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00:00And President Trump's saying he'd consider having the government take stakes in leading AI companies.
00:04Here's what he told Bloomberg Television's chief political correspondent, Anne-Marie Hordern, on Air Force One yesterday.
00:09Have the AI companies touched the taking of these equity stakes? Have you spoken to Sam Holtman or...
00:16You know, there's a concept out there. There's so much money and it's so big that there are concepts where
00:22pieces could be given to the American public,
00:25where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies.
00:30And I will tell you, yeah, I have spoken to all of them.
00:34There's something very interesting about it where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public.
00:41And we'll look into that. We are looking.
00:43I actually have a meeting scheduled in the very short, very near future with, did you know that, with all
00:51of the companies.
00:52And we're talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI.
01:00And by doing that, they're going to like it better.
01:03Because we're leading China. We're leading everybody in the world with AI.
01:07And we want to keep it that way. It's probably the biggest industry maybe that we've ever seen.
01:12Which companies are the meeting?
01:13All of them. All the big ones, yeah. All the big ones.
01:17They're all coming to the White House probably next week.
01:21The president talking to Anne-Marie there at 35,000 feet, talking about these businesses and government essentially being partners
01:27there.
01:28The president teasing ahead to a big meeting next week with all of the big AI companies.
01:31If you couldn't hear that over the sound of the plane, these comments coming as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI prepping
01:36for their major IPOs.
01:38That's right. And Anne-Marie joins us now.
01:40She is in Bedminster, where the president is waking up this morning.
01:43Anne-Marie, thank you for coming on.
01:44We do want to talk about that. I mean, the president, good question.
01:47The president seemed to get pretty animated talking about this plan.
01:50It's something that Sam Altman kind of came to him with, this idea last year.
01:54I'm wondering what it would look like.
01:55And AI has a bit of a PR problem.
01:58Do you think this would help?
01:59This potentially could help because I think a lot of American people see the amount of money these companies are
02:04spending.
02:05They're putting data centers across the country.
02:07They're having these incredible, explosive IPOs.
02:11And Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, caucuses with the Democrats and independent but self-described socialist Democrat, put out an
02:20opinion piece recently.
02:21And he's been talking about this for years and saying that AI is built on all of our collective knowledge,
02:27our culture, journalists, books, etc.
02:30And the American people should have a stake in that.
02:32So this is something that Washington writ large has been talking about, especially the populist right and the populist left.
02:40And the president has also expressed interest in prior in taking stakes in companies.
02:45This isn't new for this president.
02:47We've seen this with MP materials, lithium materials, Intel, of course, with that 10 percent stake.
02:54There was a golden share as well with U.S. steel.
02:57So this has been kind of the direction of travel.
03:01Trump has been willing to take the party.
03:04And so he's willing to have this discussion with all of these companies.
03:08It's still early innings, though, and actually what this would look like.
03:12Would this look like a dividend to American people?
03:15Would this be some sort of sovereign wealth fund?
03:18Those details still very much in discussion.
03:22Emory, let me ask you just about the role that David Sachs is playing in this administration today.
03:26He was the president's advisor on AI issues during the first part of this, his second term.
03:31I gather he's no longer in any kind of official capacity but still speaking with the president.
03:35And I'll just read a bit from a tweet that he sent on an AI meeting here.
03:38Nationalization of AI will accelerate the corporate government fusion we've already been sliding toward.
03:43Conservatives rightly fear a central bank digital currency.
03:45They ought to be even more concerned about central government AI, a system with even more totalistic power over information,
03:52decision-making, and human behavior.
03:53Put that tweet in context.
03:56We had this postponed executive order on AI regulation.
04:00What ultimately made it to the president's desk is kind of a voluntary system through which these companies could give
04:06over their most sophisticated models to the government, I guess, 30 days in advance.
04:10And, again, that would be a voluntary thing.
04:12It wouldn't be compulsory.
04:14How is this administration looking at AI regulation more broadly as we talk about the prospects of these public-private
04:19partnerships and the prospects of further regulation?
04:22Well, I think when it comes to regulation as well, this is just baby steps.
04:26This is all voluntary.
04:28And I think potentially if you see more political pushback, I mean, did you see all the commencement speeches with
04:34the students actually doing AI?
04:35Potentially, we're going to get more of this type of direction of travel, whether it's regulation or whether it's the
04:43government wanting to take these stakes in companies.
