Speaker 1: I'm Caroline hired at Bloomberg's world headquarters in New York,
Speaker 1: and I met Ludlow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Technology coming up. Silver Gate plans to wind down operations
Speaker 1: in liquidate what it means for the rest of Krypto.
Speaker 1: Then Google's VP for Trust and Safety joins us to
Speaker 1: talk about the guardrails needed for generative AI and rent.
Speaker 1: The Runway CEO discusses how the fashion rental is leaning
Speaker 1: in to a more cost conscious consumer, but first from
Speaker 1: the micro individual companies to the macro where we've seen,
Speaker 1: while actually little bit more of a mood shift just
Speaker 1: towards later, trade pale once again. The Chair of the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve up on Capitol Hill and look didn't give
Speaker 1: much to alleviate the anxiety around whether the interest rates
Speaker 1: are going to be rising. But we did manage to
Speaker 1: see the NASDAC, the tech heavy benchmark push up full tense,
Speaker 1: recovering some of yesterday's sell off. We're looking at in
Speaker 1: particular the semiconductor index outperforming up two point seven percent.
Speaker 1: I'm noting though that really we're still trying to fight
Speaker 1: off a boring cost that's on the rise. Look at
Speaker 1: this level, are currently on the tenure or almost at
Speaker 1: four percent, up another two basis points on the front
Speaker 1: end of the curve. The two year we've been well
Speaker 1: above that five percent level. Let's flick it on with
Speaker 1: an inverted yield curve. We are still seeing some other
Speaker 1: areas or risk assets on the downside. Now, interestingly, we're
Speaker 1: seeing crypto once again under pressure. Dollar on the rises
Speaker 1: we think interest rates that have come, but Crypto under
Speaker 1: pressure for a whole host of different contagion issues that
Speaker 1: are facing them at the moment. Ed So from that
Speaker 1: mcchrome picture, I know you're going to delve in a
Speaker 1: little bit more to one particular name. Yeah. Look, power
Speaker 1: has been a big factor in the equity markets for
Speaker 1: individual names, but newsflow still drives the agenda. Actually, Adobe
Speaker 1: really interesting up three tenths of one percent, paired its gains,
Speaker 1: but we've reported Caroline that they're committing to no company
Speaker 1: wide layoffs this year. Will dig into that later in
Speaker 1: the show. Snaturally Interesting down almost six percent. A lot
Speaker 1: of notes out from the cell side today saying, actually,
Speaker 1: if you look at it, the chances of TikTok being
Speaker 1: banned in the US unlikely. So they won't be as
Speaker 1: much feel good read through to names like snap Data
Speaker 1: Dog down four percent, analysts warning about some systems issues
Speaker 1: and breaches which might impact revenue, and Tesla down three percent.
Speaker 1: Regulators looking into concerns about the steering wheel falling off
Speaker 1: the latest regulatory headache for the ev maker. Breaking news
Speaker 1: in the last hour. As he said, Silvergate has issued
Speaker 1: a statement telling the market that it is planning to
Speaker 1: wind down and liquidate. A profound reaction in after hours trading.
Speaker 1: We're down thirty five percent. Let's get straight to the details.
Speaker 1: Were bloombos Uci yang Ucci? What do we know so
Speaker 1: to this announcement from Silvergiate, it's not a total surprise
Speaker 1: if you have already followed the previous actions from the
Speaker 1: company of Silvergate. On Friday announced that they had to
Speaker 1: suspend their flagship product, calls the same Payments neat Work,
Speaker 1: which is the product that attracted a lot of these
Speaker 1: cryptal firms to onboard with Silvergate in the first place.
Speaker 1: The company couldn't file their annual report before and they
Speaker 1: also talk about the risk of being investigated by the
Speaker 1: Justice Department. So we know that now the bank has
Speaker 1: announced that they're going to liquidate. They're going to an
Speaker 1: orderly wind dine or windowne, and then their plan is
Speaker 1: to be able to fully repay the deposits to their customers,
Speaker 1: which is a good news for the cryptal industry because
Speaker 1: the contagent risk will be much lower. And yet it's interesting,
Speaker 1: even though you brace yourself, you see such a market
Speaker 1: moves that spells out and also not just in Silvergate,
Speaker 1: but other crypto friendly banks I'm thinking of the like
Speaker 1: Signature Bank and also coin based on the downside, yes,
Speaker 1: so the biggest challenge for the cryptal industry now is
Speaker 1: that their players are finding it very difficult to get
Speaker 1: access to banking services. Silvergate was one of the very
Speaker 1: few banks in the space that were friendly with crypto companies,
Speaker 1: that were willing to open a bank account with them
Speaker 1: and take deposits from crypto firms. As you mentioned, Signature
Speaker 1: is one of the other banks, but that bank has
Speaker 1: already announced their plan to scale back from serving crypto customers.
Speaker 1: So right now there's concerns among crypto players about how
Speaker 1: they could exactly transfer US dollar while finding a banking
Speaker 1: partner in the US. Chiang running to set for us.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. I made all the fallout across crypto
Speaker 1: from the risky assets of crypto too. Of perhaps some
Speaker 1: would say in more bread and butter cash or money
Speaker 1: market funds. Apparently they're all the rage at the moment
Speaker 1: as we move away from the likes of crypto. Liz
Speaker 1: Young is the perfect person to discuss all of this
Speaker 1: head in. That's a strategy over it so far. Just
Speaker 1: talk us through at the moment moving away from the
Speaker 1: crypto sphere into good old equities, bonds, and indeed cash instruments.
