1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. 2 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 2: This is Everybody's business from Bloomberg Business Week. 3 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:16,920 Speaker 3: I'm Stacy Bannocksmith. 4 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:17,439 Speaker 4: And I'm Max Chafkin. 5 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 5: Stacey Today's show, the big media story, the love triangle exactly. 6 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 5: Are all the streaming apps just going to be one 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 5: big streaming app? Netflix came for Warner Brothers, Paramount came 8 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 5: for Warner Brothers. 9 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 2: Listed in on the wedding ceremony declaring love. 10 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 5: And now Trump is there somewhere adjudicating this. 11 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:37,560 Speaker 4: It's a big showdown. 12 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 5: We're going to talk about where it's going with our 13 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 5: friend Lucas Shaw and the big question, the important question 14 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,560 Speaker 5: is what is the future of media. 15 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 2: Yes, we also have the Virgis Neelie Buttel joining us 16 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 2: to talk about Trump's new move which is going to 17 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 2: allow Nvidia to sell chips to China. This has been 18 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 2: a source of major controversy kind of market forces versus 19 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 2: national security for long time. 20 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 3: We're really lucky to have him to talk about that. 21 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,120 Speaker 5: And we're going to talk about two underrated aspects of 22 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 5: two very well known subjects. One is the World Cup, 23 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 5: which I hope we talking about, and Stacy. 24 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:12,919 Speaker 3: Federal Reserve, I love the Federal Reserve. 25 00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 4: We donet help herself talk about it enough. 26 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 3: I think about it. 27 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 2: It's my Roman Empire, Stacy. 28 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,039 Speaker 5: We've got a great, very meaty show about two really 29 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 5: important topics. Before we get there, I turn on my 30 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 5: computer this morning, open the laptop, and the big story 31 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,680 Speaker 5: as we're recording this on Thursday, December eleventh, is Oracle, 32 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,760 Speaker 5: which is a really big, very valuable tech company that 33 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,199 Speaker 5: is probably underappreciated. It has come to sort of symbolize 34 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 5: everything that is maybe enticing about the AI bubble for investors, 35 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 5: but also some of the dangers because they've been spending 36 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 5: just gobs and gobs of money on data centers, and 37 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,720 Speaker 5: they have this plan for AI. They have all these 38 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 5: deals with the Trump administration and with Sam Altman. Anyway, 39 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 5: Oracle reported earnings. The earnings were a little bit below estimates, 40 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:13,919 Speaker 5: that they missed their estimates. And then the big thing 41 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 5: is they said that they're going to spend Instead of 42 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 5: spending fifteen billion dollars next year, they're going to spend 43 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 5: fifty billion dollars. 44 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 4: So big difference there on data centers to capital expend. Wow, 45 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 4: but data centers are the big. 46 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 6: Part of that. 47 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 3: I'm missing earnings expectations. 48 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 2: At this moment, when people are just throwing money into 49 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 2: the markets, throwing money at tech companies, that is a 50 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:36,800 Speaker 2: really bad sign. 51 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 5: Yeah, And look, I would not bring this up because 52 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,800 Speaker 5: what happens over any couple of hours in the stock market, 53 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 5: well that can be very exciting for me. 54 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 3: Yes, it Ultimately, the animal spirit. 55 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 5: Doesn't necessarily mean anything. The numbers here are pretty big. 56 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 5: Oracle was down as much as sixteen percent this morning 57 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 5: as we're talking. Now, I think it's a bit up 58 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 5: a little bit, there's no down thirteen percent. But the 59 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,920 Speaker 5: real the thing, really, i'd say a little bit concerning 60 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 5: here is when you look when you zoom out a 61 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 5: little bit and look at where Oracle stock has gone 62 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 5: since their last big AI announcement. It's down like over 63 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,120 Speaker 5: thirty five percent, So like there's been a steep drop off. 64 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 5: And if you're like thinking, like, what does this remind 65 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 5: me of? When was there a time in the economy 66 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 5: when Oracle seemed very valuable and then suddenly became much 67 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 5: much less valuable. It's the two thousand and two thousand 68 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 5: and one tech bust, and like the Oracle stock chart 69 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 5: from that period, it looks pretty similar to the Oracle 70 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 5: stock chart today. Now again we'll see like it's I also. 71 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 2: Think investors, because tech stocks have become such a huge 72 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 2: part of our economy and are like really the engine 73 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 2: powering it right now, everybody's so jumpy for any kind 74 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 2: of bad news that if there's anything that even looks 75 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 2: like a hint of the AI explosive growth being a bubble, 76 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 2: everybody loses it and starts selling their stocks. 77 00:03:58,120 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 3: I just feel like everybody's so jumpy. 78 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 5: Or conversely, any sign of positive right can send the 79 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 5: markets up, like Alex Karp does something cool. Alex Carp, 80 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 5: the CEO of Palanteer, doesn't mean cool on stage or whatever, 81 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 5: and everyone's like, oh yeahinues AI is going to save us. 82 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,480 Speaker 5: And and conversely Oracle like missus earnings and all of 83 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 5: a sudden everyone's freaking out. 84 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 3: Animal spirits are running wild, well the markets these days. 85 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 5: We'll talk about this in the conversation with Neli Patel, 86 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 5: but like it really feels like we're at this kind 87 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 5: of inflection point, and some of the some of the 88 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 5: stuff that's happening I think in Washington with Donald Trump 89 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 5: and with in video which which like you said in 90 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 5: video is one of those stocks that fell down about 91 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 5: four percent as we're talking now, I think, you know, 92 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 5: in response to this kind of like vibes thing, Trump administration, 93 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,840 Speaker 5: Silicon Valley, even us, right, we all want to keep 94 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 5: this bubble going. 95 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 2: I really want the bubble to keep going. I mean, 96 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 2: if it's like or to deflate very gently, a gentle deflation. 97 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 4: Right, because a sudden deflation really devastating. 98 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 3: Of course, Together big story this week is. 99 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,720 Speaker 2: This big entertainment industry merger triangle thing. Like you said, 100 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,720 Speaker 2: Warner Brothers seem to be locking things down with Netflix 101 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,480 Speaker 2: that has been thrown into question. Paramounts stepped in with 102 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:17,679 Speaker 2: an offer of its own. We sent our reporter Charlie 103 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,120 Speaker 2: Gorvin out into the streets of Brooklyn to ask people 104 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,920 Speaker 2: if they had opinions on this merger, and here is 105 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:25,719 Speaker 2: what they said. 106 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 7: In particular, with the WVD and Netflix merger, there's a 107 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,280 Speaker 7: lot of creative projects that will get canned and a 108 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 7: lot of people will lose work because of it. 109 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 5: It just kind of perpetuates the idea that nobody wants 110 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 5: to go to the movies and watch films anymore. 111 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 7: Undoubtedly, like the quality goes down. 112 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 8: Literally, people say, like the Netflix look, which is like, 113 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:51,400 Speaker 8: you know, people flat lighting, it's just cheesy, no production design. 114 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 7: Yeah, So where do you guys mostly get your concept from. 115 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:56,280 Speaker 1: Well, we go to the movies a lot. 116 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 4: You go to the movies at least once a week. 117 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 7: I'd rather go to a movie theater to see something 118 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 7: new then wait for it to come out on streaming. 