Government Shutdown, OpenAI’s Sora 2, and Hegseth's Lecture

24:06We called it. What do you think of this deal and others will follow suit? Obviously, the players. I know Egan pretty well. And obviously, Kushner was right in the middle of it because of his close ties to the Saudis and his getting the money from them. You know, it's a big deal to go private. The guy, the company has sort of struggled over the years, although they have some hits. It's run by this Australian guy who's a surfer. He got all tight with Egan. And then they have houses next to each other in Hawaii, apparently. And then they pulled in Kushner, obviously, who was the unjuant here, whatever, the grease in this particular deal.

24:41So putting Kushner aside, and again, the Democrats are corrupt. They just do it for small ball, right? Hunter Biden shouldn't have been on the board of any company. He just shouldn't have been. But he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Jared says, oh, I know how to be nepo corrupt, but I'm going to do it for billions. And not only that, he hasn't done anything illegal. He's raised money on the back of his father's influence, and he's doing a big deal. These deals are not easy to get done, so congratulations to him. This is a smart deal. Well, first off, essentially the Gulf is desperately trying to diversify away from a fossil fuel economy.

25:23And they know that the oil runs out. They're not sure if it's 30 years or 80 years, but they basically got the bad news is they have to diversify away from this fossil fuel economy. The good news is they have almost limitless capital to do it. So gaming, which is bigger than the TV and motion picture industries combined, doesn't nearly get the amount of attention it deserves, is a huge industry. It's intellectual property. It would invite a new generation of young people. The other companies they have investments in are better in mobile. And also since 2020, the gaming industry stocks have underperformed the market.

25:58And so this thing was, I don't want to say it was on sale, but what you have with electronic arts is they're kind of dominant in the old world. And that is consoles and handsets. And you go buy a game. The future is around mobile and free games. And when you look at the amount of time that young people who are very attractive consumers, especially young men, spend on video games relative to the advertising they capture, there's an enormous – remember those graphs, those charts we used to see that would show people spend 7 % of their time reading newspapers and newspapers get 19 % of ad dollars.

26:36and people spend 30 % of their time on the internet, but it's only getting 4 % of ad dollars. This is like 20 years ago. You knew that eventually they would calibrate to the time spent. Essentially, ad dollars effectively lag, but eventually catch up to where attention is. The big opportunity, and the kingdom has some investments in companies that are really good with mobile and free. The company had underperformed. It diversifies the economy in the Gulf. I like it because I think it brings us closer together. I really, you know, my bet and hope is that the kingdom goes capitalist and continues to party in Mykonos as opposed to goes going Islamist and fundamentalist, which the older folks leadership wants.

27:21So I like this deal. I think it I think it kind of works for everybody. You know, EA has always, we've had the heads of EA at my various conferences years ago and years ago, and they were always sort of struggling in the digital age. Like, you know, I mean, obviously video games are digital on some level, but it was always like they moved from executive to executive. They had a lot of executive sturm and drang over at that company. And the question is, are they going to be able to compete with the ones from China, the ones from all over the world, Japan and everywhere else? And I think they've always had an issue with that.

27:57And so they definitely need the money, right, in order to try to reassert themselves. But they kind of remind me, I know it sounds crazy, but like of a broadcast like CVS, like, oh, what are you going to do with this piece of shit? Like, Ellison. Oh, no. No, because they were older. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying EA always had, always seemed behind the eight ball constantly compared to especially China or any of the other many video, Korea, all the different places where really interesting innovations were happening. No, okay. So I would just say that, to kind of try and personalize this or humanize it, I would say EA is Tom Brady in that, okay, maybe it's not winning Super Bowls, but it's young and it's strong and it's vibrant.

28:42CBS is Tom Jones. I mean, awesome in the 70s. Ooh, sexy in the 70s. But, you know, on his final, you know, on the back nine. By the way, I love Tom Jones. Yeah, I'm just looking at their games. What's up, pussycat? Whoa, whoa, whoa. God, that guy's a genius. That guy's a genius. They have all the sports stuff. Madden was their big, but their sports are the biggest, most important games. And that does dovetail into the Saudis with their investments in sports and things like live, golf. It's a great take private. What's the next one? What's the next one? The next one? Well, that's my big prediction at the end of the show, and I'm very excited about it.