Speaker 1: Where are people gravitating as we think about a higher
Speaker 1: interest rate environment. Yeah, so An, I don't know that
Speaker 1: people are necessarily taking money out of crypto and putting
Speaker 1: it into cash instruments. I think a very different risk
Speaker 1: tolerance there. But we are in a period where you
Speaker 1: can look at things like the six month treasury yield
Speaker 1: above five point two percent, a two year treasury yield
Speaker 1: above five percent, and you're getting a really good yield
Speaker 1: for parking your money for a pretty short period of time.
Speaker 1: And I would say, as an investor, even a long
Speaker 1: term investor, what you want to look for over the
Speaker 1: short term, no matter what the instrument is that you're
Speaker 1: investing in. You want to look for very obvious dislocations
Speaker 1: in markets, and right now I do think that this
Speaker 1: is a time where the treasury market is seeing a
Speaker 1: brief period. I don't know that I would call it
Speaker 1: a dislocation necessarily, but there is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a disconnect between the treasury market and the equity market.
Speaker 1: So this is an opportunity in treasuries to get a
Speaker 1: yield that we may not see again for many years. Ladies,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on this International Women's Day.
Speaker 1: We were just saying then as that one hundred on
Speaker 1: a three day basis pre during and off to Pow
Speaker 1: And I ask you where does that leave us as
Speaker 1: we value tech shares in particular, this kind of reset
Speaker 1: of how we think about rates, bigger increments and high
Speaker 1: for longer, right right, Well, what happened this week is
Speaker 1: Jerome Powell did it again. His comments moved markets, and
Speaker 1: he moved them pretty quickly and in a big way,
Speaker 1: and in a lot of different ways. So what we
Speaker 1: heard from him was we put the possibility back on
Speaker 1: the table, not even just on the table, but now
Speaker 1: it's looking to have almost a seventy percent chance of
Speaker 1: maybe a fifty basis point hike at the next meeting,
Speaker 1: which is just a couple weeks away. So what it
Speaker 1: did for markets is it now has to force us
Speaker 1: to digest the possibility of maybe not that steady sort
Speaker 1: of trickle out of hikes that we were expecting. One
Speaker 1: of the things that I found peculiar about this statement
Speaker 1: was that the Fed had continued to say, we're not
Speaker 1: going to repeat the same mistakes of the late seventies
Speaker 1: early eighties. We're not going to go through this stop
Speaker 1: start cycle. This sort of would be similar to a
Speaker 1: stop start cycle. So now markets are forced to digest
Speaker 1: kind of a jagged rate path, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be more difficult both in the bond market and the
Speaker 1: stock market. The bond market is having a hard time
Speaker 1: with that, which is why we're seeing over one hundred
Speaker 1: basis point in version now between the two year and
Speaker 1: the ten year yield. Liz, you're a chart watcher, and
Speaker 1: I've spent all day with Caroline agonizing which chart am
Speaker 1: I going to show? And in the end I decided,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just not going to show a chart.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to ask a question. You're really focused
Speaker 1: in zeroed in on jobs data, and what we've been
Speaker 1: talking about in the tech sector is the big headlines
Speaker 1: around layoffs, but the data doesn't necessarily reflect all of
Speaker 1: those people being out of work. How are you reading
Speaker 1: the tech headlines when it comes to layoffs. Well, I
Speaker 1: think what happened with the tech headlines is that they
Speaker 1: hurt sentiment in the short term. But the reality is
Speaker 1: that tech jobs didn't make up a huge portion of
Speaker 1: the labor force, and or people that were laid off
Speaker 1: weren't going to claim unemployment, So we didn't see it
Speaker 1: in the data. We didn't see it in the headline
Speaker 1: stuff that we would normally expect to. However, we got
Speaker 1: some data today, So the Jolts data, which is job
Speaker 1: openings and quit rates. The Jolts data is still strong
Speaker 1: in the sense that there are a lot of jobs open.
Speaker 1: There's still a five million person gap between the amount
Speaker 1: of jobs available and the people who are unemployed, so
Speaker 1: the labor market remains tight. Make no mistake. However, there
Speaker 1: was something under the surface in that Jolts data. If
Speaker 1: you look at construction jobs open that fell month over
Speaker 1: month by forty nine percent. That is a huge drop. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't want to rule out the possibility that it
Speaker 1: was seasonal, or that it was just an anomaly because
Speaker 1: it was January. That could be the case, but that
Speaker 1: is a very big drop. And the reason you want
Speaker 1: to watch construction jobs is because they do tend to
Speaker 1: lead the overall labor market. So if that becomes somewhat
Speaker 1: of a canary in the coal mine, it's something that
Speaker 1: we're going to look back on and say that was
Speaker 1: where the break started to happen. I Meanwhile, the two's tends,
Speaker 1: the inversion of a yield curve has been screaming too many.
Speaker 1: The recession is in the CODs for a while. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: if you're looking at putting money to work in more
Speaker 1: growth orientated names, is now the timeless, straightforward growth names
Speaker 1: I would probably not buy. If you were going to
Speaker 1: just paint with a broadbrush, I would not do that
Speaker 1: right now, particularly because we saw such a big rally
Speaker 1: from the start of the year and those valuations did
Speaker 1: get more inflated. Now, regardless of what happens with market
Speaker 1: direction from here, in any bear market, there still are
Speaker 1: names that do better than other names, so you could
Speaker 1: index towards high quality growth names, high cash flow generating
Speaker 1: growth names. One of the places that you can look
Speaker 1: for growth is in the healthcare space, and particularly if
Speaker 1: you move down the market cap spectrum so into the
Speaker 1: smaller cap names. They are heavily in biotech and pharma.
