Tim Wu

semiconductors and also, frankly, U.S.

computing without AT&T.

So I think we have done much better with divided technological leadership.

I frankly think that, you know, LLMs might never have gotten started without open AI being an alternative force because they're obviously threatening to Google's business model.

Although don't, in a way, you have to give Google some credit on LLM specifically.

You were talking about transistors a minute ago, but Google does the fundamental research in transformers and releases it publicly and creates an NGC industry.

It's just striking how good of an actor they were for a period on AI specifically, right?

Like treating it like they had a Bell Labs industry.

I agree with that.

It actually is a lot like Bell Labs in the sense that Bell Labs kept inventing stuff.

I mean, Bell Labs collected a lot of amazing people and then never let things come to market.

The internet being probably the best example of it.

You know, it comes down to what you think of is the track record, I guess, of monopolized innovation.

And it has some hits, but I'm saying a much more mixed model, I think historically is a lot stronger.

If you look at the entire track record of U.S.

innovation, I think monopoly innovation, you know, leads you towards AT&T, Boeing, General Motors kind of model, as opposed to what the best of Silicon Valley has been.

Corey, we've been talking here about these markets as really having two players in them, which is, well, maybe three.

We've been talking about users, sellers, and platforms.

But something the yearbook focuses quite a bit on is a fourth, which we need to talk about too, which is labor.

There are huge numbers of people working for these companies, huge number of people delivering Amazon packages and Walmart packages.