29:22Oh, wait. Okay. All right. Okay. Let's go on a quick break. When we come back, OpenAI's new video app is stirring up copyright concerns. What a surprise.

30:06Thank you.

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32:22Scott, we're back with more news. OpenAI is taking on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube with a new AI video generator app, Sora 2. The app will feature user-generated clips and feeds with algorithm-driven recommendations. Notably, Sora 2 will include copyrighted content unless copyright holders opt out. What a fucking set of... Anyway, OpenAI has been notifying studios and talent agencies about that over the last week. They're losing their minds, obviously. Meta also just introduced Vibes, a feed of AI-generated videos that will live in the Meta AI app. You know, a lot of it is AI slop. Some of it is funny.

32:58Gavin Newsom has been making Fantastics or different AI-generated videos making fun of Trump and Vance and everything else, which are quite good. But talk about the copyright opt-out. And Disney just separately sent Character AI a cease and desist letter to stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. Talk a little bit about this. What will happen here? Well, I just want to send a message to, you know, Sundar and Satya and Sam. I opt out. Take this as notice. I'm opting out. Do not crawl my shit. But of course, if I want to play, if I want to use someone else's likeness or if I want to start playing, I don't know, if I want to start reproducing.

33:51I'm in my gym right now and I'm looking at my weights and they say Rogue. If I wanted to start in China producing plates that said Rogue on them, does Rogue have to call me before and say they're opting out of IP protection? No, there's no such thing. The whole point of IP is people don't have the time to send a letter to everybody and say we opt out. Why do you think they think they can do this? This reminds me of, remember YouTube kind of played this game and then later did the deals. They just went ahead and did it. Remember they said you have to find your stolen content and tell us? Remember that one many years ago?

34:24Well, this is the dynamic at play. And that is these companies with a leadership position that is helped by ignoring laws, by starting your ride-hailing app in Argentina without going through the bureaucratic process of getting business licenses. By showing that kind of growth in this market, you make so much fucking money that it's worth it to face the legal ramifications. So they've done the math and they've said, if we can maintain the kind of growth we're going to have by molesting other people's IP, even if it eventually gets swatted down in court, we'll have more than enough money. We're better off economically.

35:04It's the analogy I've been using for 10 years when there's a parking meter in front of your house and it costs$100 an hour, but the ticket is 50 cents. You break the law. And that's what they're doing here. They're saying they know this will eventually work its way through courts. The biggest IP owners in the world will hit them hard and they will start paying. Similar to what YouTube has mostly done. YouTube used to be able to put anything on your videos, a Beyonce song to start it, whatever. Yeah, they did. And now they have said, OK, and they've done these deals just about the moment it became after they spent hundreds of millions of dollars pushing back.

35:43And Sam has already said, oh, my gosh, take a billion dollars and give it to the meanest, baddest lawyers and delay an obfuscate decision which will clearly come down against us. Because between now and then and any fee they come up with, we're going to get another quarter of a trillion dollars in market cap by offering funny memes of the family guy starring in a Star Wars film with Darth Vader. And everyone will have their hair on fire. But by the time they actually get a judge to say, no, you can't do this, they'll have accreted another$100 or$150 billion in market cap. Yep, exactly. This is sort of the YouTube playbook.

36:20And I remember when YouTube said, you need to find your stuff and tell us. I was like, why don't you not create a thieving service? Like, you have to tell us who's shoplifting. You know, we've given them shoplifting tools, but it was really astonishing. And the idea that they, all of them, the character AI, there's Disney stuff on there. There's so many, so much copyright thievery happening again. And they just, they do it over and over again. And it's sort of like Lucy in the football with Charlie Brown with the media companies. I mean, ultimately, again, this has to be stronger copyright protections in Congress, presumably.

36:56But it's really quite astonishing that they continue to have this much cheek. You know, they're thieves. Years ago, Walt Mossberg called Facebook and Google and all of them rapacious information thieves. And let's add open AI to that list. One good thing they did after people died, they rolled out some parental controls this week, allowing parents to adjust settings on their teens account. And they'll also be notified if an account shows signs of potential self-harm. Let's see how well they do that. I can't believe they didn't do that in the first fucking place, but there they are. There they are.