Speaker 1: You're going to get growth opportunity in those names without
Speaker 1: the rate sensitivity that you would get in classic technology,
Speaker 1: communications and consumer discretionary. So if you really want growth
Speaker 1: in the portfolio, you could look there. It's not top
Speaker 1: on my list right now of things to buy, mostly
Speaker 1: because a lot of times when you look at what
Speaker 1: leads you into a market peak, it's not the same
Speaker 1: stuff that brings you out of a market trough. So
Speaker 1: I do expect that there's going to be a rotation
Speaker 1: and we're going to see different sectors lead on the
Speaker 1: other side of this so far ahead of investment strategy.
Speaker 1: Liz Young so smart and Marky's also ask you on
Speaker 1: Twitter which conference has the stronger quarterbacks AFC or otherwise.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that was about, but I'm just
Speaker 1: helping you out if the moment tell tell you what
Speaker 1: it's about. I'm a Green Bay packer, but I'm from Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: I'm from Wisconsin. Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers is right
Speaker 1: now in the midst of a big decision of staying.
Speaker 1: It sounds like either staying with the packers are going
Speaker 1: to the jets. It would be NFC to AFC. That's
Speaker 1: what the question was about. All right, all right, you're
Speaker 1: telling a sort of fair weather forty nine ers fan.
Speaker 1: I'm not that interested. Thank you for coming to the
Speaker 1: program so far ahead of investment strategy is young now.
Speaker 1: In other news, Uber is exploring whether to spin off
Speaker 1: it's Uber Freight Logistics arm in a sale or as
Speaker 1: a separate, publicly traded company. According to sources, the move
Speaker 1: would allow CEO Diracostra Shahi to focus on the ride
Speaker 1: hailing and food delivery units. Uber launched the freight division
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Shares popped in after hours on the news,
Speaker 1: though a decision is not imminent. Carrow, according to sources.
Speaker 1: Another one of those stories that you've been busy helping
Speaker 1: on overall, ed La louis, thank you time now for
Speaker 1: talking tech. Japanese lunar exploration startup ice Space, which partnered
Speaker 1: with Elon Musk's SpaceX to deliver its lander to the Moon,
Speaker 1: will list on the Tokyo Stock it Changes Growth market
Speaker 1: April twelfth. It's market cap at the time of IPO
Speaker 1: would be roughly nineteen point two billion yen according to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg calculations, that's about one hundred and forty million US dollars.
Speaker 1: And on this International Women's Day, JP Morgan has some
Speaker 1: news that it's calling shocking. Only five point seven percent
Speaker 1: of startups in Asia Pacific are led by female entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: a percentage that stayed stagnant for five years. Private firms
Speaker 1: in Asia powered by women include Unicorn, Air, walll X,
Speaker 1: which ranked first on a list compiled by JP Morgan's
Speaker 1: private bank, and Nuns and Young. The rankings took into
Speaker 1: consideration factors like funding, investor confidence, and operational and financial components.
Speaker 1: But worrying data, Carr, Yeah, and it's worrying because it's
Speaker 1: relatively stagnant. So too is money being allocated to female
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs from VC month funds. About two percent more money
Speaker 1: was put to work in that direction in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and it was the same back in fourteen, for example.
Speaker 1: We can dig into that found I'll just want to
Speaker 1: bring up a pole that ed you and I put
Speaker 1: to our own audience today asking whether they think maybe
Speaker 1: more female entrepreneurs will be inspired to go out there
Speaker 1: and to build and to get money. And I'm glad
Speaker 1: to say no, oh, generally you are negative, no forty
Speaker 1: one percent and no Doogles. One of the people doing
Speaker 1: the work trying to change that. Founding partner of Female
Speaker 1: Founders Fund, which allocates towards businesses built by diverse founders,
Speaker 1: just taught to us out at the moment about whether
Speaker 1: you are that pessimistic or not. So first of all,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for having me, Caroline, and Happy International
Speaker 1: Women's Day. I think there's a couple of different ways
Speaker 1: to look at the data. So obviously, you know, unfortunately
Speaker 1: we haven't seen huge increases in the amount of overall
Speaker 1: funding going towards women, but we track different types of metrics.
Speaker 1: So for example, in the history of the NASDEC, there
Speaker 1: had been three IPOs led by female founders before twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. In that year alone, there were seven IPOs
Speaker 1: led by women. So I think that, you know, as
Speaker 1: a fund that invests in female founders, we have to
Speaker 1: remain optimistic and it's even more important in terms of
Speaker 1: the work that we do. But we are seeing more
Speaker 1: female CEOs that are taking companies public that are raising
Speaker 1: large growth rounds. So overall, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic,
Speaker 1: and you're building that network effect holding summits where you
Speaker 1: gather an awful lot of female entrepreneurs and advisors together.
Speaker 1: I think it was about ten million dollars worth of
Speaker 1: enterprise value in one room just last week for one
Speaker 1: of these events. Where therefore are you allocating money? What
Speaker 1: exciting problems are these female founders trying to solve? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so great question. A couple of the areas that we're
Speaker 1: excited about this year, in particular, so as early investors
Speaker 1: in naven Clinic, I would say digital healthcare as a
Speaker 1: category is an area where we've invested heavily in the
Speaker 1: past and can continue to be excited. I think the
Speaker 1: difference this year is that historically we've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of founders build more curity solutions, and now we're seeing
Speaker 1: more in the preventative approach. So really founders leveraging data
Speaker 1: to help more at risk populations take early action. Great
Speaker 1: example of that within our portfolio as a company called Gabby,
Speaker 1: which has leveraged data to be able to help women,
Speaker 1: particularly those who are more at high risk, take earlier
Speaker 1: and more preventative approaches to just making sure that you
Speaker 1: know they're they're kind of tracking that you know, within
Speaker 1: their their healthcare risk for example, Yes, exactly, so breast cancer.