119 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:07,039 Speaker 7: I have friends who work in the like Hollywood business, 120 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:11,360 Speaker 7: and so anytime I see news like that, it's kind 121 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 7: of hard to stomach that, like, those are my friends 122 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:18,400 Speaker 7: that are losing their jobs. There is like an underlying 123 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:20,800 Speaker 7: current of people being like, this isn't right. Yeah, it 124 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 7: doesn't feel right. So maybe my hope is that and 125 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 7: I have hope that going forward there will be some 126 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 7: sort of rubber band pushed back that people will want 127 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:38,599 Speaker 7: to see much more creator driven stories and whatnot. 128 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 5: All right, So I appreciate this perspective because what we're 129 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 5: hearing there is, you know a bunch of people who 130 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 5: are invested in one way or another in kind of 131 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 5: like preserving some competition in Hollywood. And if if you 132 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 5: talk to screenwriters or creatives in the industry, right like, 133 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 5: they are very concerned about this because removing a POTENTI 134 00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 5: bitter from a creative project, which is what this will 135 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 5: do is going to be bad for them. I also 136 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 5: think this shows that maybe Greenpoint Brooklyn is not representative 137 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 5: of the United States. 138 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,320 Speaker 2: I would be interested if they like Greenpoint Brooklyn versus 139 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,320 Speaker 2: Wall Street. Like, ask a bunch of people like coming 140 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 2: out of the Goldman. 141 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 3: Sachs Building how they feel about it. I feel like 142 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 3: you might. 143 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 5: They're like, it's all these Maybe I think you might 144 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 5: get a different perspective that that I would be here 145 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 5: for that. 146 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 3: You know it all it's location, location, location, Right. 147 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 5: We're going to go into the next segment, but before 148 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 5: we do, Stacy got to remind people for our twenty 149 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 5: twenty six Predictions episodes. 150 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 4: We need magic gate Ball, we need your predictions. 151 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 5: We want to know what you think is going to 152 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:54,840 Speaker 5: happen in the economy, in the world of business in 153 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 5: twenty twenty six. 154 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 4: Send us an email. 155 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 2: Everybody's companies, AI Strides, people in the news, Elon Musk's next. 156 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 4: Move, next baby ever? 157 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 2: Yes, number thirteen, No, Stacy, Stacy naive? 158 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:16,880 Speaker 5: You naive anyway? Everybody's with an asset Bloomberg dot Net. 159 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 5: Send us an email or if you really like us 160 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 5: send us a voice memo that we would love to play. 161 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 5: We'd love to hear some of your voices on that episode. Yes, 162 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 5: Stacy will critique you. Yes, no, she won't. 163 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,199 Speaker 2: She'll hopefully only compliment, only compliments. 164 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:36,959 Speaker 4: All right, let's go to our chat. 165 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 3: With mecas so Max. 166 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:41,680 Speaker 2: One of the big stories this week obviously, has had 167 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:45,680 Speaker 2: to do with the movies and entertainment and a hostile takeover. 168 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:50,480 Speaker 5: You know, Stacy, I have been a business news reporter 169 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 5: for like twenty years, and there's nothing we like better 170 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:55,840 Speaker 5: than a hostile takeover. 171 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 4: It is fun, it is good stuff. 172 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:00,800 Speaker 2: Yes, it does bring a lot of drama into what 173 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 2: can be kind of like dry corporate doings. But we 174 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:05,960 Speaker 2: have the perfect person here to talk about this with us, 175 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,439 Speaker 2: Lucas Shaw, author of the screen Time newsletter. 176 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:10,199 Speaker 3: Lucas, thank you for joining. 177 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: Us, Thanks for having me. 178 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 3: So if we look at this. 179 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 2: As sort of a cinematic love triangle, what is actually 180 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 2: going on? 181 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:17,840 Speaker 3: Where do things stand right now? 182 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 8: Well, Warner Brothers has agreed to sell itself to Netflix, 183 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:26,520 Speaker 8: the streaming giant, the most valuable, biggest entertainment company in 184 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 8: the world right now. 185 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 3: And it's just parts of itself. Is that right. 186 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 8: It is selling its studio, which is the biggest TV 187 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 8: studio in Hollywood and one of the biggest movie studios 188 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:41,320 Speaker 8: in Hollywood, as well as its streaming service and the 189 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 8: broader HBO business. It is not selling all of the 190 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:49,640 Speaker 8: other TV networks like CNNTNT, TBS, Discovery and so forth. 191 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:55,000 Speaker 8: Netflix triumphed after a sort of a two month, six 192 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 8: week auction against Comcast and Paramount. Paramount initiated this process 193 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 8: by trying to just buy Warner Brothers Discovery starting a 194 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 8: few months ago with some unsolicited offers, and Paramount, which 195 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,559 Speaker 8: is controlled by the Allison family Larry Ellison, the billionaire 196 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 8: co founder of Oracle, his son David Ellison, newly appointed 197 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 8: media mogul and CEO of Paramounts Guidance. They were not 198 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,480 Speaker 8: happy that Warner Brothers chose Netflix. They felt that their 199 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 8: offer was better. They felt that the process was unfair, 200 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 8: and so they launched sort of a pseudle hostile takeover 201 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 8: the monday after Warner Brothers and Netflix announced their deal. 202 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 8: And so now we're in this process. You want to 203 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:34,840 Speaker 8: call it a love triangle, we can call it whatever 204 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 8: we want. Where the most valuable entertainment company in the 205 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 8: world and an entertainment company controlled by the second richest 206 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 8: man in the world are both competing for the affection 207 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 8: of Warner Brothers. And they're not just trying to charm 208 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 8: the Warner Brothers board and shareholders. They are also trying 209 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:53,480 Speaker 8: to charm the president and sort of any potential regulators 210 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,160 Speaker 8: who could stand in the way of the victor. 211 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 2: I did want to say before we go forward that 212 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:00,320 Speaker 2: there is a little bit of a difference. But these 213 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 2: two offers, the Netflix offer was made with company leadership, 214 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:08,079 Speaker 2: whereas the Paramount offer is a so called hostile takeover 215 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 2: under offer where they just go straight to the shareholders. 216 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 2: They basically go around company leadership. 217 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:17,959 Speaker 5: Lucas, what does this mean for like the for entertainment, 218 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:19,840 Speaker 5: for like from the from the point of view of 219 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,880 Speaker 5: somebody who just is interested in like watching movies and 220 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:28,440 Speaker 5: and like who's following this news and wondering, like, okay, 221 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 5: like if if Netflix buys Warner what does it mean 222 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,079 Speaker 5: for me in terms of how much are going to 223 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 5: pay for screen streaming services? What does it mean in 224 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 5: terms of the kinds of movies that are going to 225 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:41,319 Speaker 5: be offered to me? There is this feeling like the 226 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,320 Speaker 5: movie theater business has been struggling, and like it is 227 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:47,959 Speaker 5: this like the death Noel. You have the company that 228 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:52,520 Speaker 5: like bet heavily in a lot of ways against theatrical releases, 229 00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:55,960 Speaker 5: swallowing one of the most important movie studios potentially anyway, 230 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,360 Speaker 5: Like how what is how much does this change? Sort 231 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:02,199 Speaker 5: of like the creative side of the business. 