Disney's OpenAI Investment, Nvidia Chip Deal, and Australia’s New Social Media Ban

23:12But the way it should work is biggest check wins initially. Then it goes under antitrust review by thoughtful people to figure out if it's going to reduce competition and harm consumers and labor. And then it should go under national security review. And let me be clear. I actually don't think raising money out of the Gulf for an acquisition like this, I don't perceive that as a threat. Oh, come on. It's media. We lost our minds when— Hold on. Go ahead. I was the largest shareholder on the board of The New York Times. I got to meet with the editorial board once and couldn't say anything and had absolutely no influence over the editorial product there.

23:48And I had two seats on the board. And also, we have to keep in mind that all the money right now is in the Gulf. And if we want access to our capital for our companies to create more competition and more tax revenue, at some point we need to access that capital. Having said that, I would like a review by people much smarter than me to go, this is why it's a risk to our free speech and they will have undue influence. Or someone go, you know, if you put these safeguards in place, it's just a cheap source of capital. My point is there are there are people who do this for a living and are really good at this and should be part of a review.

24:25Instead, it's based on the blood sugar level and the opinion, unfortunately, of the president who gives them money. and what TV anchor or podcast do you listen to most recently? We have institutions and experts, and let me use the word, which has become a dirty word. We have experts for a reason. All right, let me interject here. First of all, they're designing it. So they also had Tencent in here until they were replaced. Tencent was, he had to come out. They knew that would. I'm sorry, go ahead. First of all, they hid the idea of the, they didn't hide it, but they put it on one of the last pages of the Saudis and the others were involved.

25:02Secondly, they added Jared Kushner just to put icing on this shitty cake. Thirdly, they had 10 cent in there and then they didn't. I mean, this is how they're thinking, right? And honestly, I want to know, Larry, if you're so fucking rich, why don't you just pay for it? If you believe in this so much, you're an American. It's an American media company. Why do you need their money? I get why you would get it. I'm not unsophisticated. But here's what it does. There's a woman, Gail Slater, an antitrust. She's well Well regarded. He has now put her in such a fucking jam. Like she can't do her job because now she's sucked up into politics versus doing a real antitrust look at this.

25:40Right. As we talked about, which is streaming prices, where's the market, etc. That's an issue. It has also put the CFIUS people in a jam because they can't look at this, which is their job. And by the way, I don't even trust them anymore, given all the yutzis and yahoos. They put a person in charge of FEMA that was an election denialist, like a really severe one, as opposed to just a sort of casual garden variety election denier. It's just they're putting incompetence and loyalists in place. and nobody's going to be able to do their job here because of what Trump is doing and how he has been staffing his administration and how he's, the only thing that I find amusing is that he's not sort of just giving in to the Ellisons, he's making them beg for it, essentially, by kissing up to Ted Sarandos.

26:26Now, the question is, will Netflix raise its price? Will it, say, do an all-cash deal, go to 30, and then have that stub of a company? What Bill Cohen talked to me about and he's written about is, they go to 30 and then the question is what's the value of that stub ellisons are valuing it at a dollar or a little more than a dollar and others like pretty well-known analysts are valuing it at anywhere from three to five dollars and so that makes their deal higher than the ellisons but what if the ellisons just go to 34 cash there's you know that's the whole situation i think most of The ARBs just want the money and move along, right?

27:04Presumably. This is like the venture capital community. Whoever comes up with two cents more, I'll make out with my cousin. You didn't make out with your cousin, did you? I did. And you know what? He's a very good kisser. Snow White asked for an AI for relationship advice. Yeah. And it responded, maybe don't move in with seven dudes from Craigslist next time. Very funny. I like that one. Yeah. Okay. I don't, this is why two-thirds of mergers don't work, and it's playing out here. We'll wring our hands about antitrust, about someone in the Gulf having undue influence over CNN, around the Ellisons getting their nose so far up Trump's ass that they'll guarantee that they'll just start filling CNN with Tucker Carlson on 24-hour loop or something.

27:53but this is why this acquisition will most likely fail from a shareholder perspective. And that is, one, we have a tendency as an acquirer to overestimate synergies, underestimate cultural impact, and three, more than anything, testosterone gets involved. And that is, I can guarantee you that when all of these companies were looking at this, this is a company that was trading at nine bucks a share recently. Seven. I thought it was down at seven. That all of these guys said, okay, scarce assets, one of a kind properties. We don't want this in the hands of competitors. Wow, this is an opportunity to consolidate the streaming market, Netflix.