Speaker 1: I would say another category within healthcare that we're seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of activity in is longevity and really founders
Speaker 1: looking at finding ways to slow down or reverse the
Speaker 1: aging process, leveraging biometric data. Couple companies in that space
Speaker 1: that we've been tracking, so Pronovo, which does early cancer
Speaker 1: detection through screening. We've also seen two female founded companies,
Speaker 1: Modern Age and tal Health, that are again leveraging at
Speaker 1: home testing to help suggest, you know, supplements and different
Speaker 1: ways in which you know their patients can take more
Speaker 1: preventative approaches to aging. I know, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about kind of the forward vision. We've reported a lot
Speaker 1: about very senior leaders, women leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond,
Speaker 1: Susan Wojiki or Cheryl Samberg leaving their roles. You're investing
Speaker 1: at the earliest stage of the curve. But how important
Speaker 1: is that to kind of see a pathway to leading
Speaker 1: big tech companies? Yeah? Absolutely, I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: fact that all of these exits happened, you know, within
Speaker 1: a short period of time is definitely troubling. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of kind of younger talent, and I'm hopeful that you know,
Speaker 1: you'll start to see these those women kind of rise
Speaker 1: amongst the ranks, hopefully relatively soon. Bill Bigger, Better Businesses
Speaker 1: on Adoogle founding partner of female founders found. What a
Speaker 1: joy to have you with us. We thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Plenty more to come in terms of public markets head yeah,
Speaker 1: and also another strong woman leader in Silicon Valley. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we're going to speak about Adobe opening a brand new
Speaker 1: office tower in California, but also pledging no mass layoffs.
Speaker 1: This seri at a time where it's tech peers are
Speaker 1: doing exactly that. Our exclusive interview next with Adobe's chief
Speaker 1: people officer, Gloria Chen. This is Bloomberg. So this is
Speaker 1: a case of bucking the trend in technology. Adobe is
Speaker 1: opening a brand new eighteen story tower in San Jose
Speaker 1: today with room for thousands of new staff as the
Speaker 1: rest of the sector simply cuts back on both jobs
Speaker 1: and real estate. I spoke exclusively with Adobe's chief people officer,
Speaker 1: Gloria Chen inside what they've dubbed the Tower have listened. Well,
Speaker 1: the space that we've designed here is not your traditional
Speaker 1: office space of desks in cubicles, right. We have created
Speaker 1: over four hundred different kinds of working environments, so everything
Speaker 1: from a large town hall to team neighborhoods, collaboration spaces,
Speaker 1: focus spaces. So it's a lot of different uses under
Speaker 1: one roof. And so we're actually committed to continuing to
Speaker 1: grow here. We're here for the long term, but this
Speaker 1: is new space for new ways of working. Does that
Speaker 1: growth include you know, a hope to hire, you know
Speaker 1: right now, it's not just pulling back in real estate
Speaker 1: we see from big tech. We see layoffs. Adobe at
Speaker 1: the end of last year did a small cut. You know,
Speaker 1: those are two kind of in congress ideas announcing a
Speaker 1: new space, a beautiful new tower with capacity, while around
Speaker 1: you we're seeing cutbacks well. And as you know, our
Speaker 1: products and tools power the digital world. We're coming from
Speaker 1: a position of strength. So we're posting great financial results.
Speaker 1: We had great earnings last quarter, and we are continuing
Speaker 1: to grow. We're investing now in this market. We are
Speaker 1: being judicious with managing expenses, we're judicious in hiring, but
Speaker 1: we are continuing to grow and we're investing in the
Speaker 1: space to support our employee base. Here you are the
Speaker 1: chief people officer, and there's a question I want to
Speaker 1: ask you that about your job day to day, and
Speaker 1: it is about FIGMA. But my question is, when you
Speaker 1: are potentially bringing in an outside organization new people, how
Speaker 1: do you match those cultures? How do you integrate within
Speaker 1: your existing culture, Because that's a big part of what
Speaker 1: you're announcing with the Founder's Tower as well. It's a
Speaker 1: renewal and new sets of kind of cultural norms and rules. Yes,
Speaker 1: so we are so since you mentioned that, you know,
Speaker 1: along with our fortieth anniversary did roll out our new values.
Speaker 1: And it's really as we think about in this particular
Speaker 1: moment in time, having celebrated our fortieth anniversary, moving forward
Speaker 1: into this next decade of growth, really thinking about how
Speaker 1: do we prepare for the future and for future growth
Speaker 1: as it relates to FIGMA and actually in general, all
Speaker 1: of our acquisitions we do look at not only strategic fit,
Speaker 1: financial sense, but also cultural fit. So that's something that
Speaker 1: factors into acquisitions we make ahead of actually making those decisions,
Speaker 1: and so that's very very important to us. Can you
Speaker 1: guarantee at this stage of twenty twenty three, that there
Speaker 1: won't be more layoffs, that you won't downsize in other areas.
Speaker 1: So we are coming from a position of strength. We've
Speaker 1: posted great earnings, we're growing profitably, and so how we're
Speaker 1: really managing is to be prudent about our investments, be
Speaker 1: prudent about hiring. We are committed not having company wide layoffs.
