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We’re moving off the (unresolved) AI bubble debate to a much more fundamental question about AI. That is whether decisions about an enormously costly technology, which threatens to put many people out of work, should be left to tech leaders or discussed more broadly. It turns out Republicans may have the best handle on this issue, most obviously Florida governor Ron DeSantis. He’s long been vocal about the threat AI poses to people’s jobs, among other things.
But he summed up all the issues most eloquently in this X post on Tuesday: “The rise of AI is the most significant economic and cultural shift occurring at the moment; denying the people the ability to channel these technologies in a productive way via self-government constitutes federal government overreach and lets technology companies run wild.” DeSantis was responding to a report in Punchbowl News that congressional Republicans were trying to find a way to ban state regulation of AI by attaching language with that in mind to a bill going through Congress. But his post took on extra resonance after The Information and other outlets reported on Wednesday that the White House was preparing an executive order to block state regulation of AI.
To tech companies, the need to avoid a patchwork of different state regulations is understandable. But there are questions about AI’s impact on society that the nation hasn’t yet fully confronted. The regulation question is bringing those issues to the surface. The Financial Times reported Thursday that “some Republicans in Congress have warned that Trump’s embrace of lighter-touch AI regulation could hurt them electorally…amid concerns about job losses, high energy prices or child safety due to AI.”
If we listen to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman or Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the benefits of AI outweigh any risks. But perhaps someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in seeing AI advance should call the shots on how it’s regulated.
Ellison, Warner and Trump
Takeover offers for Warner Bros. Discovery were reportedly due Thursday, with both Comcast and Netflix supposedly putting in offers for at least part of the company. But if this report in the Guardian is to be believed, the Ellison family’s Paramount Skydance has the inside track with regulators.
The Guardian report says Larry Ellison, whose son David runs Paramount Skydance, has discussed programming changes at WBD’s CNN with White House officials. It’s no secret the elder Ellison is close to President Trump, which would give him an edge over rival bidders anyway. CNN is a relatively small piece of WBD, but its political importance is enormous. Don’t be surprised if the Ellisons walk away with WBD.
In Other News
• Salesforce’s Slack has told customers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan that they must migrate their accounts to partner Alibaba Group before February if they want to continue using its instant-messaging service, according to a Slack customer in mainland China and an Alibaba Cloud employee.
• Walmart grew sales nearly 6% to $179.5 billion in the third quarter of its current fiscal year, helped by robust growth from the retail giant’s e-commerce and advertising businesses. Executives said Thursday that consumer demand remained mostly resilient and that the holiday shopping season was off to a good start, boosting the company’s outlook for the full year to 4.8% to 5.1% net sales growth.
• Waymo added New Orleans, Minneapolis and Tampa, Fla., to the list of cities where it plans to launch its autonomous ride-hailing service. That brings the total number of new cities where it has announced launch plans to more than 20, according to the company.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out our latest episode of TITV in which Akash speaks with the CEO of All Raise about the gender equity gap in venture capital.
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