28:32Wow, we really need this to bulk up, Paramount. We could do great things with the cable and the streaming, Comcast, and we need something to reignite. They all came up with really strong strategic reasons to stretch to, all right, if we could get this for 19, maybe 20, we can't go any higher than 24. Which is the initial offer from David Ellison. Right. We can't go any higher than 24. And this is what happens. Testosterone takes over, do you think? It is. It's like, oh. We're only a couple bucks away from being king and taking the ultimate victory lap and pulling. If Ellison, if he massively overpays for this thing, every business cover will be the winner.

29:13Yeah. The winner. Yeah, yeah. And we're not going to realize. Remember AOL Time Warner with Ted Turner and Steve Case? Yeah, BK, yeah, the winner. That picture. Deal of the century. And Steve Case is now like, oh, my God, I just sold this guy a bag of shit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what David Zaslav was thinking. But these guys have already, I can promise you, they have already blown way beyond a price they would have never, ever considered. They can't make it work. They cannot. It's just a rich, it's a yacht. Like, it's a yacht that's leaking. And that's what he's bought. I mean, the problem is, but if you just, on the face of it, in terms of Synergy's Comcast or Netflix are the better buyers, they have all, like, Netflix could blow out Game of Thrones.

29:51They could blow out. They have the worldwide, you know, the worldwide distribution network. They could do a lot with this. And they're shopping with expensive stock. Their credit card is fully loaded. Right, exactly. Well, not as expensive as it was, but they were the best owner. Between these two, by every single metric, they're the better owner. When you say better, do you mean in terms of synergy? Synergy, how it works, they're not going to do as many layoffs. The only thing CBS, this whole gang, can do is put together problematic assets, and they don't have a plan for doing anything else. I mean, the only thing that's happening is, as I said before, David Ellison is a very nice guy, but he's monumentally unqualified to do this.

30:36That hasn't stopped him, but he is the oldest boy with daddy's backing. And that's a prescription for a bad merger. Also, I don't think his movies made so much money. And Saslav's going to walk away with a billion dollars for destroying value. Winner. I mean, we can make a big— Speaking of winner. And Netflix is, in my view, who I love, is going to basically endgame streaming and prices are going to go up. I think you can make an—but here's the thing. We don't get to decide who would be qualitatively the best owner or the worst. The guy who runs AT &T is a really smart, nice man. I like him a lot.

31:17He was probably the wrong owner for CNN. Yeah, I agree. But he showed up with the biggest check. So Jeff Bukas said, congrats, it's yours. That guy, smart. Another smart guy. He got out when the getting's good. Okay, hold on. Just to pause there. But he did call Netflix the Albanians. Let's not let him forget that one. He made a one-sentence stupid remark that's haunted him the rest of his life. It's a really bad one. But let me, but okay, but that is dwarfed by, guess who decided to sell magazines at their peak? Jeff Bukas. Guess who decided to sell the cable part of his company at the peak? And by the way, guess who decided to sell the assets of Time Warner at their peak?

31:56Jeff fucking Bukas. Because this is where CEOs, this is where CEOs matter. And I'm going to differentiate between men and women. I don't think Ruth Peratt, I think women are different than men. And it's okay as long as you sanctify women and call all men predators and idiots. But I think on a certain level, you would have to acknowledge if Ruth Peratt was running these companies, there's no fucking way she'd be at$34 a share. She'd be like, okay, I don't need to have the biggest dick and win this thing. I'm here for shareholders. And the thing that CEOs are really not good at, but they get all jonesed up about getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

32:33The guy who ran B of A just kept acquiring everything and destroyed a ton of shareholder value. What CEOs are not good at, going back to my, I'm going to pat myself on the back. I remember saying to Arthur Solzberger, I'm like, why the fuck aren't we selling about.com? This is shit. This is shit business. We could sell it for a billion dollars right now. But they wanted to accessorize an analog outfit with digital earrings. CEOs are terrible at selling assets at the right time. So, question, why don't you give then David Zaslav the same handjob you're giving Jeff Bukas here? Just curious. Oh, David.