Speaker 1: That was Adobe's chief people officer, Gloria Chen, and a
Speaker 1: promise Caroline, no company wide layoffs this year. Were you
Speaker 1: surprised by that? I mean, it feels to be going
Speaker 1: against the grain, doesn't it. Ultimately she sort of vindicated
Speaker 1: it with why the digital tools they build and they're
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, even within and perhaps more of a
Speaker 1: recessionary environment. But when you think about the building nature
Speaker 1: of something you're reporting around Meta, just enunciate for us
Speaker 1: whether you think really that can be done on one
Speaker 1: side by Adobe. Meanwhile, we see what we're about to
Speaker 1: brace ourselves for with Meta. Yeah, part of the anxiety
Speaker 1: it Meta is they're just they don't know if the
Speaker 1: economy is going to get worse, if the ad market
Speaker 1: will get mersed. That Gloria Chen's point was they're being prudent,
Speaker 1: they're being safe. Interesting, we didn't even cover it in
Speaker 1: that section, but they're also promoting hybrid working. Having just
Speaker 1: opened a really expensive building, Well maybe you could just
Speaker 1: really enjoy those sort of added extras for three days
Speaker 1: of the week. It's the control of the data to
Speaker 1: conduct all sorts of big data operations. It's the control
Speaker 1: of the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to conduct influence operations.
Speaker 1: It's the control of the software which allows them to
Speaker 1: then have access to millions of devices. As you put
Speaker 1: all those three things together and again come back to
Speaker 1: the starting point, which is this is a tool that
Speaker 1: is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government, and
Speaker 1: to me, it screams out with national security concerns. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to me technology. I'm Kline had aial and I'm
Speaker 1: ed Lovelow in San Francisco. Some of FBI Director Chrisopher
Speaker 1: Ray's testimony at a Senate hearing on Global threats, where
Speaker 1: he warned of TikTok's ability to ultimately divide Americans. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: the Senate Intelligence Committee chairs, Senator Mark Warner unveiled this
Speaker 1: bill to contain TikTok data and protect US user data
Speaker 1: for more, let's bringing Alex Brinkats are interesting on this
Speaker 1: because Snap was down significantly and it had been higher.
Speaker 1: The idea being that everyone took a beat and was like,
Speaker 1: if you look at the content of this bill, the
Speaker 1: chances of an outright ban aren't that high, and so
Speaker 1: the opportunity for Snap to kind of gobble up all
Speaker 1: these TikTok uses is not that real. Where do we
Speaker 1: sit with all of that? Absolutely, Warner's bill, you'll remember,
Speaker 1: is like the fourth bill that's actually hit Congress. It's
Speaker 1: a bill that also would basically give President Biden the
Speaker 1: authority to force a sale or a band, but kind
Speaker 1: of leading with this idea of a sailor divesseterer, which
Speaker 1: would mean TikTok would remain here if this bill passes
Speaker 1: and Biden intends to act on it. But certainly Snap
Speaker 1: has really suffered because TikTok has really cannibalized their users.
Speaker 1: The young folks who are getting older, one hundred million
Speaker 1: Americans who are spending ninety five minutes a day on TikTok,
Speaker 1: they are certainly a little bit worried about about TikTok.
Speaker 1: And Snap would be happy if this company would no
Speaker 1: longer exist in this home market. How's the company itself, TikTok,
Speaker 1: responding tool of this, Alex, So, TikTok would really seem
Speaker 1: prefer for this process, for the national security review to
Speaker 1: be kicked back to this kind of long running, scipious
Speaker 1: review process that's been happening behind the scenes. It's been
Speaker 1: something that's gone on for years. It's the thing that's
Speaker 1: gotten Congress pretty impatient and push them to actually propose
Speaker 1: these bills. They say they put all these security measures
Speaker 1: in place that would address the concerns that FBI Director
Speaker 1: Ray is talking about. But the skeptics on the hill,
Speaker 1: the skeptics in the DOJ, the skeptics at the FBI
Speaker 1: don't seem to be buying what TikTok is selling. So
Speaker 1: this is probably the least ideal venue in Congress for
Speaker 1: TikTok to be kind of facing some of these detractors who,
Speaker 1: as they've gone on hills and kind of a round
Speaker 1: robin tour trying to give convinced folks that they should
Speaker 1: be allowed to stay, they've continued to run into a
Speaker 1: wall of folks just not believing them. Bloomberg's Alex Burenco,
Speaker 1: the aatist and all things TikTok. Thank you. Now moving
Speaker 1: on to another tech giant, Google. For years, AI was
Speaker 1: Google's thing until Open Ai swooped in and kind of
Speaker 1: stole their thunder. Now the AI arms race is on,
Speaker 1: and as a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece points out, the
Speaker 1: tech giant has declared a code read a directive that
Speaker 1: all of its most important products, those with more than
Speaker 1: a billion users, must incorporate generative AI within months. That's
Speaker 1: according to a Bloomberg source. Let's do a deeper dive
Speaker 1: into Google into Google's AI A push and some of
Speaker 1: the considerations behind that, with Google's Vice president for Trust
Speaker 1: and Safety, Laurie Richardson. Laurie, welcome to the program. Thank
Speaker 1: you for your time on this International Women's Day. The
Speaker 1: message from you, as I understand it, around AI is
Speaker 1: being bold but responsible. How difficult does that make your
Speaker 1: job right now? Well? Thanks, it's great to be here.
Speaker 1: So Google has made a statement that we plan to
Speaker 1: be both bold and responsible when it comes to this
Speaker 1: next generation of launches. But it's important to note that
Speaker 1: Google's been in the AI game for quite some time.
Speaker 1: We've led on cutting edge research and in fact, when
Speaker 1: I first came to Google several years ago. I led
Speaker 1: the team that drafted and launched Google's AI Principles, which
Speaker 1: really is the blueprint for how we plan to and
Speaker 1: have approached AI responsibly. We externalize those in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: and they have really served as the north star both
Speaker 1: for us and for others in the industry and the
Speaker 1: foundation there is really about AI being socially beneficial and
Speaker 1: being something that helps enable humans, and about working as
Speaker 1: much as we can to reduce any unintentional consequences. Laurie,
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in your role and what you're working
Speaker 1: on day today. How do you bring together all of
Speaker 1: the really smart people working on the product side, with
Speaker 1: your leaders, with government, with academia to kind of make
Speaker 1: sure that whatever happens with BOD or other AI related initiatives,
Speaker 1: that to your mind, it's safe. Well. I was drawn
Speaker 1: to join Google because I really believe in Google's mission,
Speaker 1: which is about organizing the world's information and making it
Speaker 1: universally useful and accessible. My team Trust and Safety helps
Speaker 1: Google stays true to that mission and make sure that
Speaker 1: anytime you're interacting online, so whether you're searching for information
Speaker 1: for a school report or buying a present, for a
Speaker 1: friend or looking for directions to a local restaurant that
Speaker 1: you can do that in a safe and trusted way.
