overall sense of what

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Speaker 1: you need to do to govern it to get this

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Speaker 1: safely part right?

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Speaker 2: You know, David, I've been on the job two days

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Speaker 2: and they're going to send me the onboarding packet for

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Speaker 2: the board on Sunday. So I shouldn't be saying too

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Speaker 2: much at all because I don't know enough. Here's some

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Speaker 2: things I think I know. I think I know that

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Speaker 2: a company like this has to be prepared to cooperate

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean always agree with, but cooperate with key government

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Speaker 2: officials on regulatory issues, on national security issues, on development

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Speaker 2: of technology issues. I think I know also, and this

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Speaker 2: is integral to the structure of open AI, where the

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Speaker 2: for profit entity is itself a creature of a not

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Speaker 2: for profit entity, that this needs to be a corporation

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Speaker 2: with a conscience, and that we need to be always

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Speaker 2: thinking about the multiple stakeholders in the development of this technology.

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Speaker 2: And as a board member, that will be part of

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Speaker 2: my responsibility working with other board members to make that certain.

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Speaker 2: You know, my colleague at Harvard, late colleague Ken Galbret,

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Speaker 2: said that conscious is the knowledge that someone is watching.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's the responsibility for everybody involved in

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Speaker 2: this to be thinking very carefully always about both opportunities

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Speaker 2: and uncertainties and to make sure that those are balanced

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Speaker 2: in the best way that's possible.

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Speaker 1: It's fascinating. Well, I wish you luck, as we all do, because,

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Speaker 1: as you've said on this program, it's a powerful, really

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Speaker 1: powerful engine particularly and could do an awful lot of good.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, we have to be careful about it.

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Speaker 1: Do you think it's still coming from the cognitive class

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Speaker 1: you said that once unnecessarily, I think yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons. I think one thing

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Speaker 2: that people should keep in mind as they read all

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Speaker 2: the press about this is this is a technology that

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Speaker 2: does what reporters and journalists do. Now you're hearing journalists.

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Speaker 2: They view it slightly differently than when it's technologies that

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Speaker 2: are potentially affecting what some other people and by the.

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Speaker 1: Way, a few lawyers too, by the way, so I'm

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Speaker 1: doubly vulnerable here. As Larry, it's really great to have

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Speaker 1: you with us, as it always is. There's a very

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Speaker 1: special contributor, Larry Summers of Harvard, and this is Wall

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Speaker 1: Street Week on Bloomberg