232 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 8: Yeah, it's two different answers. I guess there's the consumer 233 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:08,880 Speaker 8: part of it and the kind of the B to 234 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 8: B entertainment industry part. Both seem to be outraged about 235 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:17,440 Speaker 8: this deal, as the consumer impact to me is much 236 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:22,199 Speaker 8: harder to predict and also likely not as grave as 237 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:25,200 Speaker 8: people would believe, right, because. 238 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 5: A scary scenario if you're a consumer is like okay, 239 00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 5: Like now Netflix is like jacked up its prices pretty 240 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,480 Speaker 5: significantly over the last few years. Now they're going to 241 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:37,800 Speaker 5: own both HBO and Netflix, They're going to have tons 242 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:40,680 Speaker 5: of pricing power. Like long run, we are going to 243 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 5: be paying more than we were twenty years ago before 244 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 5: when all these futurists told us that streaming was gonna 245 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 5: make our cable bill less. 246 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:52,280 Speaker 8: It's already more expensive. So streaming came around. Netflix came 247 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 8: around as a much more affordable alternative to cable, which 248 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 8: it was. It was a superior product at a lower price, 249 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 8: and that's why million of people signed up for it. 250 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 8: Now over time, there's been more and more competition, and 251 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 8: so all these services came in at low prices to 252 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:13,760 Speaker 8: sign people up. But they're all raising prices, right. Peacock's 253 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 8: more expensive, Paramountlus is more expensive, Disney Plus is more expensive, 254 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,839 Speaker 8: who lose more expensive. So if you add together all 255 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,560 Speaker 8: of the streaming services of the major entertainment companies, it 256 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 8: costs more than cable would. Now you can also access 257 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 8: more but the notion of streaming as a budget alternative 258 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 8: is mostly gone away. But I think the average person 259 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:34,560 Speaker 8: doesn't pay for all of them, right, They pay for 260 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:37,960 Speaker 8: two or three or four. The concern about Netflix raising prices, 261 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:39,760 Speaker 8: I guess, on the one hand, short they will have 262 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 8: more market power, they will be able to raise prices. 263 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,080 Speaker 8: I think they're going to do that anyways. The contrarian 264 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:46,960 Speaker 8: take I have on that a little bit is like 265 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:51,120 Speaker 8: they want to get HBO to sort of bundle them, 266 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 8: and further like that's like first of all, and Ne'slix 267 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 8: isn't doing the still for HBO. They're doing it for 268 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:57,200 Speaker 8: Warner Brothers. They want the catalogs, they want the library, 269 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:01,679 Speaker 8: but adding HBO, they will probably bundle it, at least 270 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 8: initially at a discount or the package deal at least 271 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:06,720 Speaker 8: in the short term is lower. So I don't think 272 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 8: the damage to consumers immediately is lower prices. The bigger 273 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 8: risk is what does it mean to the balance of 274 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:16,199 Speaker 8: power in the industry and how will Netflix exert that 275 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,000 Speaker 8: power in a way that both harms creative people and 276 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 8: may ultimately affect the consumer. 277 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 4: Yeah. 278 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,280 Speaker 5: Key point though is short term, because I think in 279 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 5: the long run they will raise prices, and whether it's 280 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 5: a direct whether they're directly raising prices or in the 281 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 5: way that like the way lots of people use streaming now, right, 282 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:36,160 Speaker 5: because of the point you just made is they will 283 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 5: drop services and pick them up when they're watching a show. 284 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 5: But if you bundle, if you make the bundle bigger, 285 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:44,440 Speaker 5: it's just like cable, right, Like if you create a 286 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 5: situation where it's all bundled together, you know you can 287 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 5: no longer do that. You can't drop HBO after you're 288 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 5: done with the pit and move on to like what's 289 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 5: a Netflix show, the Diddy documentary or. 290 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 1: Whatever started it? Last night. Same. 291 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 8: Yes, it's probably worth noting that Netflix has the lowest 292 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:04,440 Speaker 8: churn by far in the business, so I don't I 293 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 8: think for the most part, people don't do the toggle 294 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,120 Speaker 8: on and off with Netflix in the way that they 295 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:11,680 Speaker 8: do with HBO and others. I don't know if it's 296 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 8: a good news or bad news for you that the 297 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,280 Speaker 8: new season of The Pit is coming back next month, 298 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:17,520 Speaker 8: so you'll be having to re up your HBO subscription. 299 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 8: But yeah, it would give them a lot more pricing power. 300 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 8: I think we're frankly already sort of headed in that direction, 301 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:25,240 Speaker 8: just in terms of the way that everyone has been 302 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,920 Speaker 8: raising prices. So I don't know how much this particular 303 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:31,920 Speaker 8: deal will influence it. I think it's I understand the 304 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:36,000 Speaker 8: concerns that, say a producer would have that Netflix, which 305 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 8: already feels like the eight hundred pound gerrilla in Hollywood, 306 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 8: would suddenly look invincible in many ways. 307 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:44,440 Speaker 3: What do you think is the ideal outcome? 308 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 2: I guess from an economic point of view, like which 309 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 2: of the pairings makes more sense to you as a business. 310 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:52,720 Speaker 8: I don't know if this is the answer from an 311 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 8: economic point of view, but what I would say is, 312 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,520 Speaker 8: if you look Over the history of Netflix, it has 313 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 8: generally been a very well run company, right, whereas Paramount 314 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:06,320 Speaker 8: has been a total show for fifteen years, if not longer. 315 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 8: Now it's under new leadership. We'll see what it's like 316 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 8: under David Ellison. But if you ask me if I'm 317 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 8: looking at Warner Brothers as a valuable asset that produces 318 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 8: things that I care about, right, HBO is one of 319 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 8: the great producers of television in the history. 320 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: Of the business. 321 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 8: Warner Brothers has been one of the great film and 322 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 8: television studios for the last century. It too, has suffered 323 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 8: from years of sort of changing ownership, which has made 324 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,440 Speaker 8: it very hard for them to set a coherent strategy. 325 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 8: I would say, in at least a couple of those owners' 326 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:39,000 Speaker 8: cases of mismanagement, I would lean Netflix. I think they'll 327 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 8: do a better job with it, and they have a 328 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 8: more obvious need for it, right. I think there are 329 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 8: reasons to worry about Netflix's plans for movies, or reasons 330 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 8: to worry about what an already powerful company will look 331 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 8: like if they have it. So the debate becomes who's 332 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,680 Speaker 8: the least bad option, And I think that depends on 333 00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 8: your point of view. If you really care about film 334 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 8: and movie theaters. Those people are petrified of Netflix. If 335 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,479 Speaker 8: you care about jobs, and you're probably a little more 336 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 8: scared about Paramount. 337 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: If you are more political, you. 338 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 8: Are probably more scared of Paramount because of the Ellison 339 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,600 Speaker 8: Trump access and what that's going to mean for CNN. 340 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,440 Speaker 8: So there's a lot of different kind of conflicting point 341 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,120 Speaker 8: of view on what is the least bad option here. 342 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,240 Speaker 5: What do you think is most likely to happen? Like 343 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:25,080 Speaker 5: which of these suitors or none is? 344 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:25,679 Speaker 1: Like? 345 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 5: Do you think it's going to be Netflix or Paramount 346 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 5: or neither? What do you think is most likely? 347 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:33,879 Speaker 1: I think it's pretty unlikely for it to be neither. 