Speaker 1: It's an incredibly dynamic space. The work is always evolving,
Speaker 1: and we take on not just keeping people safe when
Speaker 1: they're using our products, but some bigger questions too, like
Speaker 1: around global election integrity, or making sure that people in
Speaker 1: Ukraine have access to high quality information in the wake
Speaker 1: of the Russian invasion. Therein is the issue of misinformation,
Speaker 1: of disinformation, something that people are particularly worried about when
Speaker 1: it comes to large language models and the propensity to
Speaker 1: spit that out even more is that okay, concern, where
Speaker 1: are the king risks for you? Well, We've had many
Speaker 1: years of experience and making sure that no matter what
Speaker 1: Google product you're using, you have access in easy ways
Speaker 1: to high quality authoritative information. So think about Google Search,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to use the example of global elections.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that when major elections around
Speaker 1: the world are taking place, when people want to find
Speaker 1: out where to vote and how to vote and what
Speaker 1: time their polling station opens, you can immediately go to
Speaker 1: Google Search and find that information. So information quality has
Speaker 1: been at the heart of what we do for a
Speaker 1: really long time, and this next wave of technologies is
Speaker 1: no different. We're going to bring all of that insight
Speaker 1: and knowledge to there. We take misinformation and disinformation really seriously.
Speaker 1: My team develops policies and enforces them around things like
Speaker 1: medical misinformation to make sure that users can trust the
Speaker 1: information that they find in the moments that matter most.
Speaker 1: What is it though that helps with content moderation? Ultimately?
Speaker 1: Is it about people? Is it about AI trainers? We've
Speaker 1: heard much reports about those doing the workout in Kenya
Speaker 1: for Chat GPT, or is it actually AI on versus
Speaker 1: AI using machine learning in the like? I think it's
Speaker 1: all of the above. If you use If you look
Speaker 1: at Google's AI principles, they really help. It's we release
Speaker 1: AI principles and AI practice at the same time, so
Speaker 1: it starts with how the models are developed and train
Speaker 1: and making sure that you're doing that intentionally, thoughtfully, responsibly
Speaker 1: while you're being bold is what we are work at
Speaker 1: Google to do. Laurie, I want to give you a
Speaker 1: specific example, and I appreciate that you know you're focused
Speaker 1: on what Google's doing, But one of the things that
Speaker 1: has been pointed out about Chat GPT is it generating
Speaker 1: sellacious or I guess I'm looking for the right word,
Speaker 1: but I guess worrying content In response, how specifically do
Speaker 1: you tackle those issues in order to keep users safe?
Speaker 1: I'll just say it's really early days for this technology,
Speaker 1: and I think we're all learning about what its most
Speaker 1: beneficial uses are going to be and how to put
Speaker 1: the right boundaries around it. At Google, we have lots
Speaker 1: of people working both internally and externally, trusted testers to
Speaker 1: train and to do adversarial testing so that we understand
Speaker 1: exactly how the products are going to behave and perform.
Speaker 1: I think this is also a whole of society set
Speaker 1: of questions. So we again externalizing our AID principles, making
Speaker 1: sure that enterprise customers and we've done this for many
Speaker 1: years really know how to responsibly deploy AI and working
Speaker 1: with government, civil society stakeholders to make sure that people
Speaker 1: are really harnessing the benefits. Here it's an all hands
Speaker 1: on deck approach, and yet it's all hands on deck
Speaker 1: to get this to the user base as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: You can't move but for a headline of another company
Speaker 1: adopting generative AI within it is the Paddoor's box open
Speaker 1: now because ultimately we've gone live. You're going live with
Speaker 1: BARD to a certain extent, and it's in people's hands.
Speaker 1: How do you stop that? Therefore, I think we're in
Speaker 1: the phase where we're really still learning and training and
Speaker 1: shaping this technology, and it's still it's important to take
Speaker 1: a bit of a longer view. This is early days
Speaker 1: and we're going to be learning more about how to
Speaker 1: use it most beneficially. So it's still very early. But
Speaker 1: I know you speak as a passionate mother, and I
Speaker 1: speak as a passionate mother too that my children don't
Speaker 1: have a long term view in terms of what they
Speaker 1: can consume or can't consume, that their minds are boggled
Speaker 1: on one consumption and one consumption alone. Do we have
Speaker 1: that ability to break things in this environment? Google's products
Speaker 1: for a very long time have really been designed with safety,
Speaker 1: including for children in mind. So we have controls that
Speaker 1: we build in too, products like the Google Assistant, which
Speaker 1: is an early version of interactive AI, that make sure
Speaker 1: that when children are asking it for information, they're getting
Speaker 1: the most high quality information that's safe for children that's
Speaker 1: out there. I think that the potential for everyone and
Speaker 1: being able to have The type of knowledge at their
Speaker 1: fingertips that Google Search has provided for a long time
Speaker 1: and that will continue to develop, is really exciting. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, Caroline, but I am a mom.