33:06David's doing his job. But Jeff Bukas, you know, who probably made$100 or$200 million, made billions for shareholders. Yeah. But Zaslav has basically said, you fucked up investing in my company. You should invest in the S &P. I'm barely going to get your money back. But by the way, I'm going to walk off with a billion dollars. Yeah, you're right. That's fair. He's barely getting their money back. It must create$7 trillion in incremental shareholder value at Tesla. I've said this on the record. I know. I agree. I'm okay with him getting a trillion dollars. If Bukka, Mickey Drexler, I remember when Mickey Drexler made a billion dollars at the Gap.

33:41And there was all, this was in the 90s. And there was all this like hullabaloo. And I'm like, he's added$14 billion in shareholder value. I agree. The problem with Zaslav or Marissa Mayer or Adam Neumann is they walk off with hundreds of millions or billions for destroying shareholder value. Didn't 10X it. Yeah, you're right. Okay, we'll see where this goes. But I'll tell you, Kara Swisher goes out the door. Somehow I don't think that's entered the discussion. You know what? I'm just going to loudly insult them the whole time until they fire me. I don't think they're going to fire you. I know.

34:12I'm actually the person they want to keep, which is the worst part. but I'm not going to. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, the Trump administration's plan to use social media to gatekeep foreign visitors.

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37:16Scott, we're back with more news. This one, I just can't believe this. The Trump administration wants to review foreign visitors' social media history. This is ahead of the World Cup coming here. The plan would apply to citizens of 42 countries that are allowed to visa-free travel to the U.S. The list of countries includes the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Germany. The proposal is not yet final, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it will accept 60 days of comments. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? in the free speech nation. And as you said, the numbers on visitors have declined so precipitously and has sort of hollowed out.

37:51I can't believe they're even considering looking at people's social media. Like, what do you fucking care if you think Marco Rubio is dickless, which I do, and I will say on social media? This is insane from a business point of view, correct? Like, this obsession with manufacturing where 80 % of Americans think we need more manufacturing, but only 20 % of Americans have any interest in being in manufacturing. You can't take your dog to the factory floor. People don't want the, for the most part, people don't want to be in manufacturing. And we do need a certain level of a manufacturing base, but it needs to be advanced manufacturing, high margin.

38:28But the obsession is coming at the cost of an even better higher margin industry, and that is the tourism business. It's insane. And so and just so people can fill up our comments with calling me a fascist or a weirdo or whatever. Well, that's every Tuesday, but go ahead. There you go. I do believe if you are applying to come here and be a citizen or get a visa or a green card, I think everything is open game. Because what and young people, let's be clear. When you get a job at Goldman Sachs before you get the offer, you apply for a job. You know what they do? They look at your social media. And if they think you're an idiot that is going to embarrass them and you're saying misogynistic things or you're out just rubbing your wealth in people's face or doing shots or acting like a total asshole, guess what?

39:19They will not give you a job. They also run credit checks on you. So there's a difference between I'd call tourism where we benefit. Vegas is dying. And amongst – there are two reasons Vegas is dying, or a lot of reasons. But one of them is we've now moved – we've put Vegas in everyone's pocket. But also – Right, online betting. Canadians were a huge source of revenue for Vegas. They're out. They're like, fuck you. You're going to treat us like assholes and take 70 % of our exports, which go to you, and start playing – being reckless with our economic well-being. Yeah, we're done. Yeah. So this is yet another reason.

39:56But who would even think of this? This is like, by the way, the First Amendment. The Stasi, which is what we're becoming. Literally, the First Fucking Amendment, it says you can say whatever you think. Like, you know, he also tweeted that he's apparently incandescent over the New York Times. They should be able to say anything they want about the United States of America on social media, period. Period. Full stop. Okay, but do we have an obligation to let them in? Yes. Yes, we do. It's just words. That's just words. They're not like... I'm asking this to learn, not to make a comment. Does the First Amendment apply to people coming in temporarily for...

40:34I don't care. It applies to our whole ethos. Like, if you want to keep people out because... I'm coming to New York and then I'm going to commit a terrorist attack against major infrastructure. I'm not talking about committing a terrorist attack. Saying Donald Trump is an orange Nazi is fine. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hi, I'm coming into the U.S. Why are you here? Well, it says on social media that you are about to activate a terrorist cell and commit acts of terror while you are here on U.S. soil. You think that's First Amendment free speech? No, because that's not what it's about. It's they're going to review their foreign visitors.