37:32Now, in this genre, a lot of people in Hollywood are also up in arms over AI-generated quote-unquote actress that some talent agencies are reportedly looking to sign. She's a very attractive actress and looks very real. And they sort of must have crafted her out of a bunch of appealing actresses. Her name's Tilly Norwood, and she's really quite appealing. I have to agree. And so they're going crazy because they didn't make it out of anybody, but it looks like they made it out of all of them. But you're in the AI mix right now. I'm disturbed by AI Scott Galloway picture that you sent me. You partnered with Google Labs for a new project called Portraits.

38:10They created an AI version of you to answer your questions and provide life and career advice. Let's listen to this AI Scott answer a question. Hey, it's Pop G. Ready to get started? I got a good job offer, but it's in a random town. What should I do? A job offer in a random town? That's a classic fork in the road. What kind of job is it? And what are your career goals long-term? Oh, wow. You sound so not you, but you kind of, you adjacent. So talk about this. How are you feeling about it? Well, I'm genuine. I want your view on this because quite frankly, how I feel about it has changed dramatically.

38:52I get between 10 and 30 emails a day from usually thoughtful young men, sometimes mothers, asking for mostly professional and career advice, or sometimes investment advice. You know, I'm 30. Am I too old to go back to business school? I have gotten into this school with a full ride, but the better school is not giving me money. What should I do? How do I ask for a raise? Those kinds of questions. And they're usually really thoughtful young men who take a lot of time to write to me, and I can't get back to all of them. I can't get back to 1 % of them. And you feel bad. You feel bad. Yeah. You don't know.

39:23You don't want to do an automatic response. You feel like you're ignoring them. I'm constantly virtue signaling about trying to help young men. And then some young man takes a ton of time. I don't respond to people under the age of 18 because I think men should not have, not for anything terrible, but parents should decide what the influences are in terms of their kid's life. Anyways, so about 18 months ago, we built a thin layer of innovation on top of an LLM and created Prof.AI. And it answered about 200 or 300 questions a day. We thought it was really cool. And then about nine months ago, a woman who is one of my graduate student instructors at Stern who is just so impressive.

40:08I'd use her name, but I don't want to get her in trouble. She's just an incredibly impressive, competent person. Came to me and said, we can do this, but much better. At Google Labs, we're going to launch a series of thought leaders to answer questions. There's no money involved. So it's an AI masterclass, essentially, right? Is that the... So the idea is that people who want to answer questions and that you might get some benefit from understanding how they feel about things, but you don't have access to them. And it's from Google Labs. I felt sort of funny in the beginning about working with Alphabet, but I really trust this person and think a lot of her.

40:43So they ingested all your things. So they crawled every podcast, every newsletter, every public appearance and created a visual of me. And I actually think the voice is okay, such that you can ask this thing almost anything. And we spent a lot of time on safeguards, no one under 18, no advice around mental health. But the reality is in between the time when we started developing it nine months ago and now, Kara, I have become increasingly freaked out about AI companions and synthetic relationships. One, I have a nightmare that I wake up and find out that some kid hurt himself and he had a series of AI relationships, including one with me.

41:23I just don't, I would never want to read that. Two, on a more or on a less mendacious level, I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue with me, that it might someday reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to establish mentorships in the real world. With real men. With real teacher, their dad's friend, their scout leader, whatever it is. And so the thing launched. I said to him, look, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with this. I don't know how to reconcile it. I worry that synthetic relationships are attacking what's mammalia about us, especially among young men. So what happens to it?

42:06So they ingested it. Do you still have the rights to your things? Like they just you're lending it to them? What is the situation? So one thing I built in was that I can take it down at any time. And what I said to them is I said, let's launch it for 12 hours and look at the data because I don't want this out there. I'm just, and quite frankly, Kara, the interview you did with the parents who lost their son really rattled me. And I am increasingly uncomfortable with synthetic relationships doing anything that replace a young man's mojo to find relationships in the real world. So let me ask you sort of a bigger question.