348 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 8: Much as the entertainment industry would like Warner Brothers to 349 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 8: remain independent, much as a lot of politicians like Elizabeth 350 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 8: Warren would like Warner Brothers to remain independent, it's really 351 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:47,200 Speaker 8: hard to tell a company that if someone else offers 352 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 8: to offers to pay you two to three times your 353 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 8: share price, that you're supposed to say no unless there 354 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,160 Speaker 8: is a really compelling antitrust case. But so that would 355 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,280 Speaker 8: assume that they are going to at least pick someone 356 00:17:57,359 --> 00:17:59,320 Speaker 8: before we get there. I don't see the board walking 357 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,640 Speaker 8: away and saying surprise, we're not going to sell. 358 00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:04,960 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, I would say the neither would be they 359 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,359 Speaker 5: it gets dropped because of anti trust opposition, which is 360 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:10,439 Speaker 5: by the ways where I am but would bet my money. 361 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,840 Speaker 1: But yes, well, I guess I'll get to that. 362 00:18:13,119 --> 00:18:17,959 Speaker 8: Of the existing bidders, Paramount was seen as the favorite 363 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,560 Speaker 8: pretty much the whole time. As time went on, it 364 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 8: became increasingly clear to me that Netflix was very serious, 365 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 8: and their odds of doing it went up and up 366 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 8: and up until the point where they actually did it. 367 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,120 Speaker 8: Just because they've agreed to the deal does not mean 368 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:33,920 Speaker 8: that they will prevail. I think the Allisons will be 369 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:38,160 Speaker 8: a slightly less rational in the spending because they need 370 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,920 Speaker 8: it more. Netflix doesn't need it to the same degree. 371 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:46,639 Speaker 8: That's at least the conventional wisdom, So it gives the 372 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 8: Allison's maybe a slight advantage in the long run. 373 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,680 Speaker 5: The reason I would be worried if I were somebody 374 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:55,199 Speaker 5: who was counting on this deal going through is just 375 00:18:55,280 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 5: because of the dynamics of Trump's presidency. This deal is 376 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 5: going to take like a year, and in that amount 377 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 5: of time, there's gonna be a midterm election. There is 378 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,600 Speaker 5: a potential for the Republicans to get hammered. It's going 379 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 5: to create a lot of uncertainty. I think that the 380 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,720 Speaker 5: anti trust argument for breaking this deal up is pretty weak. 381 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:17,840 Speaker 5: But I would be a little worried if I were 382 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:21,359 Speaker 5: either of these parties about the political uncertainty and about 383 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:25,520 Speaker 5: potential blowback. There's potential for like the war end types 384 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 5: and the and the Republican anti trust hawks to go 385 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 5: after Netflix. There's also potential blowback on the like kind 386 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:37,440 Speaker 5: of like trump Ola Gark brawl of Gark, whole thing. 387 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:41,000 Speaker 5: And I would and and trump you know, for all 388 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,120 Speaker 5: the ways that he can be kind of like strong 389 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,639 Speaker 5: willed and stuff he reads the polls like, I would 390 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,439 Speaker 5: not be like totally surprised if at some point he 391 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 5: changed his tune. I mean, it happened to Elon Musk, 392 00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 5: it could happen to David Ellison. 393 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,600 Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I he is not a reliable partner in 394 00:19:59,640 --> 00:19:59,920 Speaker 1: that way. 395 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,360 Speaker 8: Just because he says he's your friend doesn't mean he's 396 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 8: gonna stay your friend. You set up an interesting dynamic, 397 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:10,040 Speaker 8: which is, you know, does that mean that these companies 398 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:13,439 Speaker 8: vying for Warner Brothers will essentially be pulling for the 399 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 8: Republicans in the midterms because they're putting the interests of 400 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,160 Speaker 8: their company over the interests of their you know, their 401 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:20,200 Speaker 8: personal politics. 402 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 4: Oh Man, one hundred percent. 403 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,640 Speaker 5: I think they're rooting so hard, I would say, but 404 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,800 Speaker 5: maybe I'm wrong, all right, Stacey, before we let Lucas go, Yes, 405 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:31,879 Speaker 5: I've been getting a lot of feedback, a lot of 406 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:34,720 Speaker 5: negative feedback about some comments I. 407 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:37,159 Speaker 3: Made a lot of negative feedback from where. 408 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 5: From the Everybody's business inbox, everybody's at Bloomberg dot net, 409 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:42,600 Speaker 5: that's everybody's with an ass at Bloomberg dot net, as 410 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 5: well as my personal text messages around a description of 411 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 5: mine of Rush Hour for Lucas a couple episodes ago. 412 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:50,879 Speaker 4: I don't know if you're listening. 413 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked. 414 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,120 Speaker 5: We talked about Trump sort of giving notes to Hollywood 415 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:59,200 Speaker 5: about Rush Hour four, and I I think like summed 416 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 5: up the critical consensus around the Rush Hour movies in 417 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,359 Speaker 5: a way that has upset some very very committed rush 418 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 5: Hour fans. I pointed out that Jackie Jackie Chan himself 419 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:13,960 Speaker 5: kind of crapped on the movies, that critics didn't like 420 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,800 Speaker 5: the movies, and that some of the jokes were racist. Joshua, 421 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,200 Speaker 5: who wrote us an email subject line, do not come 422 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 5: for rush Hour, and Joshua says, I'm a pretty liberal guy. 423 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,479 Speaker 5: You would never catch me voting for Trump or anyone 424 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 5: like him. I'm also Asian and I grew up on 425 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 5: rush Hour. Rush hour is not and will never be problematic. 426 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 5: Every Asian person and Black person I know loves rush Hour. 427 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,199 Speaker 5: Not a single person I've ever talked to about it 428 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 5: has ever had a problem with it. It's a shared 429 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,400 Speaker 5: bonding experience for our communities. This is Joshua's knows very nice, 430 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 5: and I have to say he is not the only person, 431 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,080 Speaker 5: Joshua who reacted so strongly. 432 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:51,119 Speaker 2: I don't have any feelings about it because I have 433 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 2: not watched it any of them. No, No, I'm more 434 00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:57,960 Speaker 2: of a merchant ivory person. 435 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,880 Speaker 8: Yeah, well these are these are These are of an 436 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,639 Speaker 8: ilk of kind of the action comedy that was huge 437 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 8: in the eighties, nineties, and to some extent the aughts. 438 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:09,919 Speaker 8: And I feel like that movie isn't as common as 439 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:11,320 Speaker 8: it used to be, which is a shame because it's 440 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 8: one of my favorite genres. 441 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 3: Where should I check out? 442 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:19,399 Speaker 8: Should you compare Chris Tucker, who is funny, with someone 443 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 8: like Jackie Chan who is sort of electric. 444 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:22,920 Speaker 4: To watch Jackie Chan's amazing. 445 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 8: You just need, you know, a relatively thin plot to 446 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 8: let them do their thing. I remember quite liking both 447 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,439 Speaker 8: the first and second Rush Hour movies. I don't really 448 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 8: remember the third one. 449 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,199 Speaker 4: But Lucas, what is the chances of the fourth? And 450 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 4: how does this merger? 451 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 3: Felt like fourths are not usually good? 452 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 5: So so Trump, as I recall, was pressuring Ellison to 453 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,240 Speaker 5: do this. Now, will Trump have similar pull with the 454 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,680 Speaker 5: Netflix creatives to keep Rush Hour on track? 455 00:22:56,240 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 8: Well that that wouldn't change, I don't think, because okay, 456 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 8: that's the paramount project, so Ellison can just continue to 457 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:05,360 Speaker 8: release it. 458 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 5: Lucas Shatt, author of the screen Time newsletter, thank you 459 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:08,720 Speaker 5: for being. 460 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:17,320 Speaker 1: Here, Thanks for having me, Stacy. 