41:07So the only reason I'm pairing this together is because he was incandescent over a New York Times piece. He is, according to White House people that I talked to, he's like lost his mind. where the New York Times basically said he's old and probably, you know, essentially has frontal lobe dementia, which I think we all can all, after the performance of the last two days. You're going a bit off script here, but okay. But this is what he said. Anyone who says I'm sick is a traitor and could be tried for sedition, essentially, is what he said. Agreed. Words, words don't count. And I just, look, if you can.

41:39That's different, Kara. No, no. If they come in and they have threatened this on social media, then we stop them. We look through their bags. We say we're going to follow them. We still let them in. I'm sorry. It's just words. It's like, what if it's a teenager doing it? What if it's some angry grandma, German grandma? We can make those judgment calls. But I don't think everyone, I don't think everyone, anyone, I don't think Americans have a birthright to live in New York. If it's too expensive, you leave. I don't think people have a birthright to just throw up their arm, unfortunately, and say asylum and gain entry into the U.S.

42:11And I don't think it's people's birthright, let me continue, to come in for whatever reason if they have a history and statements that appear to be a threat and are going to cost us more energy and money to track these people because we perceive they're a real threat. Having said that, I think the bar has to be pretty fucking low to gain entry to come in and spend money. And if you've said some anti-American things on your social media, okay, we should be able to assess how serious a threat it is. And the bar needs to be, I don't know, really high or really low. But if you've said some anti-American things, that's probably 70 percent of anyone who has a social media account.

42:46That's right. And the economic benefit and the brand America, when people come to America, guess what? They have a really good time and they like us and they find out on the whole people who are Republicans and Democrats are pretty decent people. And then they go back and say, hey, maybe someday let's go back to Disney. Or if our kid wants to go to college in the U.S. or if a U.S. company comes here, maybe I'll do business with them. We have a vested economic and strategic and military interest, vested interest in letting people come and see how wonderful America is. I think what you were doing was a very edge case of a thing.

43:18They already were aware of those. Someone who calls Morin Schittler, come on in. Like, who cares? Like, who the fuck cares? And they don't need to investigate that person. If they don't have a history or record of crime. I agree with that. Which they already know. By the way, they know the bad people that come in for the most part. It's not a secret. It's not some grandma from Germany. Like, give me a break. I mean, it's only one step to what he was saying very explicitly. If you say I'm old and sick, you're a traitor. You're a traitor. Guess what? You're old and you're sick. And I think you have pre, you know, frontal dementia, low dementia.

43:54I come and get me. I don't know what else to say. Anyway, speaking of which, President Trump kicked off a series of really unusual speeches for him, even because he seemed rather low energy and meandering, intended to ease the cost of living concerns by mocking affordability. Let's listen to a clip of the speech in Pennsylvania this week. But they have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability. So they look at the camera and they say, this election is all about affordability. Now, they never talk about it. Yeah, they're talking about it now, sir. He got distracted by someone in the crowd telling him to run for four more years during the speech.

44:35Also suggested Americans should buy less pencils and dolls from overseas. That's an old trope he was doing. He was quite, I mean, I don't think he has Alzheimer's. I think he has this frontal look because you get more aggressive and more fanciful with that one. Alzheimer's is a forgetting disease, really. But this idea of you can get your dolls elsewhere, buy less pencils, nobody cares about affordability. They must be beside themselves in the White House that he's doing this. He ran on affordability. And 57 % of voters agree that Trump was losing the battle against inflation. 68 % believe that the economy is poor or very poor.

45:19And according to a recent political poll, get this, 27 % of respondents have skipped a medical checkup because of costs accelerating in the last two years. A quarter have skipped a prescription. A third said they could not afford to attend a professional sports event with their family or friends. And almost half said they can't pay for a vacation that involves air travel. I mean, this is the problem. Neither Democrats or Republicans want to have a serious fucking conversation around affordability. Republicans want a tariff. Democrats want to throw money at people to say, well, short term solve your problem.

45:57The structural answers to inflation and affordability are really boring, and the American public doesn't seem to want to elect people who are willing to have these conversations. The things that drive inflation, you start with the shit that drives the CPI. Forty percent, unfortunately, of middle-income homes now is going towards housing. And you've said this. We need a massive increase in housing. The next biggest cost in terms of acceleration, the two and three, are education and health care. We need national medicine or socialized medicine, and we need tuition caps based on income of the household.