04:47In that tweet, David Sachs also went on to say, America will win the AI race with China, but we'll
04:53end up with a CCP-style social credit system in the United States.
04:58Basically, this is what China, which is supposed to be our most important adversary, this is what they like to
05:06do with their technology companies.
05:09And he does not think that is a winning strategy and doesn't think it's the basis for capitalism and to
05:15produce the best AI models, which is why everyone is watching this so closely, because it's all happening at the
05:23same time.
05:24The pushback is happening at the same time as all these companies are going public.
05:29And at the same time, the government has to weigh a plan.
05:31Would they actually want to do something when it comes to a number of these companies?
05:35And yesterday, while we were on Air Force One, we got the news when we landed.
05:39The president actually signed an executive order about having to make sure you have a diversity of AI models.
05:45And, you know, I think this really steps from the whole fight the DOD is having with Anthropic.
05:51And they are saying that they are going to move away from Anthropic because of, obviously, the spat they're having
05:57with Claudio Amande.
05:59And it's been interesting to watch a Republican president be so involved with private sector entities.
06:05You know, we've also seen the administration make some deals with some other companies, including Intel.
06:09It doesn't seem like something the president is least bit afraid to do.
06:12But I'm wondering how that's going down with other more traditional Republicans, the ones that are left anyway, if this
06:18makes any of his otherwise allies a bit nervous.
06:22Well, this week on Surveillance, me, John, and Lisa spoke to the former vice president, Mike Pence.
06:26I had a longer conversation with him as well, the Economic Club of New York.
06:29And this is something he pushes back on.
06:32He does not think that this is the conservative way.
06:35The conservatives believe in free market enterprise, not nationalization of companies.
06:40And I asked him, could you ever imagine that we would be in a position where you see a number
06:46of direct stakes into the private industry from a Republican president?
06:51And he hesitated for a second.
06:53He was like, no.
06:54But that is why people think that potentially this is going to happen, especially with these AI companies.
06:59And I did have a chance to also ask the president, this idea, these concepts you're talking about is something
07:06we hear on the very far left when it comes to Bernie Sanders.
07:09And the president said that, you know, when it comes to some economic policy issues, that him and Bernie Sanders
07:16are somewhat aligned and pointed to the fact that there was a number of Democrats that voted for Bernie Sanders
07:22in the primary, of course, for the 2016 election and ended up voting for him.
07:28And I think the most obvious one, obviously, being Joe Rogan.
07:33Anne-Marie, let me ask you, you took the long way to Bedminster yesterday.
07:35You went through Wisconsin to get there.
07:37And while the president was doing an event, he also sat down with Kristen Welker of NBC News for an
07:40interview that's going to air on Meet the Press tomorrow.
07:43And something that came up, of course, is what happens next in the Middle East.
07:46Let's play a bit of sound here from that interview that Kristen did with the president, in which he talks
07:50about how he sees the path forward here.
07:53You have been saying for months, Mr. President, that Iran is begging to make a deal.
07:58They are so desperate to make a deal.
08:00Why haven't they made a deal with you yet?
08:02Because they, it's a very hard thing for them.
08:05They've had great independence.
08:07They've dealt with very weak and ineffective leadership on behalf of the United States and other countries, frankly, that were,
08:15that allowed them to get away with murder.
08:18And I don't, I think they can't believe they're in the situation where they've been virtually decapitated.
08:23But if they're so desperate, Mr. President, why haven't they said yes to the terms you're proposing?
08:29They're proud.
08:30There are things they never thought they'd be doing that they're going to have to do.
08:34They've got no choice.
08:36And it takes a little while.
08:38Emory, let me ask you what he means by it takes a little while.
08:40I think there's growing impatience among a lot of Republicans for what's playing out here, the lack of progress, the
08:45kind of Groundhog Day nature of the way that this has played out.
08:48And we've really lived that in real time on the weekends where you'll hear the president kind of jawboning the
08:52fact that there's a deal almost ready to go.
08:55Towards the end of the week, almost every week.
08:57And by Sunday, we're kind of back to where we were.
08:59So talk a bit about that, sort of the way that the president sees this proceeding versus the realities, certainly
09:04on the ground in the Middle East, where it seems like Iranians are quite content to wait this one out
09:08as the pressures become more and more acute on the oil market and the global economy generally.
09:13Well, it's really a test of who has the most patience and who can outlast this when it comes to
09:19the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
09:22And I think the president going to Wisconsin highlights the pressure he's under domestically, especially that third congressional district.
