Can AI Help You Start a Company? + What Social Media Regulation Really Means

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2:06Scott Galloway:Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehourswithpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehourswithpropgmedia.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode. Question number one. Our first question comes from AsleepPercentage100 on Reddit. They say, Hi, Scott. I'm 25 years old, two years out of UCLA with a degree in sociology.

2:36Scott Galloway:Go Bruins. What are your thoughts on using AI for brainstorming, not just theoretical ideas and debates, but for business plans? I recently had a product idea that I ran through Claude. Do you envision a future where these tools really help form new companies and create new jobs, products, and markets? Is it really the mentor in your pocket, or at this stage just a yes man for anything and everything? Love the podcast, any of your books. Thanks. Okay, so we're obviously already seeing people use AI for way more than brainstorming. There was a recent New York Times article about a founder who used tools, including ChatGPT to build a company projected to do almost two billion in sales with just two employees.

3:14Scott Galloway:He used AI to write code, generate marketing, and even run customer service. However, there's a flip side, and that is his chatbot began hallucinating products and his ads were misleading, and the company is now facing regulatory scrutiny. So if you think about what AI actually does very crudely and probably incorrectly, if you're trying to guess or it says, all right, I'm gonna look at every pattern of words and then I'm gonna look at the seventh word. Such if I type in the midnight sky is, it'll figure out blue or what have you. So it's sort of a predictive model that helps answer questions and looks at every piece of data or word pattern on the internet and comes back with patterns that might answer your query.

3:55Scott Galloway:What I would, or the problem is, I would describe AI as all chip, no salsa. And that is real insight. Like what is it you're gonna do differently with your business? What is it that's unique about your business? Most new businesses make no sense at the outset, otherwise they would already exist. So you have to be, there's a touch of crazy. And essentially AI is regressing to the mean because it looks at everything. It gives you an answer that is scanned everything, but is perfectly average, if you will. I think you use AI when trying to estimate the, say, total adjustable market of a business idea, trying to come up with maybe a corporate structure, how many people you need or how much money you would need to raise or help you put together a business model.

4:40Scott Galloway:But I think the core idea itself, in terms of trying to find something truly differentiated and something that other people haven't bought into, in other words, creativity, I think that's kind of on you, boss. And fortunately for us, at least so far, the wet matter in between your brain still bests software around creativity and finding something truly differentiated. And that is, I think if you were to start a business plan just using AI, including the idea, it would come up with something very anodyne that's already been done where the margins have already been starched out. In other words, it would come up with a ton of businesses that already exist.

5:13Scott Galloway:Having said that, I think it's like having the world's smartest intern who's read everything before you and can help you pull together your business plan and provide support. In sum, it's the chip, not the salsa. You're the salsa. And also, I don't like, I find whenever I ask, Chachi, Peter, Claude, and I do ask for advice, it doesn't do a great job. It gives me some sort of whitewashed anodyne ant who is ridiculously safe and risk aversive, giving you just some sort of, I don't know, safe PG-13 material back. However, when I say to it, I'm looking for a discussion around where decency originated and why, you know, who are the philosophers around decency or what is the, how did modern architecture, what were the biggest influences in modern architecture?

6:08Scott Galloway:It can absolutely come back with some fascinating insights and do research that would take me a long time. But if I want to design a new building, I think there's a certain amount of creativity and things that ChatGBT would either disagree with or say don't make any sense or are risky. Because that's the whole point. The whole point of starting a business is to take risks and do things that no microchip or anodyne computer could come up with. Thanks for the question. Question number two. Hey, Scott. This is David from St. Louis. I'd recently watched your episode of Markets with Ed, where you guys discussed the landmark cases involving social media.

6:47In the episode, you both had talked about this could lead to further regulation of social media. I'm wondering if the downstream effect of regulating social media will cause certain individuals to go to AI for companionship. And so my question is, what do you think the downstream effects are going to be for further regulation of social media, as well as should we include AI in that so that we can mitigate isolating people further?

7:18Scott Galloway:Thanks for the thoughtful question. So I think it's important to discern between civil liability cases and regulation, and that is key to regulating, if you will, dig tech are laws. laws and that them, the reason why these two cases, one in LA, one in New Mexico, were so such watersheds is it opens up a sense of precedent for other cases of which there's something like 3000 on the docket and could finally start to add up to enough economic damage that there would be incentives to be more careful around the content or even serving underage consumers. So it's a key part of regulation, but it's actually not regulation itself.

8:02Scott Galloway:regulation is saying you are not allowed to share personal information with government agencies. It's in any way connected to surveillance. So regulation creates the laws that they can that they can be accused or found guilty of civil litigation and damages or criminal prosecution. So it creates new laws and guidelines. But at the same time, the actual liability laws on existing liability that they knew that they were harming these teens. That's an enforcement vehicle, but they're somewhat separate, if you will. That was a bit of a word salad. Between 2022 and mid-2025, the number of AI companion apps surged by 700 % or eightfold.