46:29But no one wants to talk about, and we need massive antitrust. Well, it's also food, though, Scott. I mean, I was noticing, and I have plenty of money to buy food, but I was in a store the other day, and the chicken sandwich was$8. And Amanda saw one, too,$8,$9, like, for just a basic chicken. And I was like, that's, like, less, more than minimum wage. Like everything, like even the most basic stuff is more than minimum wage. And I don't pay attention to prices as much as I should. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. But boy, do you notice them now because you're like, what? But the question is, you're saying what everyone will agree with.

47:06And that is the rent is too damn high. You know, remember that mayoral candidate? We all agree. The question is, what do we do about it? And the answer is, in my view, if you're talking about a chicken sandwich, there are three companies controlling the majority of the poultry market. There are too few grocers and too much regulation and too much red tape that increases the cost of grocery prices. You need more competition. There are literally seven food companies responsible for the vast majority of our food products right now. We need dramatically more competition. But from a marketing point of view, him making fun of it, I don't even understand what the theory is here, except that he has frontal lobe dementia.

47:49I don't know what else he could say. I don't I don't I don't think it's fair to say he has dementia or Alzheimer's. What I think it's fair to say is he suffers from an ailment that is very obvious and is true. He suffers from 79. And we just should not have a person with their finger on the button trying to figure out tariff policy, trying to figure out, you know, our relationship with the CCP and what ships should go and the threat they present long term. What do you think of him doing this, trying to make it not a thing? it's it's totally ineffective pilloried for much less totally totally ineffective and i'm glad he's doing it because i think it plays into our hands but at some point the counter to that can't be just what a fucking idiot is okay agreed got it it's all right affordability requires an adult conversation and long-term structural solutions are we ready for an adult conversation around housing medical care tuition costs and antitrust and the democrats i don't think mocking is the I mean, I think the Democrats having this conversation outside of Senator Klobuchar, who's actually having this conversation, the Democrats who I have on Raging Moderates all say the same thing.

48:50This is an important conversation that we need to have at the right moment. But right now, let's make sure we get the ACA subsidies. All right. I get it. Well, that's a cost. Like you're like you don't buy insurance, but mine is going to go up quite a bit. Like and it was it was remarkable. It was like, what could it go up to? And I agree. It's insane. 40 % of American households have medical or dental debt. But okay, so we have a series of Band-Aid ideas, but no one wants to talk about a structural reform in healthcare because the healthcare industrial complex is the biggest donor to PACs. I just gave a bunch of money to a young woman who just announced her campaign for Senate and her, well, pretty easy to figure out.

49:35Jasmine Crockett. Okay. Yeah. I saw you online. You were like, call me Jasmine. Yeah. I am literally like watching my parents argue. I love Tallarico and I love Jasmine Crockett. Anyways. Should we invite both of them to South by Southwest to be on stage with us? Oh, I would love that. Let's try that. I would love that. Jasmine? James? We'd like to have you both on stage. I think they're both outstanding. Scott will cry because his parents are fighting. Anyways, but I heard from someone on our staff saying, we'll try and find time for you to meet with the representative. I'm like, no. People with my demographic have way too much fucking influence already.

50:11I am sending this money with one directive. Keep keeping on, girl. Just keep doing what you're doing. Although I would like to see her slap you back to last Sunday as my own entertainment. That's what you're here for at 73. I would. She would totally take it. Her announcement video was great. I like him, too. I loved her announcement video, too. She's getting grateful. I thought it was great. I think that's fine. Everyone's like, oh, we've blown this up. I'm like, no, we haven't. We need more hot young people like Tallarico, who, by the way, follows Instagram models, which I love, which I love.

50:42I love a guy who talks about Jesus and then is following Emily's trans models. You know, Emily Ratajkowski did ask about him. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. You know, I expose myself and you jab. You play with my emotions. I got so much dope, but when you said, you know, Emily Ratajkowski, and I was waiting for the end to say that she DM'd you. No, she still hasn't asked about you. So when we come back, we'll talk about Australia's new social media band for teens.

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53:51Scott, we're back. It might be time for us to move down under. Australia has become the first country in the world to ban kids under 16 from using social media. Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit and several other platforms face fines of up to$33 million if they don't take reasonable steps to remove underage users. Of course, Aussie teens are already fining work runs. Of course, they are creating accounts with fake ages, using less popular apps and even taking the government to court. Fine, well and good. That's what that's what teens are there for. And here in the U.S., the Florida law banning social media accounts for kids under 14 is going into effect after surviving a court challenge.

