Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is not the future we were promised. Like, how about that for a tagline for the show? From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life.
And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. And we are live from South by Southwest in Texas. So before we get to it, again, we're excited to be here, this live episode.
We want to thank our presenting sponsor, Odoo. They've sponsored our pivot tour last year, so they're really into us. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to. First of all, are you having a good time here? Are you enjoying it? I'm having a great time. I went out last night.
I'm so sick of rolling up to the... The parties now kind of suck because you meet some guy and you're like, I'm going to grab a drink. And he's like, I'm eight years sober and now I'm a Peloton influencer. Fuck you. I want to find the guy who's in a custody battle so he can never see his kids. That dude I'll roll with. No, I'm having a nice time. You're having a nice time?
Everyone is working on their sleep. Well, good for you. So you're leaving. You're going to the Vanity Fair Oscar party. That should be fun. Hello. Yeah, that should be good. I'm not going with you. I'm staying here. I was the plus one, and the plus one RSVP'd yes, and Kara said no. No. So you'll have a good time. Try not to bother the celebrities. That's my only advice. Just be cool, okay?
Can you do that? Thank you for that. That's hugely helpful. Thank you. Just be cool. Is there anyone you want to meet? Is there like Sean? He probably won't be there. He's cool. I want to meet, it's simple. I want to meet the, I was going to say the gay hockey guys. What's it called? He did rivalry. He did rivalry. I'm sorry. I'm just announcing now.
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Chapter 2: How are billionaires influencing elections in 2024?
It feels like let's get them. Like they're sort of, they're creating an anger toward them that I think is unnecessary and unproductive. And at the same time, you sort of want to take all their, you know, leave them naked without clothes. Well, I don't want to see them naked. That's not true. But it's a real conundrum.
And I do think one of the things that has to happen is there's got to be some neutering of Citizens United in that regard, because I think it's very clear what the trends have been. On a middle meta level, the biggest tax cut would be having the stones to go after entitlements, because we spent $7 trillion and $5 trillion in receipts.
And every time we do that, in order to keep the government pumped up and going and the asset prices, the assets which you and I own, keep them elevated, we issue more debt. So the biggest tax cut in history would be fiscal responsibility. And it's a tax cut on your kids in the future who are going to have absolutely no money in the government to invest in education or technology.
And if you really want to get serious about, quote unquote, taxing future generations, some Democrat is going to have to be the adult in the room and say that if you make over a million dollars a year as a senior citizen, you're not getting Social Security. And we need to move back the age, and we need to means test it, and we need to distribute GLP-1 and bring down health care costs.
But if we're serious about lowering taxes on future generations, We can have populist ideas, but what we need to do, quite frankly, is just have more fiscal responsibility because the deficit every day is a $2 trillion tax on future generations because someone's going to have to pay this shit back.
Well, that may be true, but it's the Trump administration who's brought up the deficit more than any other of any of the- That's been a bipartisan thing. Certainly, but Trump is- $7 trillion George Washington to George Bush, $30 trillion since George Bush, but Trump's been the worst. Been the worst.
So we're going to move on to March Madness kicks off this week, and sportsbooks are expecting to take in $4.5 billion in bets on the NCAA college basketball tournaments. Now only 11% of that will come from the prediction markets this year, which is a large amount, but that's a perfect time for Polymarket to announce
that it's bringing in Palantir and TWG AI to monitor sports contracts and flag anything suspicious. Reminder, Polymarket is backed by Peter Thiel and 1789 Capital, which is Donald Trump Jr. 's fund. In AI system monitoring predictions, It seems like that's the fox guarding the hen house.
But is it meant to, is it meant to, so in the Mamdani race, what was strange, when you see billboards everywhere saying that Mamdani chance of winning 91%, if you're voting for Cuomo or some other candidate, I supported a guy named Whitney Tilson. I'm not a New York resident, but my friend Whitney ran anyways. you don't show up or you think, oh, great, you get excited.
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Chapter 3: What impact could a wealth tax have on billionaires?
And oftentimes people feel like it's just too late. And in states where they legalize gambling, bankruptcies skyrocket 35% in that same year. I was just in Vegas. Vegas is dying. Because why be in Vegas when Vegas is in your pocket? And I'm curious what you think, because you have sons, I have sons. They don't gamble. Yeah, but you're a better parent than me. Yes. Yeah.
But the question is, speaking theoretically as a parent, I don't think they gamble. And for young men, do we infantilize them? Do we have more regulation? Is it a life lesson? No, I think young men do have a higher risk profile. I mean, just between my daughter, he's more comparable, my daughter who's six and my son who's four, he's so risked. I mean, penis out every moment of the day.
And you're always like... Wow, that's going to hurt when you get to the bottom of those stairs on your head. And my daughter is very careful. I hate to say that because I don't like to play into gender tropes, but it's true. It just is. Trope away. We're different and that's okay. She happens to be. I was very risk-taking when I was a kid. I'm with you, aren't I? Hello. Hello.
And someone's like, what's your biggest risk? I go that any moment it will be over with Scott, which it never happens. It's like a really exciting series that ends on a cliffhanger every episode. But one of the things that I think about with gambling is my sons don't gamble, which is interesting. And I kind of like gambling better than they do, which is interesting.
I think the fact that, you're right, AI should be used in positive ways and we should mitigate the negative ways. But again, a lot of this is controlled by people with self-interest that you never understand. And so what are they, and earlier today I did an interview with the cast of The Audacity, which talks about these issues. It's a new Silicon Valley show.
And the idea of the manipulation of our information for in all manner of way, I think we do not understand where it's about to go. And so who owns it and who's running it? Same thing with media. Where are the interests is going to be a huge problem going forward. Your point is the right one in what you just said, and that is AI should be applied to monitoring and compliance.
It should just be an AI that reports to a federal agency that's trying to prevent a tragedy that comments, not to Peter Thiel. I mean, this is a difficult one, because I think a lot about young men. And between 24 by 7 porn and gambling and an economy that's basically linked to DOPA hits that's trying to evolve a new species of asocial, asexual males, I believe that our economy now
is essentially tied to evolving this new species of male that is basically a shitty citizen who starts blaming immigrants, prone to conspiracy theory, prone to misogyny, prone to obesity, depression, anxiety, never develops the skills outside of their house. Males aged 20 to 30 are now spending less time outdoors than prison inmates.
And unfortunately, they're up against this indomitable foe of an AI driven platforms that at the exact right moment will convince you, hey, don't go to class, bet on the Jets game or hey, you know, you can get rich and screenshots of people trading crypto. And why go through the effort?
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