8:43Scott Galloway:I think AI, character AI, is kind of the next big threat, if you will. And unfortunately, because the parents or people my age and younger don't spend a lot of time on character AI, it seems to be something that young people are using more, I don't think, like, similar to TikTok, a lot of parents, especially our elected individuals whose average age is dead, don't really understand the nuance of these technologies and what a threat they present or even how you would regulate them. That's evidenced by Senator Hatch asking Mark Zuckerberg how they made money, and he responded glibly, we sell advertising, Senator.

9:20Scott Galloway:So I believe that first off, age gating, antitrust, and then more of these cases are going to do what it took 30 years of tobacco to do, 20 years in opiates. And it looks like it's going to take about 20 years in social AI or in social media and AI. Unfortunately, my kids were in the kill zone. And that is, they grew up with this bullshit and their brains were being wired. My son today, my son is, I can tell he's upset about something. And like a lot of kids, he doesn't want to talk to me about it. And I'm pretty sure something happened to him online. I don't know what, but I would bet anything that something happened that's bummed him out today online.

9:55And there's some really scary statistics about the use of character AI.

10:03Scott Galloway:There's some data from the American Institute of Boys and Men. Roughly three in four U.S. teens have used an AI companion. Around half are now regular users. One in five say they spend as much or more time with AI companions as with human friends. One in five of the top AI apps are productivity tools. Oh, excuse me, one in five of top AI apps aren't productivity tools, but companions. Supposedly the number one use of AI in corporations is not spreadsheets or research. It's therapy. It's people looking for a friend. And essentially when you have a friend, a good friend is someone you can ask embarrassing questions to.

10:34Scott Galloway:I have a friend going through a breakup and he's thinking about how to do it. And it's like at our age, you'd think we'd have this figured out. And he doesn't. And we're close enough where he can kind of ask me embarrassing questions and we can talk about fairly intimate details. But there's just certain questions you'd rather ask, you know, you'd rather ask AI. Like, oh, you know, it hurts when I pee. Is that my prostate? Or is that aging? you know, there's just certain things you'd rather not ring up your mom or your close friend or you talk to your boss about. Unfortunately, people have lost so many skills and so many opportunities to bump off of people that the bar around where they would go to AI before a friend gets lower and lower and lower.

11:20Scott Galloway:And so people are kind of outsourcing advice and relationships, which I think is really unhealthy and also decreases the likelihood you're going to try and express vulnerability to people, which is a key part of establishing friendships and also see above AI hallucinates. These character AI, so I think the average query on AI is 15 minutes, but the average session on character AI is 75 minutes. And I think the most dangerous thing in society right now, it's probably income inequality, but close second would be that big tech is trying to convince you to outsource your relationships to a screen and an algorithm.

11:59Scott Galloway:And I think that's just a fucking disaster. I think it's people become more reliant on, on chatting with a computer that always tells you you're right. You know, I just asked a query of, of AI and it's like, great question. I'm like, was it really, was it really a great question? And so I don't, it creates as less, as little friction as possible. It tries to be nice. It's not messy. And I think relationships and part of learning with relationships is that they're messy. And that's why when relationships work, friendships, mentorships, romantic relationships, that's what real true victory feels like because they're not easy.

12:32Scott Galloway:They're hard. I generally found, I heard this quote and I liked it, that sometimes the hard thing and the really rewarding thing are the same thing. And AI, the bottom line is just too easy and too anodyne. And I think these character AI, I don't think anyone under the age of 18 should be involved or allowed to communicate with it in a synthetic relationship. I just think there's no advantage to that. As hard as it is, as difficult as it is, as lonely as you can be, you need to start or you need to have the motivation to interact and figure out a way to interact with people. And I worry that if you don't develop those skills in your teens and your 20s, you kind of never develop the skills to have them.

13:12Scott Galloway:I had what's called a portrait on Google where it was me or a meme of me or a avatar of me answering questions. And they uploaded all of my No Mercy posts, all of my books, such that people could ask simple questions. And the motivation was I get dozens of emails every day really thoughtful asking me for advice and I just don't have time to get to them. And when it came out within about 12 hours, I was very uncomfortable with it. And the idea that I was in any way going to participate in sequestering young men from seeking advice from the relationships, I just got very uncomfortable. And I called Google and I said, this was a mistake, can you take it down?

13:46Scott Galloway:And to their credit, they agreed. took it down right away. But this is, again, I think a real threat. I think it's regulation. The cases are different. That's financial penalties based on laws and regulation or laws and guidelines that need to be passed, of which there have been almost none. But I don't think I agree with you. I think they are productivity tools, not companions. And it's pretty smart, I think, or it's worthwhile to think this is what I'm going to use AI for. And this is what I'm going to not use AI for. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

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16:30Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from Rippling. The term all-in-one used to mean something, but these days you're probably using 10 different so-called all-in-one apps for your business. Imagine how much simpler it could be to downsize to just one platform without losing everything you need to run your business smoothly. Rippling is all you need to do just that. It's the unified platform for global HR, payroll, IT, and finance. With Rippling, workflows that normally bounce between a handful of tools and departments all just happen in one place automatically. Here's an example. You have an employee getting promoted.