54:22I got to say, I agree with that idiot. Remember him down in Florida, DeSantis on this? This works. Will the rest of the world follow? Now, just for let me just say, we give Facebook and Meta a hard time. And by the way, they are not keeping young people safe, no matter what they say. Tim Cook was on Capitol Hill this week lobbying against legislation that requires platforms to authenticate users' age, pushing instead to put the burden on parents. You know, both meta and they are arguing who's responsible. I think they're both responsible, whether the phones are or the social media sites. But putting it on parents when they make these products is just not, is just, I find, really shameful for Tim Cook to do.

55:04But I know why he's doing it. I just find it shameful. We just gave back in one move, or I should say the Australian government and their leadership just gave back. This is the most generous, accretive gift to kids likely in Australian history. Their time with their friends, their self-esteem, their time outside, their time playing sports, their time with their parents, their ability to navigate relationship in person, their ability to focus on their schoolwork, their test scores. And the Australian government just gave back more childhood to children than any single legislation I think passed in the West in the last decade.

55:46And I just want to call out, I think the most influential scholar in the world right now is my colleague, Jonathan Haidt. I just don't think this would have happened without his book, The Anxious Generation. It might have happened, but it wouldn't have happened as soon. And I hope that it ignites an absolute firestorm. And they say, well, it's about parenting. Oh, fuck you, Tim Cook. Do you think it's parenting that bars should be able to serve my kid alcohol and that it's up to me to make sure that he never gets access to alcohol? Some of your responsibility. Tim Cook doesn't have children, so they don't have the difficulty of.

56:21OK. And here's the problem. Parenting. OK. You don't have children when you say that. Yeah, you don't. Because unless it's a collective action, unless every 15-year-old is off SNAP, you move in with parenting and you manage to figure out a way to use custodial or custodial and get them off SNAP. And guess what? They're more depressed, as my other colleague Adam Alter did research around this, because they're ostracized because they're the only ones not on SNAP. So unless this is collective action through legislation, and this is my favorite argument from Meta, that they're violating their First Amendment rights.

56:55You know what? A 14-year-old doesn't need to know. We don't need to know what a 14-year-old thinks about mRNA vaccines. I'm sorry. This is such an insane argument that they're worried about the free speech. And they say this is nothing but the following. This is Joe Camel. It was shown that the tobacco industry had a series of cartoon-like characters to try and incorporate new people into their addiction, which would continue to kill our sisters and our brothers and our mothers. And they said, sorry, you don't get to feed the pipeline with cartoon-like characters. Nor should social media, at a minimum, be allowed to spread this depression, this disassociation, and the sequestration from life and family.

57:37My fear, I would love to think this ignites similar bands around the world. I'm hopeful it does. But the problem is, in America, we fall into this delusion that we are a democracy. We're not. We have a passive majority that is weaponized and influenced by a very activated, sophisticated, well-funded special interest groups. And the special interest group around tech. Sing it, sister. Well, the special interest group around tech is only second to the health industrial complex in terms of money. And maybe number one right now, because the entire economy and the Trump administration is making a big bet on AI.

58:12So these people have so much fucking. We have minority. The two areas that are the worst for Americans, health care and social media, among the worst. Biggest, biggest lobbyists. It's in there. Let me just say. 100%. I agree. Parents should get off their phones when they're in front of their kids. They should be more present with kids. Absolutely, they should be more interested in what they're doing online. But it's too hard to use, and it's not your fault, parents. This is made. I have a hard time monitoring. I had a hard time monitoring these things, but I did it. But it was very difficult, and the tools suck.

58:53So this is their responsibility to make it so. Put warning labels on these things. Explain this to kids. And again, I agree, parents should not be on their phone. Like you have to sort of, you know, pattern map for kids on stuff like that. Ignoring them and looking at your phones is one of those things. And so there is a parental obligation here. But for the most part, this is on them, all of them. And it's really repulsive that all these companies have constantly abrogated their responsibilities of their shoddy products, no matter how you do it. And they are able to do it. And I know they put in all this, what if finding people, privacy, I don't care.

59:35Figure it out. You're smart people. And you're making a ton of money. So I'm sure you could spend some of your money. Well, let's talk about some data in the U.S. So Instagram earned$4 billion this year from teens age 13 to 17. They make platforms are going to earn about$13 billion from kids under 18 in 2022, which translates to about, I don't know, somewhere between$100 billion and a quarter of a trillion dollars. So what do you know? They're worried about their First Amendment rights. 53 % of children now own a smartphone by age 11. That has doubled since 2015. Three quarters of children age two to five engage with YouTube regularly.