42:42Some of the stuff they're making with AI, to me, is solving problems that aren't that big, right? I know you can't get to everybody, right? And I get that. I get that you want to reach out to more people and you want people to avail themselves to your wisdom, etc. But it seems like a lot of this stuff they're making is not problems we have. And I think it's hurting problems that we have with what you're just talking about is men especially making mentorship relationships kind of thing. And so what are we solving here by doing this, except for you feel guilty about not being able to get back to all the young men?

43:20Is it a real, is that the real biggest problem to use all this technology, all this effort? I mean, do you see it as ever being a good thing, except maybe working out, I guess. I guess it's just a better Google, right? I think there's more upside. I think if you're 85 and in a state or county senior's home and you've lost the capability to communicate and all your friends are dead and you've lost, for whatever reason, your estranged from your family and you want to talk to someone about the Packers, it's almost an age thing for me. I think over 80, let character AI, let them have at it. Because quite frankly, the downside's not that great.

43:55Anyone under the age of 18 shouldn't be on a character AI. and I have slowly but surely come to believe that these synthetic relationships have more downside than upside. I would agree. I would agree. Let me just interject. I just did an interview with Sherry Turkle, very famous MIT psychiatrist and she's done a lot on this as in talking about artificial relationships for a long time and sort of everything is now what she had predicted has come home to roost. And one of the things she was noting is it used to be sort of an outlier. People did these relationships. She goes, now it's at the dead center.

44:25or she has friends who are having trouble with their husbands or wives that are having, you know, relationship problems, etc. And they spin up their best gay friend to give them advice about... Right, except that what it does is, say women have issues with men not listening to them or not being sensitive enough. So now you've got a sensitive man talking to you, and men have issues. And we aren't, folks. And we all have to learn how to deal with insensitive men. That's right. So she was talking about... So and men like a very acquiescent female, which is why getting back to Tilly Norwood, she is she is exactly what Hollywood studios want.

44:59An actress who doesn't get old and doesn't act up right or doesn't start to demand things. And so what Cherry was saying, the one thing that I thought was interesting, and I love your observation, there's no there there. It's not there's nothing behind it except for stuff you input it. Right. So you're not there, Scott, as Scott A.I. It's not you, really. You know, I think you would react if someone asked you a general question is one thing, but a more complex question, it just doesn't. You shift and move as a person and this doesn't. And there's no there there. Well, OK, so I don't think I don't think it's that there isn't a there there.

45:38A repository of all Peter Atty or Andrew Huberman's advice on creatine for women versus men. There's access. Yes. And these are neuroscientists who are thoughtful and I think fairly measured. There's value in having access to that put in sort of a narrative format. I do think there's an upside. However, however, I see the downside is that, and I'll be snarky here, women are constantly saying they want a more sensitive man. Well, that just leaves two people in the car crying in a parallel parking spot that is still empty. And that's snarky. But here's the bottom It's true. I've been in that car.

46:19The most rewarding things in life, hands down, come from navigating, figuring out shit, and then the victory of doing really hard things. And there's nothing harder than having relationships. And that's what's so wonderful about them, right? When you figure out a way to come together with someone and decide you want to have kids with them, when you figure out a way to get your kid off screens and come to some sort of agreement, when you figure out the pecking order of high school and establish your crew and your friends, when you figure out how to navigate all the bullshit and frustration and bureaucracy of work, the end is we're Mammalia and that's what real fucking victory is.

47:06So what are you going to do with this thing? Are you going to kill it? This is where I am today. I had them pull it down after 12 hours. And by the way, Google Labs could not have been more cooperative, empathetic. You have a loud platform, but go ahead. Yeah, but they've been, they spent a lot of time on this and it launched yesterday and I'm just, and we were going to let it go for a little bit to look at the data. And I looked at it and I thought, I'm just not down with this. I just, I've got a bad feeling about this. And I emailed, I text messaged my friend there last night and she said, I'll pull it down right now.

47:46All right. Okay. Well, that's what we're going to do. Can you send it to me so I can hang out with you all the time? Can I have it? So you can yell at it? Yell at it. You know, here's the thing. I don't like Scott AI. I like Scott. That's how I feel about it. And I think it's a really, you know, the only thing I would think about years ago, Martha Stewart said she was going to start Martha AI. Get it? Put an I at the end of her name. And I thought, okay, for stuff like that, like how to boil an egg, how to make mashed potatoes, that makes perfect sense. Well, robo-advisors are basically synthetic.