461 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,960 Speaker 5: All year, you and I on this podcast, with many 462 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,160 Speaker 5: of our guests and colleagues, have been talking about two themes. 463 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 5: I think one is the shakiness of the US economy 464 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:33,560 Speaker 5: and the other is excitement over AI and all the 465 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:35,680 Speaker 5: questions around that. And I guess now the I think 466 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 5: about as a third theme, which is like Trump and yes, 467 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:42,320 Speaker 5: this week there is a story that's playing out. 468 00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 4: It's kind of bringing all of those themes together. 469 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 5: So Donald Trump, as he does, went on truth social 470 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:53,800 Speaker 5: and posted a message, an announcement essentially saying that he 471 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 5: is going to allow Nvidia, the big US chip maker, 472 00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 5: to sell its h two hundred AI chips to China 473 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:02,720 Speaker 5: and is going to take a twenty five percent cut 474 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 5: of sales of that. Very excited about that plan is 475 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,679 Speaker 5: to allow lots of chip makers to sell their products 476 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 5: to China, something that hadn't been allowed during the first 477 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,960 Speaker 5: Trump administration or the Biden ministry. 478 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:16,320 Speaker 3: Or like national security reasons. 479 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,240 Speaker 5: Right, Bingo and I wanted to talk about this because 480 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 5: it feels to me like we have two things coming 481 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,000 Speaker 5: together at the same time, and it's almost as if 482 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:30,200 Speaker 5: Trump is like throwing the AI industry a bone, which 483 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 5: is to allow it to sell chips to China as 484 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 5: a kind of hail Mary to help the economy or something. Anyway, 485 00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 5: I wanted to bring in Neili Patel, who is the 486 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 5: editor in chief of The Verge, who co hosts two 487 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,520 Speaker 5: great podcasts, Decoder and Verge Casts for The Verge. 488 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 4: He is here now, Neili, thanks for being. 489 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 6: Here, Thanks for having men excited. 490 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:48,800 Speaker 3: Neili. 491 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 5: Before we get to the Trump of it all, I 492 00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 5: would love to hear kind of your take on where 493 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,680 Speaker 5: we are on the AI question. Like Stacey and I 494 00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 5: for months have been sort of debating about the AI 495 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 5: bubble and is it useful, like like where how do 496 00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 5: you see things from your perch? 497 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 6: I think you just said it. 498 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 9: You just said the AI industry and then you said, 499 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 9: sell it's chips to China. The entire AI industry is 500 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,960 Speaker 9: in Vidia. That's the money. That's the whole industry. Nobody 501 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:15,880 Speaker 9: else is making a dime. 502 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:17,919 Speaker 2: Is no one else making a dime? Even with like 503 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 2: the Chips act and everything. I like Micron and all 504 00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 2: those other guys, no one's I think else is making. 505 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,120 Speaker 6: Money downstream of in video. 506 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 9: There's TSMC. I bet TSMC is making a lot of money, right. 507 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,639 Speaker 9: I think the EUV porthography vendor is making a lot 508 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,480 Speaker 9: of money ASML. Like sure, I think the other chip 509 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,240 Speaker 9: makers are seeing increased demand, They're not seeing the multiple 510 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,240 Speaker 9: that we see in video get right, So AMD is 511 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:43,280 Speaker 9: not trading the same multiple as in Vidia. 512 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 5: To my mind, this is like a huge turnabout, like 513 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:48,360 Speaker 5: we as a society have sort of decided that our 514 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 5: critical technologies, these technologies that are potentially like weapons, should 515 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,120 Speaker 5: not be sold to our adversaries. You had all these 516 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 5: efforts again like under the first Trump administration, under Biden. 517 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 4: What happened here? Why the shift? 518 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:01,840 Speaker 6: Well? 519 00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:04,200 Speaker 9: I think some of it is very simply the passage 520 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 9: of time outside of politics. If you remember the first 521 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 9: like iMac G three, like the Bondai Blue IMACG three, 522 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:16,360 Speaker 9: those chips were classified as supercomputers and placed under severe 523 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:17,480 Speaker 9: export restrictions. 524 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,480 Speaker 3: When was this I don't know, I don't know about 525 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:20,360 Speaker 3: this in the nineties. 526 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 4: Oh okay, this is like the iconic iMac, the one that. 527 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 3: Like that looked like a little suitcase. 528 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,360 Speaker 5: Yep, No, that looked like a big suit It's sort 529 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,800 Speaker 5: of a big suitcase, a suitcase. 530 00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:31,880 Speaker 6: Of debatable size. 531 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 3: Okay. 532 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 9: But so, like you know, this is a thing that 533 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,399 Speaker 9: happens where we the United States in particular, tends to 534 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,280 Speaker 9: make bleeding edge technology and then we impose export restrictions 535 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:44,400 Speaker 9: on that to solve geopolitics, and. 536 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:46,600 Speaker 6: VideA needs to see some growth. 537 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 9: I think keeping China out of the race in this 538 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 9: way is challenging over time. So I think in video 539 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,119 Speaker 9: is being thrust into this situation where the market has 540 00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,200 Speaker 9: grown way faster than they probably expected. But they're very 541 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 9: excited about and now they because of AI and now 542 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,919 Speaker 9: they need to grow right, and they need to grow 543 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 9: in much the same way as Apple grew the iPhone, 544 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 9: which is just unlocking market after market. So the iPhone 545 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 9: grew the way it grew in its early years because 546 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,359 Speaker 9: Apple would just light up a new carrier in a 547 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 9: new country and would immediately get one hundred million new subscribers. 548 00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:22,359 Speaker 9: You would light up Japan, it eventually lit up China, 549 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 9: and it saw massive growth for the iPhone. I think 550 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:27,680 Speaker 9: in Vidia has the same problem. They've needed to push 551 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 9: very hard on the Trump administration. I think the argument 552 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,000 Speaker 9: that they've made is this is the previous generation of technology. 553 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,159 Speaker 9: Our companies in the United States are going to use 554 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:36,320 Speaker 9: the bleeding edge. 555 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 2: If you were the president, would you allow these chip sales? 556 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 2: Do you think it's like if you were the president, 557 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,480 Speaker 2: like looking out for the country national security concerns, knowing 558 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 2: all that, you know, what would you decide? 559 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 3: What would you do? 560 00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:52,280 Speaker 6: Boy? If I was the president, I do a lot 561 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:52,840 Speaker 6: of things differently. 562 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:53,439 Speaker 4: In this mission. 563 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,600 Speaker 5: You're only allowed to do chip policy, though your David. 564 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,440 Speaker 3: Sad you can issue a coin zachs. 565 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 6: I do a lot of things differently too. 566 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,320 Speaker 9: I think it is impossible to untangle the chip industry 567 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,840 Speaker 9: as it is presently constituted from our national security apparatus. 568 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,879 Speaker 9: In particular, the design of the modern ship industry is 569 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:21,040 Speaker 9: built to insulate Taiwan from China, like it is impossible 570 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 9: to not put that at the center of your decision 571 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 9: making process. So the Taiwanese government basically built and subsidized 572 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 9: chip manufacturing, so the United States would have a cored 573 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 9: dependency on Taiwan and protect it from arising China. So 574 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,160 Speaker 9: if you're gonna say I'm gonna hold China off from 575 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 9: buying these chips that are buy and large made by 576 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 9: TSMC in Taiwan, you're kind of incentivizing China to run 577 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 9: the same playbook, right and build its own. 578 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 6: Chip fabrication capacity. 