1:00:11And teens spend five hours a day on social media. Where do you think that five hours has come from? About 35 % of their waking hours outside of school. And age-gating, guess what, folks? We age-gate bars and restaurants serving alcohol, convenience stores, gas stations, smoke shops, tobacco, cannabis dispensaries. Driving, can't drive until you're 16. Casinos, sportsbooks, the DMV, online gambling sites, pornography, firearm retailers. Can Australia run the U.S.? Yes, I would like to. These are really interesting. They ban firearms. They have a super return fund to invest. Yeah, they're very tough.

1:00:45To invest. They go out into the, they go out. By the way, I'm going there. Right, Tim, I'm going there. I'm going there for the holidays. Oh, nice. You'll love it. I was just there. I'm going to Sydney, Cairns, Lizard Island, Great Barriers. I was just there this year. Super excited. I'm going for my nephews. My nephew lives there. I'm going for his wedding next year. All right. We love Australia. You always have to one-up me. I'm just telling you I'm going there. I'm just going to Sydney for a great New Year's party. You're going to have a great time. It's a wonderful place. They've got a myriad of problems, but a lot of other problems.

1:01:10But I got to say, this was a winner for these people. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be right back.

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1:02:57Rated PG-13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. Get tickets now.

1:03:06Okay, Scott, we're going to do something a little different today. Time just announced it's Person of the Year, which everyone thought it would be the architects of AI for 2025. The cover shows Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Fei-Fei Li, and a few others. Let me ask you, who would you have picked as the Time Person, thing slash thing of the year? Who I would have picked, who's my person of the year, and I actually wrote this up, was Mackenzie Scott. Excellent choice. There you go. $7 billion she's given away this year. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. There's definitely a different approach to what I'll call feminine giving versus masculine giving.

1:03:44I think the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize is going to play a seminal role. I think Maduro is going to be, I think we're going to have regime change in Venezuela. Let them do it themselves. That's my feeling. 100%. I would pick, I'm going to go pop culture, actually. I would pick K-pop Demon Hunters because. No. I would. I would. Here's why. Because I think, you know, I know you didn't, you don't pay attention to cultural things as much as I do. I know. I like culture, Kara. I love it. And so. Occasionally I buy branded edibles. Watching what happened at the Macy's Parade, which everybody loved and made everybody feel good, was a moment.

1:04:19And in the center of that was a moment of let's all like stop this hatefulness. Let's be interesting. Let's have all different. There was country people. There was all kinds of people there. Like it wasn't like it wasn't woke. It was just America. I felt really good about it. Right. I think they represent a lot of things that I think we have to get back to, which is which is the idea that the difference is OK. You shouldn't hide yourself. the good feeling about this country and this world, like feeling good about that we are, we can be, and I'm not a religious person, that we can be saved. There's a grace, there's amazing grace.

1:04:59And that's what that, the music there, and it's played on any parent on their Spotify playlist or whatever the year, whatever music, it's K-pop demon hunters, which is amazing because kids are really responding to it. And so it's not just the song Golden. It's not just, you know, Take Down and everything else. It's a complex look at how difficult it is to deal with differences. And I just, I find it to be one of the most moving cultural moments this year. And you know I want to pick Taylor Swift and Fate of a Feely, which I loved. But I think it's a really, you can see people as they listen to it.

1:05:39And I know it sounds dumb, but you remember Ted and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when they become the band that brings the America. Their whole thing is in the future, they become this band. What was it called? The horse or whatever, which was funny. But that's what I felt like with this movie. It's like this could this unites people in a way I find very lovely. And so I would pick K-pop team. Did you know my big NYEO want to bring this back to me? I know I don't like to talk about, you know, I don't like to talk about myself, Kara. but there was something called YEO and I joined when I was like 30 years old in San Francisco, which is supposed to be a feeder into YPO.

1:06:13And you get a mentor. The best part of it is you get a mentor who's a YPOR. And my mentor was the runner up for, or one of the runner ups for person of the year, a times person of the year. And it was Bob Swanson. Do you remember him? No, no. He was the founder of Genentech. Oh, okay. All right. And he met me. Craig, whatever you call it. We met, and the loveliest guy, I mean, this is a guy very busy, right? And he said, we met, we had lunch, and he said, and I said, I had just started Profit, this brand, this strategy firm. And he said, would you, he goes, how can I be the most helpful? I'm like, you know, I sort of know what I'm doing, but I really don't.