09:31These are farmers.
09:32They've seen fertilizer prices up some 40 percent since the start of the war.
09:35Obviously, diesel prices, gasoline prices also higher because what is going on with the conflict of the Middle East.
09:42But at the same time, the president is also conflicted to give concessions to this regime because he began this
09:49attack, as well as with Operation Epic Fury last summer, because he has three clear red lines.
09:57And he has had them for years when it comes to Iran.
09:59No nuclear weapons, no aiding of proxies, and needs to stop their ballistic missile program.
10:07The problem is this is existential for this regime.
10:11So and they don't have the same sort of domestic pressures in a midterm election year the way this president
10:16does.
10:18So so that is really why this is so difficult in terms of getting a deal.
10:22The president did say, though, to this group of farmers, it's all going to come down.
10:27He was almost saying, please stick with me.
10:29We had to do this excursion, as he calls it.
10:32But he said it's either going to end with a piece of paper or the hard way.
10:36So he's continuing those threats to Iran.
10:39And it does seem to be that his patients may be wearing thin.
10:43But but clearly the president does want to deal.
10:45And when you speak to me, spoke to the Chevron CEO recently and you speak to energy analysts, they're saying
10:50we're basically living off buffers around the world.
10:53We are living off the bottom of tanks, living off the bottom of inventory levels.
10:58And potentially that's why this summer, which was peak driving season in the United States, we can see a real
11:03uptick in prices.
11:04Well, I want to go back to like a lack of Chinese demand in a way.
11:08I think that they didn't. Yes, really interesting chart.
11:11No, if you watch that chart and just drop.
11:12Yes. But I do want to go back to what you were just talking about.
11:15And that's the affordability crisis.
11:16And who has more time here, especially as you said, this president and his party have a midterm coming up.
11:23It seems faster and faster. And and all those issues could come to a head.
11:26We know that chief of staff, Susie Wiles and others within the administration, were very against this conflict because they
11:31wanted the president doing exactly what he was doing this week.
11:33Going out, talking to voters, talking about these kitchen table issues.
11:37You talked about a kitchen table issue that we've been talking about kind of nonstop here this morning.
11:42We're going to play some sound.
11:43The genius price for the game three you're going to is $8,000.
11:48Every day, Americans can't afford this.
11:50Well, I know, but they can watch it on television.
11:53It's sort of semi-free to watch it on television.
11:56But that's the way life goes.
11:58You know, you have some and now the game wasn't a big if the team wasn't a big success, you
12:04could go very easily.
12:05So, you know, you can you could do that, too.
12:08But that's the way life is.
12:10I mean, if you can't afford tickets, watch them on TV.
12:13This comes on the heels of him saying, you know, he doesn't really care about gas prices or financial situations
12:17of particular Americans.
12:19Do you think that's going to hurt him, even with some of his big supporters out in places like you
12:24were just visiting?
12:26I think so, because I think actually the Democrats, and you could see that on Twitter, have taken now this
12:32message and using it on the follow up of the president saying he doesn't think of Americans' financial situations, which
12:38I think we need to give more context to.
12:40The president was saying he doesn't think of Americans' financial situations when he's dealing with trying to get a deal
12:45with the Iranian regime about nuclear weapons.
12:48But in an election year, these are not the kind of soundbites you want swirling around being paid.
12:53No, semi-free.
12:54That's life.
12:55That's life.
12:56Tough tarts.
12:56And you know what?
12:57It's not just the Knicks game.
12:58And to the president's point, you know, the Knicks have been, have never been here.
13:03It's been decades.
13:04The 90s have been here.
13:06Obviously, you guys feel it in New York as well.
13:09Me and David were talking last night after that excruciating, painful final two minutes of that game.
13:16So, sure, maybe even the Knicks is idiosyncratic, but it's not just the Knicks is the point.
13:23World Cup tickets on average are also $1,000.
13:28What is the median take home for an everyday American worker?
13:33It is about $1,100 a week.
13:36Yeah.
13:37How do you take a family, if you have children, how do you take your family to day out at
13:41a sporting event?
13:42And that was really the crux of what I was trying to get to the president.
13:45For this is the Knicks, whether it's the World Cup, it is just highlighting the K-shaped economy.
13:52At the same time, every day on Bloomberg, we're talking about, you know, the billions of dollars company are spending
13:59and people are about to make when it comes to SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, IPOs.
14:05Thanks.
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