48:15Right, exactly. Stockbrokers. Right, exactly. And those kind of things, cooking tips, things like that make sense. Although I do like a good chef talking about cooking. I think you made the right decision. I think you made the right decision. Well, I find most life lessons come from Twilight Zone, the old series, which, by the way, is the first time I ever saw Robert Redford within a Twilight Zone. Yeah, that's right, in that great episode. But remember that episode where this guy, this criminal is shot and he goes to heaven and he's in heaven and every woman he approaches says yes and wants to date him.

48:50And when he goes up to the blackjack table, it's blackjack every time. And there's huge lines to get into the hottest restaurants and they're like, right in this way, sir. And he starts getting sick of winning all the time. And he says, he says, come on, guys, this is supposed to be heaven. And the guy turns and goes, my brother, this is not heaven. That's the point. Whoa, mind blown. Right? Oh, I love Twilight Zone. That's the point. Yeah, that's the point. The greatest yeses in your life involve one thing, a shit ton of no's. Yeah. That's the whole shooting match. Could they make Scott AI be more of an asshole?

49:27Like, so that it's more like regular life. I'm getting there organically. I'm getting there organically. to do. Like, oh, what? Tell a dick joke suddenly. Anyway, Scott, let's go on a quick break now. And when we get back, we'll talk about Hegseth declaring the military free from wokeness and body shaming generals.

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51:52What makes for a happy life? In 1938, scientists at Harvard started tracking the well-being of over 250 young people to figure that out. Now, almost 90 years later, the results are in. There was learning. People who learned and read and read and read and liked to learn. They were much happier as they got older. People who were really good at managing their feelings. But there was one thing that stood above all the rest. I'm Henry Blodgett, and this week on Solutions, I talk to bestselling author Arthur Brooks about the science of happiness. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett for more, wherever you get your podcasts.

52:40Scott, we're back with more news. Defense Secretary Pete Heggs has held nothing back while addressing senior military officials in Virginia this week. Let's listen to some of his, and I would have to say it was a crazy rant by someone who has moved on to other substances, it felt like. Go ahead. If the Secretary of War can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world.

53:17It's a bad look. It is bad. And it's not who we are. Trump followed the sentiment. Let's listen to a clip, someone who happens to be actually fat. Go ahead. If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future.

53:35Uh-huh. That was one of the few laughs. The generals looked horrified by the entire thing. The president also suggested military use, quote, dangerous U.S. cities as, quote, training grounds and told reporters of the White House that he would fire generals on the spot if he didn't like them. Wow, that was a real disaster, I have to say. The visuals from the military leadership were sort of set at all. And of course, they leaked the hell out of the thing. Also, Hegs says focus on looks and outfits. They were expecting a strategic discussion about U.S. military forces around the world. And instead, they got a rant by someone who was a lower ranking person and someone who was a five-time draft dodger about how to run the military, but focused only on looks, essentially.

54:23Let me tell you one other thing someone else told me was that the reason he did this, and it was all from Hegseth, because he is considering a presidential run, which I thought was insane when I heard it. And that people, other forces who are not so keen on Pete Hegseth running for president and think it's ridiculous, got Trump to go to try to ruin his mojo there. I thought it was hugely embarrassing for everybody, especially the military, which had to sit there and put up with it. Any quick thoughts? There has never been, possibly in history, a room with more competence, bravery, honor, humility in one room than there was in that room.

55:09It was a security risk to have them in one place. You don't think there was GRU and CCP taking photographs and saying, these are the most, let's find their let's find what devices are on what algorithms are on their kids their movements that was just a stupid security risk and for a guy who was i mean first off i'm very into fitness there is no to to hold a general who served honorably probably in vietnam as an 18 year old who has overseen combat. Okay, Pete, I want to see what you look like at 65. I mean, the notion that he has any license being demeaning to that room is literally is laughable.