579 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 9: And then you're kind of upstream of TSMC, And now 580 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,840 Speaker 9: you're saying, Okay, the Dutch government has to prevent ASML 581 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 9: from selling lithography machines to China, And you get really sideways, 582 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 9: really fast, and so I think it might be better 583 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 9: to reduce the incentives for the Chinese government to build 584 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:08,880 Speaker 9: its own ancillary production lines. It's very costly, you have 585 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 9: to invest a lot of talent you have to invest in. 586 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:12,520 Speaker 2: Yes, you would sell it to them so they don't 587 00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:13,719 Speaker 2: start making their own chips. 588 00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 9: That has more or less been the strategy United States. 589 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,000 Speaker 9: I think when you come to AI and Nvidia again, 590 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,280 Speaker 9: the thing I would come to is I would want 591 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,920 Speaker 9: I would say to Nvidia, you can do this, but 592 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,640 Speaker 9: see all these excess profits. You need to invest those 593 00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:33,520 Speaker 9: back into fabrication facilities in the United States so that 594 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 9: we are not beholden to this geopolitical cycle over and 595 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 9: over again. And I think that would be the trade 596 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 9: I would make. This is where I think I meaningfully 597 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 9: differ from the Trump administration in that the coherence of 598 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,920 Speaker 9: their plan is actually not visible to anyone. 599 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:48,480 Speaker 6: Right. 600 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 9: They say a lot of things, They tweet a lot 601 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,040 Speaker 9: of things, right like, this is an administration that is 602 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,960 Speaker 9: defined by trying to tweet it into reality. But we 603 00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 9: have not actually seen a plan to take Nvidia's money 604 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,760 Speaker 9: and turn it into manufacturing capacity. And that's the I 605 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,520 Speaker 9: think that is the tax I would extract on Nvidio 606 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 9: to allow them to enter a market that has national 607 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:10,480 Speaker 9: security concerns. 608 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 5: So Trump has done all this stuff this year, a 609 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 5: lot of which has either not done what he'd hoped 610 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 5: it would do either trying to onshore US manufacturing or 611 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,920 Speaker 5: lower prices or whatever. And it feels like increasingly the 612 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,400 Speaker 5: Trump administration is kind of running this hail mary, where 613 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 5: like there are all these problems and they kind of 614 00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,240 Speaker 5: boil down to stagflation, right the economy maybe slowing down, 615 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,520 Speaker 5: inflation maybe going up. And it seems like there's really 616 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,400 Speaker 5: one hope here for not only for Trump's presidency, but 617 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 5: made for our economy, which is for this AI bubble 618 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 5: to just keep kind of inflating. And if it doesn't 619 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,560 Speaker 5: keep inflating, then we're in for some pain. And I'm wondering, 620 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,680 Speaker 5: first of all, do you buy that? And where are we? 621 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 5: Like how concerned are you about that? Is this hail mary? 622 00:30:59,040 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 5: Does it have any chance of work? 623 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:02,320 Speaker 6: I think this babble is gonna pop. I don't think. 624 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 9: I don't think this hilmary has any chance working for 625 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,960 Speaker 9: a few different reasons. Some of them are just can 626 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,600 Speaker 9: these companies execute? Do you trust open AI to execute 627 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,880 Speaker 9: for the next twelve months in a way that supports 628 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:21,080 Speaker 9: that company's level of investment, potential, valuation, exit to the 629 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 9: public markets. 630 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 6: I think that's up in the air, you know, Like 631 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:26,600 Speaker 6: I don't know. I don't know if they can do that. 632 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,280 Speaker 9: Then there's the core technology of lllm's large language models, 633 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 9: which is really the fundamental. 634 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:35,959 Speaker 6: Piece of this AI boom. 635 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 9: Can it do it? Can you turn an LLM into 636 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:41,160 Speaker 9: digital Jesus? 637 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 3: Whoa wait, break that down me? 638 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:49,959 Speaker 9: Like, the thing that supports this ever growing bubble is 639 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 9: an ultra capable AI system that can do an arbitrary 640 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,440 Speaker 9: task as well as a human employee. 641 00:31:57,960 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 3: And that's the is that the Jesus moved? 642 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:04,800 Speaker 9: Yeah, artificial general intelligence? You have it, an arbitrary AI 643 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 9: system and you're like, you work here, now do some 644 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 9: excel and it does it. Right, that's the goal, like 645 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 9: when you boil down replacing workers when. 646 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:16,960 Speaker 2: But if that happens, that also seems like it could 647 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 2: cause an economic crisis. 648 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,920 Speaker 9: Sure, but I think that the investment thesis right now 649 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 9: is we will get to a place where an AI 650 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:27,040 Speaker 9: system is good in an arbitrary meaningfully. 651 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 6: What's the right word. 652 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 9: But I think the investment thesis right now, and even 653 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 9: I think open eyes working definition of AGI is we 654 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 9: will get to a place where an AI system can 655 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:42,320 Speaker 9: replace sort of an average worker at an economically meaningful task, 656 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,840 Speaker 9: an economically meaningful task is the thing they keep saying 657 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 9: because they can't. 658 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 3: Say labor, but they don't want to say that. 659 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 5: Even replacement, even if you leave aside the concerns by replacement, 660 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,520 Speaker 5: just just like making these things make money. 661 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 9: I don't know that lllms can do any of that 662 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,200 Speaker 9: right right, Like, there's a real big question in this 663 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:06,240 Speaker 9: industry about whether the core LM technology can actually achieve 664 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,680 Speaker 9: that first goal. You can give it a task and 665 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 9: it will do it. And I don't mean to say 666 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 9: that I'm standing in the. 667 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,320 Speaker 2: Way because it seems like they do do those tasks. 668 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:14,920 Speaker 2: Is it just that they don't do them well enough. 669 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,160 Speaker 9: We'll give you an I just had the CEO of 670 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 9: stack Overflow, Pershon Strontersucker on decoder. Stack Overflow is like 671 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,680 Speaker 9: the question answer site for developers and so pre AI. 672 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 9: If you are like working on a thing, you're building something, 673 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 9: you had a question, you go ask and people would 674 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,120 Speaker 9: help you. And they've obviously been massively disrupted by AI 675 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 9: coding tools. And what stack overflow has found is eighty 676 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,240 Speaker 9: percent of its users are using AI or interested in 677 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 9: using AI in their workflows. Only twenty nine percent of 678 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 9: them trust the AI systems to do a good job. 679 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:47,720 Speaker 9: So there's this huge capability gap in what people think 680 00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 9: it can do, want it to do, and what it 681 00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:51,440 Speaker 9: actually does and how much you trust it. And that 682 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:55,520 Speaker 9: is because the llms don't actually know anything, right. The 683 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:59,200 Speaker 9: fundamental technology they are is token prediction, and token prediction 684 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,320 Speaker 9: does not imply knowledge, like it doesn't imply insight. We 685 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,920 Speaker 9: just ran a story on the Verge called Large Language Mistake. 686 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:07,720 Speaker 9: It's my favorite headline of the ear and it is 687 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:12,200 Speaker 9: based on the idea that language is not intelligence, right, 688 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,279 Speaker 9: and every piece of cutting edge research we have about 689 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:19,719 Speaker 9: language and intelligence suggests that you can absolutely have intelligence 690 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:23,759 Speaker 9: independent of language, and language itself does not imply any 691 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:24,760 Speaker 9: intelligence whatsoever. 