17:03Scott Galloway:Rippling can update their payroll taxes, manage any new app permissions, ship them any new devices, issue a new corporate card, and assign trainings. All in one place. No jumping between apps. With Rippling, you can run your entire HR, IT, and finance operations as one. Or pick and choose the products that best fill the gaps in your software stack. So, if you or your company want to run the backbone of your business on one unified platform with people at the center, head to Rippling.com slash PropG and sign up today. That's R-I-P-P-L-I-N-G dot com slash Prof G to sign up.

17:42Scott Galloway:Welcome back. Question number three. Hi, Prof G. This is Miguel from Frankfurt, Germany. I'm originally from Colombia and I have been working here as an automation engineer for the past three years. My Germany is actually pretty good, but I still struggle with the corporate culture. The hardest part is speaking up in meetings. I feel intimidated about making mistakes and being perceived as incompetent simply because German is not my first language. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to really thrive when you are building a career in a foreign country. And also, based on your experience, I would like to know what are the common traits of the most successful immigrants and non-natives speakers you know.

18:18Thanks.

18:19Scott Galloway:Hi, Miguel from Frankfurt. So first off, I think a lot of times it's difficult when you're in a meeting or in a social setting not to take yourself out of your body and watch yourself speak and be thinking about shaping, optimizing for prestige or image instead of optimizing for contribution. What do I mean by that? I think as a younger man, most of the time I spoke, especially when I was on boards, I was speaking to sound smart, not speaking to add value. And I think there's a couple tricks. The first is, and I don't know if you are, but you shouldn't be self-conscious about your language skills.

18:53Scott Galloway:If your German is half as good as your English, you speak much better German than probably the majority of the Germans speak Spanish. I know in English, you speak perfect English. So I don't, I bet some of it is just imposter syndrome or feeling a little bit maybe more self-conscious than you should. But in terms of showing up to meetings, Jim Barksdale, who's the CEO of Netscape and before that AT &T, said something that always struck me in meetings. He said that if we have data, let's look at the data. Otherwise, if we're going with opinions, let's go with mine. And that is I always find in meetings where people start just expectorating or vomiting their opinions.

19:31Scott Galloway:OK, that's fine. And a viewpoint is interesting. But try and keep it short. Less is more. And two, more than anything, try and be the guy who shows up to meetings with data. And that is look at the topic of the meeting and then see what data you can find that's relevant to the discussion. Because I think that's sort of the mic drop because oftentimes opinions become identity in a politicized world. Everybody, then the ego gets involved and it becomes about being right as opposed to getting to the right solution for the organization. So in a very unemotional way, just be the guy in the room that's sort of armed with data or interesting case studies or anecdotes, because I think that takes away the need or away the fear of, do I sound dumb or smart?

20:16Scott Galloway:No, just you're talking about data, maybe extrapolate a few conclusions from that. Also, just in terms of personal interactions, try not to interrupt others, try to be respectful, acknowledge points, don't confront people. If you disagree, have you thought about this or is it possible that? I think you want to be seen as a colleague that's supportive of people. I wouldn't be afraid to compliment and say, that's an interesting point or nod your head. I think you want to be seen as someone who's supportive and additive to the meeting. And again, I think at least my secret weapon is trying to be to show up with data.

20:51Scott Galloway:I find that if I'm going on a show where I know that people have a different viewpoint than me, I just try to cite data instead of getting into an argument because if it's about opinions, it's like, well, you know, everyone's already decided who's right or who's wrong based on their preconceived notions. And in terms of your language skills, you have to decide how are your language skills and just, you know, Duolingo is supposedly a big breakthrough. I have someone in my life who was a Polish speaker, then a German speaker, then an English speaker and said that the way that she learned the language by watching a ton of native TV, which is kind of interesting, but only you can assess, you know, where your language skills are and what you need to do to try and improve them.

21:30Scott Galloway:I do think that's key. What else? Find your people in the other country. Find an expat community. Find friends. Try and be as social as possible. Try and go out as much as possible. Also, keep in mind that you bring something different to the table. And I don't, you know, you're interesting. And Germany's actually been more pro-immigration than the U.S., for better or for worse. So I wouldn't be too self-conscious, if you will. And also, you're obviously a thoughtful guy who's successful. You've got a very cool accent. So I would, I don't know. I think some of this, my impression is some of these issues are issues you've invented for yourself.

22:07Scott Galloway:And that is you're more self-conscious than you should be. I think you just, I think people are so wrapped up in their own shit. They're not thinking about your comments. But again, just try to show up with fact-based data sets. Anyways, thanks for the question and best of luck in your new home and venture. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at PropGmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at PropGmedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

22:41Scott Galloway:This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laura Jannere. Kami Rika is our social producer. Brad Williams is our editor. And Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG pod from PropG Media.

22:57Thank you.