56:04And all of this bullshit around, you know, I get it, beards, whatever. That's supposed to attack, especially men of color, Some men have issues with shaving, but go ahead. It's so performative. It's so stupid. It doesn't result. It makes us weaker. And you're talking to the – he was a major, which means if he had been much better and spent another 20 years in the armed services, he might have been able to pack the bags for the people who ended up in that room. to lecture these people on leadership and what they need to do to be a... It wasn't even on strategy. It wasn't on our position in the world.

56:50It isn't, you know, if he had said, now we're going to be this. Instead, it's all performative. The other part is him talking to them about being individualistic. This guy, there's not more of a fop in that cabinet than this guy. He's got funny socks. He's got weird things on the inside of his jackets, he's got tattoos, he wears the stupid glasses. This guy is one, speaking of individualistic, this guy just relishes in it. And to act like he's some like paradigm is kind of fucking ridiculous. He's such a ridiculous, performative clown. And the fact that he's thinking of running for president, I mean, oh my.

57:25And this was what he was using this. He was wasting taxpayer money to give himself a shine up and he ended up looking like a clown. The two features that just are always present in a room of leadership from armed services are one, competence. These people are literally charged with deploying lethal force in a thoughtful way and they're responsible for a ton of young men and women's well-being as it intersects with some of the most complicated supply chain, technology, geopolitics in the world. And these people figure out a way to do it. From a young age, one of my roommates was Rotsi. I'm 24 doing fucking PowerPoint decks talking about taking over some refrigeration company in Wisconsin.

58:14And my friend was commanding 1 ,200 19-year-olds. I mean, these people, they one demonstrate competence and then the second key feature which these people do not demonstrate in any fashion on stage is humility they don't brag they don't they don't you know and the other thing that the armed services represents and it's not to say it hasn't had its problems around racism but it's been an enormous means of lifting up people based on character and competence there's nothing that there's nothing that melts away racism and homophobia, like being in a foxhole where both of your lives are under threat.

58:54All you care about is the competence and the character of the man or the woman next to you. You're not thinking, well, I don't like Puerto Ricans. And so the armed services have been an amazing means of creating equality and progressive advancement. And then when you have these guys up there with this sort of like this, you need to be fit and you can't have beards. They bring up, you know, I said fat boy and little man bombed, right? And misogynistic. I do. I got to be honest. I do agree with one thing. I think in combat, the standard should be gender neutral. I think if you're applying to be in a combat position, you have to qualify by being able to drag somebody 90 feet if they're wounded.

59:33I get that. But the reality is today's combat is more about it's like I think I would bet less than 2 % of our armed services. And you know who are also warriors? The man or the woman that agrees to get in the driver's seat and drive a fucking fuel tank across a highway of IEDs. I mean, that's correct. I mean, the whole thing is it was such an embarrassment. And listen, President Pete, you're not going to be the Pete that's president. It'll be it'll be Buddha judge. Oh, let's hope he's the Republican nominee. Let's pray that he's the Republican nominee. If he runs for president on the Republican side, I will donate money to his campaign because that means the next president is going to be a Democrat.

1:00:15Literally. He makes Sarah Palin look smart. It was such a disaster of you, Pete. And you got totally, they shoved other people who don't agree that you should get this little fancy shine up. There was a whole machination happening among Republicans on how Trump ended up there. Who also, by the way, when he said cities should be used as training grounds, that is dangerous and scary and ridiculous. And I'm sure those military people all thought that. Just as long as he doesn't use the N-word. Oh, I know. Yeah, don't use it. YouTube, lastly, YouTube will settle a lawsuit over banning President Trump's account for over$24 million.

1:00:52YouTube banned Trump's account in 2021 after January 6th and reinstated it later. The settlement funds will go to building the new White House ballroom, which is so ridiculous. As a reminder, other big tech companies have done the same with similar lawsuits, with Meta settling for$25 million and X settling for$10 million. And, oh, God, why are they selling? They did nothing wrong at the time. It was very dangerous and they reinstated. It was the right decision at the moment. They shouldn't be paying off these bribes. That's what they are, they're bribes. I don't know. Your thoughts? Yeah, I keep waiting for someone just to hold the line and say no.