692 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 5: Yeah, this is like the Turing test is like not 693 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,279 Speaker 5: a good test as it turns out, like because that 694 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,279 Speaker 5: the whole idea is like if you can confuse the 695 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,560 Speaker 5: language of a computer with the language of a person, 696 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 5: that would show that the computer is intelligent. But as 697 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,560 Speaker 5: it turns out, it doesn't show anything. It's just it 698 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,960 Speaker 5: just shows that the computer is aping something and without 699 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:44,160 Speaker 5: actually understanding any of it. 700 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,360 Speaker 9: Right, And so like a lot of people get confused, 701 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,720 Speaker 9: like you see something demonstrate language, you automatically just dump 702 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:51,439 Speaker 9: your assumptions that it is as smart as a person 703 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 9: on it. People get confused by parrots all day long, right, Like, 704 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 9: this is like a real problem, and so dude, my 705 00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:02,359 Speaker 9: parent knows things. Animals are intelligent. But is that using 706 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:03,680 Speaker 9: language the way you wanted to? 707 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:03,880 Speaker 4: Like? 708 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:09,120 Speaker 9: It's it's it's challenging to overcome your like literal cognitive 709 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 9: biases about your experience of language, because usually you only 710 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 9: have one experience of language, which is it's being used 711 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:15,280 Speaker 9: by another person. 712 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 6: And you can make a whole bunch of assumptions, and. 713 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 9: I think you can see it across Silicon Valley people 714 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,320 Speaker 9: are like, I love my laptop. My laptop is definitely 715 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,279 Speaker 9: going to have sex with me. And you're like, I 716 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:26,279 Speaker 9: think you should pump the brakes a little bit. 717 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:31,359 Speaker 2: Is this like, oh, because of like the romance inclined models, if. 718 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,120 Speaker 6: You if your MacBook is like you know what, I. 719 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,600 Speaker 3: Hasn't that been the dream from the start? I? 720 00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:37,760 Speaker 6: Yes, I think a lot of vcs. 721 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:38,719 Speaker 4: Would prefer Yes. 722 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 2: Isn't that like what has been at the forefront of 723 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:46,800 Speaker 2: every technological breakthrough is porn? And yes, right, it's like people, 724 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,399 Speaker 2: I say, right, people looking for love in all the 725 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:51,920 Speaker 2: wrong places like that. 726 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:56,000 Speaker 6: Is, yes, technological money in this industry. 727 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 9: You're like, yep, it's obvious that all these guys think 728 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 9: they have a better chance with their MacBooks than a 729 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:01,879 Speaker 9: human lady and here. 730 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 3: And that might be true. It's true, right, I mean, 731 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:05,640 Speaker 3: but I just want to. 732 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,560 Speaker 9: Say that, like, there's there's this thing, there's this problem, 733 00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,279 Speaker 9: which is language is not intelligence. And then you see 734 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:15,160 Speaker 9: the industry itself, the bleeding edge researchers in the AI 735 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:19,279 Speaker 9: industry are now saying, hey, where we've run this to 736 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,320 Speaker 9: the end. Elias Suskov, who is one of the founders 737 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,160 Speaker 9: of opny, the guy who left and all the Samman drama, 738 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:27,040 Speaker 9: is on podcasts right now saying we're out of the 739 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,160 Speaker 9: age of scaling where we're just gonna add more data 740 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:29,720 Speaker 9: and compute. 741 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,800 Speaker 6: We're back to the age of research. This is a 742 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 6: monstrous quote. That's the bubble pop. 743 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 3: Wait, why is that big deal? What does that mean? 744 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 9: Because it means you can't get to economically viable tasks 745 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:43,400 Speaker 9: for arbitrary AI system unless you do more research. 746 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,279 Speaker 4: Bili Patel, editor in chief of The Verge, thank. 747 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:47,560 Speaker 6: You for being here, Thanks for having me. This is 748 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 6: so fun. 749 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,560 Speaker 4: Stacey, what is your underrated story for this week. 750 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:56,280 Speaker 5: I know it's I know it's one of those topics 751 00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,600 Speaker 5: we never talk about that no serious economists ever would even. 752 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 2: The Federal Reserve. I talk about it too much. I 753 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:05,239 Speaker 2: know I talk about it too much, But I really 754 00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,200 Speaker 2: do feel like there's an underrated story bubbling in the 755 00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:11,520 Speaker 2: Federal Reserve. Jerome wow made his announcement about interest rate cuts, 756 00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:16,759 Speaker 2: it was what was expected, yep, yes, exactly, snooze kind 757 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,240 Speaker 2: of snooze, yes, And but there was something interesting bubbling 758 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,160 Speaker 2: beneath the surface. So for a long time, for most 759 00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:26,760 Speaker 2: of Jerome Powell's tenure, the decision has been unanimous because 760 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:28,720 Speaker 2: whether or not to lower in the streets, it's voted 761 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,400 Speaker 2: on by this board, this Federal Open Markets Committee, twelve 762 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:33,640 Speaker 2: members of this committee. 763 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:34,640 Speaker 4: They always vote unanimous. 764 00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 3: They were always speaking with one voice, you know. 765 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,920 Speaker 2: I think they felt like that was really important, like 766 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 2: we're all united here, we all agree that this should happen. 767 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:44,760 Speaker 3: Well, that has started to not happen. 768 00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:49,600 Speaker 2: This happened when Stephen Myron joined the FED board and 769 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:52,840 Speaker 2: started to sort of vocally dissent the agreements. Now we 770 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,279 Speaker 2: had three descents. The vote came out nine to three. 771 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:57,600 Speaker 4: Got it now. 772 00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 2: I find this really interesting for a couple of reason, 773 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:03,120 Speaker 2: since first, it sort of signals that the nature of 774 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,359 Speaker 2: these decisions is changing, that there's sort of politics has 775 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:08,879 Speaker 2: sort of entered the building. The other thing I think 776 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,560 Speaker 2: is really interesting seems like President Trump is getting ready 777 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,600 Speaker 2: to put Kevin Hassett into Jerome Powell's job when Jerome 778 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 2: Powell's term is up in May. And it seems like 779 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:23,120 Speaker 2: there was never really a space for members of the 780 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,839 Speaker 2: FED to publicly disagree with what the FED did. It 781 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,960 Speaker 2: was always they spoke with one voice. But it seems 782 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,160 Speaker 2: like maybe that space is being carved out. I mean, 783 00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,759 Speaker 2: not only is there sort of public descent now, which 784 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:41,040 Speaker 2: is a little messy, but there's also this space now 785 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:45,040 Speaker 2: that there wasn't before of people able to express dissenting 786 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:49,640 Speaker 2: views about decisions being made, which is maybe setting up 787 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:52,080 Speaker 2: a very different kind of FED, and maybe not one 788 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,880 Speaker 2: that Kevin Hassett is like necessarily excited about. 789 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,600 Speaker 5: Isn't it a good thing to have some transparent like 790 00:38:58,640 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 5: I'm sure they. 791 00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,000 Speaker 4: Behind the scenes. 792 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 5: Like so it seems like it seems like all I 793 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:07,800 Speaker 5: have to say, like when you said there's gonna be 794 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:13,280 Speaker 5: an underrated FED story, I thought this was gonna. 795 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:14,720 Speaker 2: I thought we were gonna be a little more fed vote. 796 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:17,919 Speaker 4: I was like, did Jerome healed? 