1:06:53And he said, well, I have an idea. I'll just shadow you for a day. Yeah, he met me in my office. Actually, met me at the gym. I worked out every day from seven to eight. He met me at the gym, picked me up, took me to my office, and he just shadowed me for a full day. Meetings, client meetings. And he's a fairly, like, kind of quiet, like, not, he was sort of like, you know, shorter guy, carried a few extra pounds, just sort of kind of, I don't want to say blended in, obviously a genius. And he just shadowed me the whole day. And at the end of the day, he sat me down and he'd taken a bunch of notes.

1:07:28And he said, okay, great leaders listen more than they talk. You are not a great leader yet. You want to impress everybody. You're talking too much. Oh, of course. That's pretty obvious. He said, he had all these things that have stuck with me my whole life. He said, you don't understand the difference between being right and being effective. He's like, you're right a lot, but you're too aggressive and you're turning off people. You got to think about how am I effective here? And he just gave me a series of things. Wow. Anyways, that was my mentor story. Oh, my God. That's a wonderful story. Oh, you know who I would pick?

1:08:03Oh, okay. Just to stick my finger in Putin's eyes, I'd pick Navalny. Ah, that's a great idea. Yeah, there's all kinds of people. You know, this is sort of an antiquated thing, the person of the year, but it still kind of works because it makes you think about things. So anyway, we do not think the architects of AI deserve it. I don't, at least. I think there's a much more uplifting story about to happen over the next year. Such a snooze. I'm telling you, it is. I know architects of AI. You're kidding. You know, realistically, who it should be? What? It should probably be Jensen Huang. No. I hate it when they have multiple people or they don't pick a person.

1:08:38No, he's just able to wear his coat and act like a lesbian and kiss up to Trump. No. He's built a pretty important company. I understand, but I'm not. Like, time will tell, as they say. Anyway, you've got to get going because you arrived late and you've got to leave early. We want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week, and Scott spoke with Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.

1:09:08I know him well. He's fantastic. Let's listen to a clip. The U.S. beat China to the technology of social media. Did that make us stronger or did that make us weaker? If you beat an adversary to a technology, but that you then don't govern in a wise way, and you instead, like you built this gun, you flip it around, you blow your own brain off, which is what we did with social media. We have the worst critical thinking test scores, you know, mental health, anxious, depressed generation in history. And it's a confusing picture because GDP is going up, but sort of cancer is going up too. So it's like, we have the Magnificent Seven, we're profiting from, you know, all the wealth of these companies, but it's actually not being distributed to everybody, except those those who are invested in the stock market.

1:09:50And that profit is based on the degradation of our social fabric. I love that guy. He's been going at this for a long time. Yeah, he's been doing it. He's been a, he's kind of the original gangster of all things are not right in Mudville. You are absolutely right. And they, they can't stand it, but he's been right then and he's right now. And that was great. That's a terrific thing. The nicest part of the interview is I asked him who's been most influential in his life. And he said that his mother and that she was nothing but pure love, which I really like. Oh, lovely. He's a nice man. Yeah, that would appeal to you, I'm sure.

1:10:22And before we go, I'm interviewing Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, and Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, live on stage at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. on Monday, December 15th, next Monday. These are going to be two really sharp conversations about applied AI and autonomous vehicles. I'm very excited. They're both Chris was the original Google car of autonomous car projects at Google. I think he's great, too. And both of them. I've known Dara for a long time. really smart thinkers. To register for free tickets, Google Hopkins and Kara Swisher. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot, and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

1:10:57We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd Engine of this episode, Rich Shibley, edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Ms. Savira, and Dan Chalon, and Shaka Kroos, Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine of Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.

1:11:30This is comedy gold. We got to record this. We are recording this. Let me just say you're late to the podcast. No happy birthday. I'm late. Well, it's because you didn't use a condom. You always think it's a good idea to start with a condom. And then you get me all hot and bothered and say, just let me put the tip in. You 73-year-old. I see no present. Several moguls sent me presents, not you. I don't like it. I like unexpected gifts. Louis sent me a birthday song, birthday by 2 Chainz. Here, I'll just play it myself. All I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe. All I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe.

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