1:01:23I mean, all it means is they're going to come back again. You're setting a really terrible precedent. I mean, these companies are the same companies that fight people tooth and nail when their 15-year-old gets this sort of content that encourages suicidal ideation and self-harm. They'll go to the mat for that shit. But when it comes to the president being butthurt about something that was said, they'll settle for tens of millions of dollars. They're ridiculous. They look like such toadies. They look like toadies, these unctuous, right down to Sindar Pichai. I like Sindar Pichai, but Sindar, you're an embarrassment at this moment to me.

1:02:01I have to say, I've known you for many years And I know you don't care what I think, but just really, I get your little problem. You should have held out. You'd have looked smarter. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

1:02:21There's a real case of baby fever going around. For one group in particular. 57 % of men said they hoped to have kids one day. and only 45 % of women said the same. So what are men seeking and finding in fatherhood? And how is our idea of a good dad changing? Dads of my generation are taking on a much bigger parenting role than our fathers did. When I was taking my paternity leave, my father-in-law frequently referred to me as Mr. Mom. The answer to why did I become a dad only came after my son was born. This week on Explain It To Me, the joys and pains of the American dad. New episodes out every Sunday.

1:03:29We'll see you next time. YouTube, and in audio wherever you get podcasts. That's version history. Check it out starting Sunday, October 5th, and every Sunday after that, see you there.

1:03:44The smart home has been a good idea for decades, just that you can control your windows and your doors and your floors and your appliances and everything and just have everything work together. It's a good idea, it's just never been possible. But now, this week, we got some new gadgets and some new software from both Amazon and Google that suggest that if we're not getting there, we're at least getting close. This week on The Vergecast, we talk about all of that, plus what it's like to have a TV that won't stop showing you ads. All that on The Vergecast, wherever you get podcasts.

1:04:23Okay, Scott, let's hear that prediction. I'm curious who you think's going private. How interesting. What's a fallen angel? Well, we talked about this. My picks were, and this is my prediction, but there's just some really big iconic companies that have a lot of IP and revenue that probably should be either acquired or taken private. My favorites were Boeing, Intel, and Target. But I think you are about to see, and we predicted this. By the way, our prediction at the beginning of this year was that M &A was about to boom again, and it was in a deep thaw at the beginning of the year. What did the investment banks announce?

1:04:59Record M &A. The universe of companies that Palantir can potentially acquire right now has gone up 1 ,000x. Yeah. If you don't do it, you're stupid, right? Their banker can show up. Well, when you're trading at 100 times revenues, anything you acquire that's trading at less than 100 times revenues, which is every company on the planet, is accretive to your earnings. The way I would describe it is if your stock doubles, then effectively everything else has become 50 % less expensive. And I think we're going to see a titanic acquisition or merger from Netflix. I think there are so many existential threats, clouds forming around Netflix right now with some of this.

1:05:40I mean, Sam Altman putting out these kind of AI driven videos and saying it's so you can communicate with your friends and family. That is a lie. He's doing this and trying to pretend it's friendly such that every Hollywood producer starts going, Jesus Christ, why can't we start producing films for three million instead of 300 million? So, I think there's some real existential threats to a stock that is now worth, I don't know,$440 billion. That stock, by the way, one of my great investments, I bought Netflix at$12 a share. It's now at$1 ,146. The part of the story I left out is I sold it at$10 a share to take the tax loss and never bought back in.

1:06:28But basically, Netflix now has almost a half a trillion dollar market cap. And I think they face some real threats. They need to do something, yeah. Well, the gangster merger of the ages would be the following. Netflix and Disney. Because look at, it's very synergistic. Oh, and then Ted could run Disney. How fantastic. Ding, ding, ding, ding. So there's this co-CEO. This guy named Greg Peters, I saw him speak at Cannes and I thought, Jesus Christ, this guy is so bright. He is bright. By the way, let me note a woman who's at the top of that business, Bella Bajaria, is doing all the programming.

1:07:08Amazing. They have an outstanding. And then Ted Sarandos is like built in a factory from parts of lesser CEOs. He is so good. I saw him on stage recently and they asked him these really pointed questions. I like Ted. Well, first off, he has the primary competence of any great CEO, and that is he has outstanding hair. Yeah, he has good hair. He has very good hair. Good with talent. Good with talent, smart, not afraid of anybody. Any question, he handles it. The guy literally reeks of aplomb. Anyway. Aplomb. You're aplombing, Ted. Disney's leadership right now is Neville Chamberlain in a cashmere sweater minus the dignity.