Speaker 1: When I was little, I had the World Book Encyclopedias,
Speaker 1: and that's how I looked up information. It's pretty exciting
Speaker 1: that I can very quickly work with my children to
Speaker 1: learn and grow because the world of information is at
Speaker 1: their fingertips, and I think building in responsible constraints and
Speaker 1: making sure that parents and kids know how to use
Speaker 1: this technology well is part of what we see our
Speaker 1: role in doing. Laurie, you mentioned it earlier in your
Speaker 1: Remit is actually much broader than just AI. But the
Speaker 1: war in Ukraine and the issue of disinformation. Can you
Speaker 1: talk to me about the work that you're doing in
Speaker 1: that theater and some of the progress that you've made
Speaker 1: over the law Twelve months in the wake of the
Speaker 1: Russian invasion in Ukraine, Google and many others in the
Speaker 1: industry acted very quickly and recognition that wasn't just a
Speaker 1: war that was playing out on the battlefield, was also
Speaker 1: a cyber war and an information war, so we very
Speaker 1: quickly addressed at its root causes. Of Russian disinformation, and
Speaker 1: we also made sure really importantly that people on the
Speaker 1: ground in Ukraine and all over the world had access
Speaker 1: to high quality information when they most needed it. One
Speaker 1: thing that Google did is partner with Ukrainian government to
Speaker 1: make an air aid app available so that Ukrainians would
Speaker 1: have some notice when an air raid was coming. We
Speaker 1: also made sure that the top of Google Search, you're
Speaker 1: able to find information very quickly, and that our maps
Speaker 1: were as accurate as possible. And this work is ongoing,
Speaker 1: of course, is the tragic war in Ukraine continues to unfold. Laura,
Speaker 1: One thing I wish my children could type in and
Speaker 1: search and I could highlight for them is the wealth
Speaker 1: of female leadership that there is a certain businesses, whether
Speaker 1: across finance, business and technology, and unfortunately the numbers are
Speaker 1: still pretty rubbish. To be perfectly frank, when you're seeing
Speaker 1: particularly female leadership at your company at others, taking a
Speaker 1: step back at the moment and it suddenly feels all
Speaker 1: at once, how do you feel as a woman in
Speaker 1: leadership at this particular moment. While saying that Google's been
Speaker 1: a really to risk a place for me to grow
Speaker 1: my own career, and that's partly because I've had incredible
Speaker 1: female mentors Susan Wajski you mentioned earlier with Kreat many others.
Speaker 1: But we also think a lot about pipeline at Google,
Speaker 1: and so many of our up and coming leaders are women.
Speaker 1: The leaders of search, of assistant of Google Workspace are
Speaker 1: all women, and it creates an incredibly dynamic environment. The
Speaker 1: way that we think about this and talk about this
Speaker 1: on my team at least, is that diversity and having
Speaker 1: people from different backgrounds is not a nice to have
Speaker 1: for us, because we are shaping the next generation of
Speaker 1: technology for everyone, and so we have to reflect the
Speaker 1: world that we serve, and so we invest a lot
Speaker 1: in recruiting, retaining, promoting, and making sure that my team
Speaker 1: and our company is a place where women can flourish.
Speaker 1: I've certainly benefited from a really terrific environment there, and
Speaker 1: there's I'm really glad we're having this conversation because it's
Speaker 1: incredibly important to stay focused on it. No, Richardson, thank
Speaker 1: you for having that conversation. No time off as well.
Speaker 1: What a hero Google VP for trust and safety. Go
Speaker 1: get back to your family. We thank you. I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about Spotify, but order about another company. That's pushing
Speaker 1: to reach new customers. Rent the Runway is now offering
Speaker 1: subscribers more bang for their buck. This week, the company
Speaker 1: announced the twenty five percent boost in rental options for
Speaker 1: more for most subscribers. So look, if you're signed up
Speaker 1: for eight items per month four items ago, you can
Speaker 1: now choose ten. Jen Hymen, CEO of Rent the Runway,
Speaker 1: joining us now for what is a push for new
Speaker 1: subscribers or need? Is it a push to keep this
Speaker 1: scribe a basic We've already got addicted. This is really
Speaker 1: about actually offering more value to the customers that we
Speaker 1: already have. We've increased all of our subscription plans. All
Speaker 1: of our subscribers are going to get twenty five percent
Speaker 1: more value for the same price. And what that effectively
Speaker 1: means is they can use Rent the Runway even more
Speaker 1: in their day to day life and really this can
Speaker 1: become a ubiquitous part of how they get dressed as
Speaker 1: a result. Jen, I wanted to do some research going
Speaker 1: into this interview, and I wanted to talk to your
Speaker 1: user base. So I talk to my wife, who is
Speaker 1: a religious user of Rent the Runway on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: and she pointed out the changes you've made. But she
Speaker 1: actually raised a really interesting question about technology, which is
Speaker 1: the app and how you make items more discoverable, And
Speaker 1: she actually wants to know also about things that ask
Speaker 1: official intelligence, how you're able to choose this additional basket
Speaker 1: of items that you can go for. Yeah, well, we
Speaker 1: have a unique business model in that if you're a
Speaker 1: great e commerceary teller, maybe your customers come to you
Speaker 1: once or twice a year and they buy one or
Speaker 1: two units a year. Our customers, on average are picking
Speaker 1: over a hundred items per year from us. So the
Speaker 1: way that they browse, the experience, the way they find
Speaker 1: and discover inventory on our platform has to be even easier,
Speaker 1: even more magical than the best in e commerce. And
Speaker 1: we are investing a huge amount this year in enhancing
Speaker 1: our user experience, in making the app easier to use,
Speaker 1: and finding ways for customers to search for inventory as diversus.
Speaker 1: You know, your wife's seventies party this weekend, going to work,
Speaker 1: to going on a vacation. I don't reveal my social plans. Look,
Speaker 1: it's International Women's Day. We're so pleased to have you
Speaker 1: on the program. This is principally targeted at female audience. Right.