797 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,279 Speaker 3: Well, oh my god, we'd have to break. We'd have 798 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:21,720 Speaker 3: to break the whole show open. 799 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,520 Speaker 5: If that happens, well, I'm glad I am here to 800 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:30,040 Speaker 5: make things a little less serious because okay, all right, 801 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,400 Speaker 5: so you probably know that the World Cup is coming 802 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,880 Speaker 5: to the United States, Mexico, and Canada next summer starting 803 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,439 Speaker 5: in June. Is like the biggest global sporting event. It's 804 00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,319 Speaker 5: going to be one of the big economic events of 805 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,520 Speaker 5: the year, maybe maybe the biggest economic event in. 806 00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 4: The year, I don't know. 807 00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:50,680 Speaker 5: And there was a draw last week where basically the 808 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,440 Speaker 5: head of International Soccer, which is called FIFA. 809 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,160 Speaker 3: Picks the Italian guy. 810 00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,440 Speaker 4: His name is Giohnny and Fontino, although. 811 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:03,680 Speaker 5: John who was calls him Johnny Johnny as if he's 812 00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 5: like from Jersey or something. But anyway is out now. Look, 813 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,960 Speaker 5: this was very well covered. It was a huge spectacle. 814 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,560 Speaker 5: You had the the village people were there, all of 815 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:13,879 Speaker 5: like Trump's favorite. 816 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:15,879 Speaker 4: YMCA. 817 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,000 Speaker 5: Basically FIVA does this all the time, right, they're sort 818 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,279 Speaker 5: of doing politics, They're trying to get on the good 819 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 5: side of their hosts there. There there's some issues going 820 00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:27,200 Speaker 5: on with visas and so on, right, Like the Trump 821 00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:31,759 Speaker 5: administration has threatened to add all these extra visa requirements 822 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 5: that could mess things up for football. It's not clear 823 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,120 Speaker 5: that fans for some of these teams, especially Haiti and Iran, 824 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:38,560 Speaker 5: which are both playing in the World Cup, will be 825 00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,680 Speaker 5: able to come to the games because of immigration restrictions. 826 00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:45,200 Speaker 5: So there's this kind of interesting geopolitical dance. I don't 827 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:46,960 Speaker 5: want to talk about any of that. Oh, I should 828 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:51,280 Speaker 5: also say that Johnny Infantino gave Donald Trump a peace prize. 829 00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:52,480 Speaker 4: I did see that. 830 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,600 Speaker 3: That was really weird. 831 00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:56,240 Speaker 4: The Preas prize. It's like a Tamu Nobel. 832 00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,600 Speaker 5: I guess like Johnny and Fantino realized that Donald Trump 833 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,680 Speaker 5: was sad about not getting the Nobel, so he gave him. 834 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,640 Speaker 3: This, like Costco giving out a peace prize. 835 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:09,319 Speaker 5: Yeah, well, the Costco Peace Prize, I think, yeah, I 836 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:10,160 Speaker 5: know there for it. 837 00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:10,520 Speaker 6: Okay. 838 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:11,880 Speaker 5: So I don't want to talk about any of that 839 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,080 Speaker 5: because all that news is overrated. I want to talk 840 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,879 Speaker 5: to you about semantics, and I think it's semantics. What 841 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,640 Speaker 5: Trump said about the sport that is going to be 842 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:25,640 Speaker 5: played next year in the United States, Canada Mexico during 843 00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:26,359 Speaker 5: this World Cup draw. 844 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 4: Here, I'm gonna play the clip for you. 845 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,880 Speaker 10: When you look at what has happened to football in 846 00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 10: the United States. Again, soccer in the United States. We 847 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:37,719 Speaker 10: seem to never call it that because we have a 848 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,400 Speaker 10: little bit of a conflict with another thing that's called football. 849 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 10: But when you think about it, shouldn't it really be 850 00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:46,239 Speaker 10: called I mean, this is football, there's no question about. 851 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:48,920 Speaker 10: We have to come up with another name for the Yes, 852 00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:52,360 Speaker 10: it really doesn't make sense when you think about it, 853 00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:53,640 Speaker 10: but this is really football. 854 00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:56,440 Speaker 2: Just to because it happens when you give the president 855 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:57,600 Speaker 2: a peace prize, we like. 856 00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:00,239 Speaker 5: It to come up with a different name for the 857 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,799 Speaker 5: NFL stuff. The most popular sport in America really our 858 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:06,520 Speaker 5: national pastime. Donald Trump is ready to just toss it 859 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:08,360 Speaker 5: out rename it. I don't are we gonna call it 860 00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,840 Speaker 5: handball or like well sometimes football, I don't know. 861 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 3: I feel like what maybe playing out here? 862 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,560 Speaker 2: Do you remember when President Trump went to the Super 863 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:20,160 Speaker 2: Bowl shortly after his election and it was like kind 864 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,200 Speaker 2: of a mixed experience, Like Kendrick Lamar seemed to be 865 00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:25,920 Speaker 2: kind of speaking to the president. There was like the 866 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 2: Taylor swift one with the Eagles won and this amazing upset. 867 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:31,880 Speaker 2: I feel like maybe that left a bad taste in 868 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,360 Speaker 2: the President's mouth. And now here comes FIFA with the 869 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,480 Speaker 2: Peace Prize and he's like, you know what, forget old football. 870 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:42,040 Speaker 2: So the thing that really this is very Cosmopolitans breaks. 871 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 4: My brain because. 872 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:50,040 Speaker 5: An American soccer fan, like the one thing that national 873 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,440 Speaker 5: team soccer fans care about is not calling it football. 874 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,719 Speaker 5: And it's like a common insult, Like if the US 875 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,360 Speaker 5: beats a big European country, you know, you'll see a 876 00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,560 Speaker 5: million social media posts that are like, so it's called 877 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,239 Speaker 5: soccer now. I think when we tied England, you know, 878 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:05,200 Speaker 5: we didn't beat England in the last World Cup, just 879 00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,399 Speaker 5: the tie, We're like, now you have to call it soccer, sorry, 880 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:09,839 Speaker 5: which is kind of funny because also they do call 881 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,799 Speaker 5: it soccer in England, but we'll leaving that aside. The 882 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:16,759 Speaker 5: like height of like American sports chauvinism is to not 883 00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:18,960 Speaker 5: admit that the rest of the world calls it football. 884 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:22,160 Speaker 5: And if there's anything else I would expect from Donald Trump, 885 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,120 Speaker 5: it would be to continue that what's he called the weave, 886 00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:27,640 Speaker 5: He's he's really he's zigging where others zag I guess. 887 00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:28,600 Speaker 3: That is kind of delightful. 888 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,719 Speaker 2: I was now just thinking of like other sort of 889 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:34,680 Speaker 2: language controversies that could potentially flip under President Trump, Like 890 00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:38,160 Speaker 2: I don't know, could he get him to like instead 891 00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:42,040 Speaker 2: of trucks, we could do lories maybe, or like potato. 892 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:43,560 Speaker 3: I don't know where could this? 893 00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:47,120 Speaker 5: This is your worst sports friend, Like you're the sports 894 00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:50,480 Speaker 5: friend who's like, oh, Arsenal are playing Liverpool. 895 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:52,160 Speaker 4: It's like, no, that's nice. 896 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:57,600 Speaker 2: The person who spends a semester in Barcelona, that's Donald Trump. 897 00:43:57,680 --> 00:44:04,400 Speaker 4: Now he's going to Barcelona. 898 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:09,719 Speaker 3: This show is produced by Stacy Wong. 899 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,960 Speaker 2: Magnus Hendrickson is our supervising producer, and Amy Kean is 900 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:17,239 Speaker 2: our executive producer. Sam Rogich handles engineering, and Dave Precellf facchecks. 901 00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:21,440 Speaker 2: Sage Bauman heads Bloomberg Podcasts. Special thanks to Jeff Muscus, 902 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,600 Speaker 2: Julia Rubin, Charlie Gorivin, and Maria Ling. If you have 903 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:26,799 Speaker 2: a minute, please rate and review the show. It would 904 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,120 Speaker 2: mean a lot to us. And if you. 905 00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,040 Speaker 3: Have a story that should be our business, email us. 906 00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:33,959 Speaker 3: Everybody's at Bloomberg dot net. 907 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,320 Speaker 2: That is, everybody's with an s at Bloomberg dot net. 908 00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:40,160 Speaker 3: Thank you for listening, and we will see you next week.