1:07:48Right? That's their, and who the fuck? And then the number two is a woman who's gotten dragged down by the Kimmel shit. They are desperate for leadership. What does Disney have that is absolutely singular and can't be threatened by open AI? It has the parks and cruise lines. But the IP at the parks, Cinderella and Darth Vader, are getting tired. Put Stranger Things in there. Stranger Things. Wednesday. Wednesday. Can you imagine a Stranger Things ride at Disney? Amazing. Hunting Wives, the whole lesbian ride for me. The streaming market, you have Netflix and Disney. It's over. Hulu's in there.

1:08:28Remember. You have Disney, Netflix. National Geographic is in there. It's over. Over. I love it. It would give them such heft. They would own place-based entertainment and they would own streaming media. They would own cruises, parks, and - And also Netflix is going into live events too. Also comedy. Comedy. They don't comedy. It solves their leadership problem. Yeah. This would be, anyways,$210 billion or$200 billion Disney,$450 billion Netflix. Netflix would own, call it, 70 % of the combined companies. This would be the first trillion-dollar pure play entertainment company. Well, they'd get passed by Trump.

1:09:07Well, that's the thing. It might now. It might now, yeah. Or maybe not. My point is they couldn't have done it seven months ago. Ted's pretty Democratic. Remember, Ted's pretty down Democratic highway. But my point is, as soon as there's, under Biden, it couldn't happen. And if there's another Democratic administration, it won't be allowed to happen. This is the window. Let me add something to your deal. Snapchat. Snap's probably more trouble than it's worth. Not really. It's like a great system. They can shove all kinds of shit on it. Like, why not own it? Like the way Allison owns TikTok. Because it's kids.

1:09:40And it's. It is. So is Disney. No, but there's not a feature. There's not a feature. Put it on your. saucepan and think about it. There's not a feature on Disney Channel that lets you see people around you the drug dealers are using. People don't go on the Matterhorn and start self-cutting. Snap has got real issues. I don't think they want near it. I don't think Ted Sarandos would want anywhere near Snap. All right. I'm just saying they'll go on a social platform too. Think about Tesla and Snapchat. Okay. That was a great prediction. This feels like your Whole Foods one. I like it. I love it. And I think it has to happen.

1:10:17I'm going to tell Ted to do it. Okay. 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 855-51-PIMMIT. And don't forget, we're going on tour. We'll be coming to Toronto, Boston, New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. Because we hate Arizona. We hate Arizona. We don't. We love Arizona. We'll go excited to see the fans. We are going to be there for you. We're going to try to put on our best show. We're going to dress up. Scott's going to do a striptease. I have some surprises for Scott that he doesn't know about.

1:10:54Visit pivottour.com for tickets. Anyway, before we go, I just want to mention legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who died this week at age 91. I had the opportunity to speak to her back in 2020. Let's listen to a brief portion of that interview. I will never, ever believe that the way for change is confrontation and aggression because people change when you reach the heart. And so, you know, when people ask me, what do you do when you meet somebody who's behaving in a way that you really dislike or something? Try and find a connection. Maybe they have a dog or a cat or a horse or a child or something, just for one minute, if you have a short time to talk to them.

1:11:41And then stories. Tell stories. Oh, what an amazing woman. What an amazing life. What an amazing life. Be Jane Goodall, everybody. She just was, I love that interview. It was fantastic. Anyway, Scott, by the way, you've been fantastic today. I don't know what's in your Wheaties, but very fine thoughts. Thanks for saying that, Karen. That's generous of you. Lots of stuff. You're not Jane Goodall, but you're on your way. And again, send me Scott AI because I'm going to have some times with him. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

1:12:15We'll be back next week. One special thing, Clara Jo Swisher Cats, happy sixth birthday this weekend. We're very excited to have a fantastic mermaid party. Nice. And now, read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neyman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kate Gallagher. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Severo, Dan Shalon and Annika Robbins. Nishat Kuroz, Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.

1:12:47You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.