Speaker 1: How much of a premium do you think that is
Speaker 1: for you guys? How hard is it to resist the
Speaker 1: urge to branch out into mail men's wear as well.
Speaker 1: We've just scratched the surface of what this business is
Speaker 1: going to be. You know, if you think about the
Speaker 1: first decade of Rent the Runway, we had to convince
Speaker 1: women that we're in clothes that other women had worn before,
Speaker 1: was cool, aspirational, smart. Now that secondhand is really a
Speaker 1: part of how we all get dressed. The tailwinds for
Speaker 1: our business have never been stronger. And the other tailwind
Speaker 1: here is that women need and want more variety in
Speaker 1: their wardrobe than ever before because of social media, because
Speaker 1: we're presenting ourselves to the world every single day via TikTok,
Speaker 1: via Instagram, and this is a more affordable and more
Speaker 1: sustainable way to get that variety in your wardrobe. And
Speaker 1: yet jen's more competition, and I think newly. I think
Speaker 1: over a UK self, which is doing something similar as
Speaker 1: a Hellost suddenly popping up. Are you worried about that competition?
Speaker 1: I love competition because it means it's a real market.
Speaker 1: It means all that Rent the Runway has to be
Speaker 1: is the best out there, and we have the most
Speaker 1: premium assortment. We have the very best designer brands on
Speaker 1: our platform. We are investing an enormous amount into our
Speaker 1: customer experience to make finding and browsing the inventory even easier,
Speaker 1: and I think that it really proves out this is
Speaker 1: a real market now, as opposed to just an idea
Speaker 1: that we had five six years ago when we launched
Speaker 1: subscription and then when you went public, ringing that bell,
Speaker 1: taking your daughters along, that amazing anecdote that you're then
Speaker 1: daughter thought that only women could run businesses and you're
Speaker 1: having to painfully pop that bubble that you'd managed to
Speaker 1: sort of give to her in that way when you're
Speaker 1: talking to your daughter, when you're thinking about this business
Speaker 1: for the longevity, it's about profitability too, Is that within sight?
Speaker 1: How you get there when you're offering things more freely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've made financial transformation in the business over the last
Speaker 1: few years. We've driven our business to a gross margin
Speaker 1: above forty percent, inclusive of all the cost of our inventory,
Speaker 1: all the cost of our fulfillment. We've restructured our debt,
Speaker 1: We've conducted a restructuring and this is the year that
Speaker 1: we're going to see significant improvement to our cash burn
Speaker 1: and the way that we get to profitability is by growing.
Speaker 1: For every additional dollar of growth that we deliver this year,
Speaker 1: forty cents goes to the bottom line. So we're really
Speaker 1: excited to grow the business. We're really excited to bring
Speaker 1: the business to profitability. And back to my daughter, Aurora,
Speaker 1: I work so hard at what I do because I
Speaker 1: want her concept to run the runway. She thinks run
Speaker 1: the runway means girls run the world, and I want
Speaker 1: her to live in a world where that can be
Speaker 1: more true than it is right now. Gen to that point,
Speaker 1: you know a pattern of daughters as we both are.
Speaker 1: Why are we not seeing more women around the world
Speaker 1: in that respect? Why we not see more companies being
Speaker 1: born that are led by family els who are getting
Speaker 1: the right amount of VC dollars Because at the moment
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a two percent cap it would seem
Speaker 1: being allocated to diverse founders. Yeah, it's all about the money,
Speaker 1: and it's all about the money at later stages. So
Speaker 1: there's a good amount of dollars going to women. At
Speaker 1: the seed phase, there's five hundred thousand dollars checks million
Speaker 1: dollar checks being ridden. But we all know that the
Speaker 1: more money you're able to raise, the higher your probability
Speaker 1: of success, the better talent you can hire, the more
Speaker 1: mistakes you can make. So it's really about funding women
Speaker 1: who are further in their trajectory of being entrepreneurs. It's
Speaker 1: obviously about mentoring those women and having some of the
Speaker 1: most successful male CEOs mentor female CEOs and kind of
Speaker 1: teach them how do they scale their leadership. I've been
Speaker 1: lucky to be mentored by some of the best CEOs
Speaker 1: out there who I continue to learn from, and I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of money and mentorship that'll get
Speaker 1: more women into positions of power. Rend The Runway CEO
Speaker 1: and co founder of course, Jen Him and Caroline talking
Speaker 1: about so many of the themes that we've been discussing
Speaker 1: all hour long. Now coming up, Barbie's new dolls support
Speaker 1: some of those top women we've just been talking about
Speaker 1: in technology. We'll discuss all of that next. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg while going viral today. I saw it as part
Speaker 1: of International Women's Day. The toymaker Mattel creating a number
Speaker 1: of Barbie dolls based on leading women in stem research,
Speaker 1: among them the three Wijikie sisters. Susan Whichikie, who owned,
Speaker 1: of course, the garage where Google was founded, became the
Speaker 1: longtime CEO of YouTube. Her sister Anne is the CEO
Speaker 1: of twenty three and me Janet is a professor at
Speaker 1: the University of California. And Ed. This is global. They've
Speaker 1: got Mexican entrepreneurs, they've got scientists in the UK, they've
Speaker 1: got French philanthropists where Barbie is building these role models.
Speaker 1: Those three names so impactful in the world of tech,
Speaker 1: in science, a new generation becoming exposed to them. Imagine,
Speaker 1: for example, in years gone by, Steve Jobs, dolls, something
Speaker 1: like that, quite profound. I feel a calling for a
Speaker 1: redo of a Kendall. That does it for this edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow we have the president of other Labs.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg