Transcript
Yah come on, I'm excited today. Sort of live from your ESG bowl of sustainability lemons. Are you? no. I don't say the word sustainability a lot anymore. I don't I don't really like that word. I don't You know what you also don't say? Lemons. It's a Business Pants Friday show here at September eighteenth studios featuring analyst Hole Matt Miscardi. On today's weekly wrap up, AI kill switches. That's me, yeah. I I already all right. I already don't like this week. Workers return to office kill switches and SEC shareholder rights kill switches. Yeah yeah it's a kill switch week. Yeah kill it all yeah. Hm. Our show today is being sponsored by Freeflowanalytics.com. I like them. The only platform measuring board power connections performance for free. I like I like them. I like them. As usual, underselling really everything that's on that website, platform, whatever it is. It's nuts. I don't know. I don't but how do you capture everything that's on there just by saying like in a one line ad read? Like how do you do that? I mean at this point, i if you're even if you're just like a day trader, like you're a dopey retail investor, even then the site is useful. There's just so much. I mean, if you just wanna know like all the ri r the latest headlines on a ticker you're following, even for that, it's better than any other source out there. I mean, if you like just saw the announcement that that that there's a new Apple iPhone duo foldable thing, right? And you're like you're like, w what what is that? Right? Like what what's going on with this company? It's worth signing up and just looking for Apple and seeing like who the directors are like you won't even know the people who are like a A OK clearing Just say it. Sorry. Yeah. The dopey iPhone duo that nobody wants. It's it tells you all the things. Is Tim Cook is Tim Cook still on the Nike board? Why? yeah, I think I believe he I he didn't he singularly get like lauded for replacing their CEO not that long ago? Why is he on the Nike board? that good questions. yeah, I'm ready. Let's do this thing. Why? What's he doing over there? All right, you ready? Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. I like it. I like when you're singing along. Ready? It's every week. I I I secretly do that to to line up the tracks later. Anthropic open AI CEOs call for slowdown in AI development. Yeah. Yeah. I I w who they calling for it for Like isn't it them? Alright, let's let's unravel it. Let's unravel it. I'm gonna start at the top. This is what Dario Amode is suggesting. And this is what some of his buddies, some of his buddies are agreeing with, some of them are not. He wants each US AI company to grant ongoing access to embedded third party evaluators to check compliance with safety commitments, report incidents, and to ensure new AI models are not misaligned. you know what this sounds like the the good old days when Remember when Apple was being called out for essentially using not slave labor, but pretty close over in China. Remember Foxconn, people committing suicide? So they created third party evaluators, and then it turned out that Apple was funding a lot of those third party party evaluators. So we're back in the good old greenwashy days of third party evaluators. The second thing he wants, he wants all c companies in democratic countries And f Foxconn? Yeah, f that was a thing. Building frontier a frontier AI models to establish common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress. And finally, he wants AI companies to coordinate with autocracies. I mean, really he's talking about China, to control the race for AI. And he thinks a good first step would be prohibiting the production using AI for the pr the production of biological weapons. That's the first step. Now what what is was left out in this is how about just the no ownership at any AI company should have controlling power and and the board should be completely independent and have the right to to make you know to overrule CEOs. I mean that notice how that one's missing. Well, I I'm actually what I'm impressed by is that he they didn't announce that that what they they wanted was an oversight board. Ye yeah. I mean like we've been th this is a lot of calls from a guy who can just be like, pack it up. We shouldn't build this thing. Like it's a bad idea, pack it up. Like at Facebook. It's not gonna happen, is it? But it there's so much money in it that like y you have the money? You have the money. Yeah. let's get to it then. Let's I actually have all that. I have the money. But let's start with the pros. Here are the here are the people who agree. here are the headlines. Altman matches Anthropics Sam Altman, open AI, matches Anthropics AI Auditor Pledge. While Elon Musk offers three word response, Dario is right. So it looks like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Modio, they're on the same page here. Okay. Okay. Palantir's Alex Carp, surprisingly, is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liability. So he wants AI builders to face civil and criminal liability for not being responsible. Now that actually shocked me, that one, I gotta say. All right, good. Pro Microsoft AI CEO agrees AI is getting dangerous and needs to be controlled. So Satan Adela came up with a 37 page we'll come back to that. Another manifesto, a thirty seven page report basically saying that AI should only be used for the advancement of humanity. So I guess he agrees, right? Yes sir Yeah, I don't okay. Bernie a kill switch may me may need to be mandatory, anthropic co founder Jack Clark tells the BBC, so yeah. So what's a kill sw didn't we establish that these things don't like they go out on the internet, they're like grogue, they do what whatever they want. What is a kill switch? Like what is it what is it? How does it work? Is it like if we could have built that thing, wouldn't we already have built the thing? Yeah, just press the button now and go back. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give me the kill switch. Yeah, I don't know. Is it that easy? So k so hit it. Hit it. Yeah. I I don't I don't know what's happening. Okay. And then finally Bernie Sanders put up a ban artificial superintelligence act. He actually did this two weeks ago, so he was two weeks ahead of the times, th which would outlaw AI systems built to exceed human intelligence. And he is suggesting that engineers, researchers, executives who breach the ban could face up to twenty years in federal prison. So he's trying to he's trying to, you know, just like Alex Carp, he's he's th floating the idea of punishing people. So these are the people I guess who are Who are with Dario Ma Modi's call to slow down AI development. Solidarity. All right, let's get to the the people who are against the gang of three. okay, this is where it gets confusing. Here's where we're now like tiptoeing into hypocrite hypocrite world. So if you want to call out hypocrisy, go ahead. So e so Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Wang, and Elon Musk call Donald Trump to oppose AI regulation. So I W in solidarity, baby. Yeah. Wait, didn't Elon Musk say the the we're Yeah. We're all I mean we're we're already here. We're isn't this so confusing? I'm just I it's I what is going on? Mark Zuckerberg says AI does not need an industry wide slowdown because market forces and competition will push companies to make their models safe. Right. I mean, what that's gotta be the answer, right? That that's all it needed. That's only that's worked for everything else. Wow. He really is a college dropout, isn't he? 'Cause even his arguments to the public are dopey. Well it Well, I I mean, notice that the gang of three is the guy one guy who sells all the chips to all of them, right? And j and Jensen Wang. And then the two losers. They're j like Musk and Zuckerberg are literally losing the AI race to the everything they make sucks. They're all they're behind on every they're the ones who are like, no no no, we don't need regulation on this. Yeah, because you guys are losers. does he ever? Does he ever? Jensen, he's the greatest seller of our times. Louie. They're losing the everything race. They're basically the most hated people going. How about this weird argument? Mark Zuckerberg says AI labs can slow down on their own when safety demands it. And joining that, chorus, now this is where we get confusing hypocrisy again. Open AI's CFO, Sarah Fryer, says the company will pace AI development if safety requires it. But isn't her boss saying That's he just said it requires it right now. Just just now. And then gr and then Greg Brockman says open AI has already slowed cutting edge AI developments over safety concerns. So I guess he's he's like, Hey, look, we're on top of it. I think is Greg Brockman the anti Altman? Like and I don't mean that like Altman, they're both seem to be like Greg Brockman's the one who's like giving millions of dollars to save bald eagles and trees but hates people and he He loves money, Greg. Well, he's also a big Trump donor. But I just don't un I mean Altman's sh Altman's going to the d you know, the Chinese summit right now. He's there, like the d state dinner. I I mean, so like it's just a joke that y but that that notwithstanding, it seems like Sam Altman comes out and says, like, everything we're building is destroying humanity. I'm terrified of everything. Like we had a joke that it was like Sam Altman's afraid for the last six months. Huge super pack donor. Yes. Along with Elon Musk and Jensen Wang, yeah. And Mark Zuckerberg. He is. And Greg Brockman comes out and says the exact opposite of whatever Sam Altman just said, which is everything's great, we should go faster. Who cares? Don't look. I'm a millionaire. Like I Yeah. How about this one? n not millionaire, billionaire. how about this one? Jamie Diamond of all people weighing in on AI oversight. he says it should be light touch. It should be a light touch. What does that mean? It means don't regulate? Yeah. Yeah, it's it's like it's like finger painting. You don't wanna push in too hard, you you rip the paper. Alright, Trump. Trump downplays Trump downplays warnings of AI risks, citing rivalry with China. I love China getting involved in this. Trump says a strong, smart president is the only guardrail AI needs. At least he's being honest. I think he actually believes these things. Trump responds to rising AI safety concerns, insists tech will be will be more good than bad. Okay, well. Do we have to do the Trump movies? The I citing evidence, of co of course. An expert weighed in. He also said, whoever wins AI wins. Isn't that really what this is about, though? I mean, kind of. That that it didn't I thought what what coach was it with like it was Jim Jim something, the the NFL coach who said like you play to win the game. Like like isn't that the most banal I'm a coach in a f of a football team saying in a press conference you could say? Whoever wins will win. That's how we win. If you score more points than the other team, you win. As if that you could win again in this. Like Wins what? Yeah. Yes. Remember the client that that didn't choose us ultimately, the the almost client that told us that they pick winners. That's how they invest. They pick winners. Yeah, yeah. Well, one of the reasons why they didn't choose us is 'cause after saying they pick winners, our response was, How do you define a winner? And th and they were blah blah blah. I don't yeah. Well, I don't know. and then Trump called Jensen Wang mid interview. So Jensen Wang is really out front. Jensen Wang, who who, to your point, is making so much money off of this. So he's constantly telling people to relax. He's like, we're fine. So he So Trump called him mid interview to say the robots will not be taking over. That's what he said. So I think Trump thinks the AI is like. Yeah, well of course. No. Basically Terminator two, right? Which it might end up being, but that's what he he thinks AI is robots, I think. Yeah, it'll turn off all your power, stop your clean water, and like it'll do all sorts of other things, but th it won't be like a guy who knocks on your door with a machine gun from nineteen eighty four. So that's good. Okay, and now we get into the just tr truly strange. Open AI boss Sam Altman says the world is right to be afraid, but should trust AI firms. Well I mean that all that alone should I think when you make a statement like that it should activate the kill switch, right? 'Cause that is that not lunacy? This is I mean d the I d this is just about money. This is just money. It's not lunacy, it's money. You still have to keep money coming in because you're a quadrillionaire. That's lunacy. Okay, I got that. I got some of that coming up. And then finally, the the the last person who is against this regulation is Palantir co-founder Joe Lawnsdale, who I guess is going against Alex Carp here. He says the world is going to be alright, guys. This is a quote. The world is going to be alright, guys. Who are the guys we're talking to, by the way? Who which guys? In the locker room. He said leaders have big responsibilities and challenges ahead. I I don't know. Dudes. Dudes world's gonna be alright, dude. But it doesn't help to scare everyone. We are on top of it. okay. The guy that guy is the guy I trust. Like but do you see the do you see the pattern? It is co founder versus co founder inside every one of these firms. meanwhile. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yes. Which is perfect because it what we've been complaining about forever, and I'm waiting for the for the ESG world, the governance world, the investor world to finally catch up to our warnings is we have got to break down dual class shares, controlled companies. We have to end it. Because they're all infighting. And and making statements that are asinine and contradictory because they know that nobody can access them. Because to my point, and I and this is a a very fortunate segue, in my meanwhile category, here's the first headline: tech CEOs used to fear their boards, but no more. So that's the point, right? They they are an autocracy, so we're we're Yeah. That that is the point. That was always the point. We whine about China, but as you have pointed out forever, we have our own insidious autocracies here. Yeah, okay. I'll meanwhile, yeah. Let me just finish. Let me wrap this up because I know you're exhausted. Meanwhile, AI drives record ten under forty billionaires onto Forbes 400 list. Six anthropic co-founders joined Forbes at sixteen billion dollars each. OpenAI presidents Greg Brockman joined with twenty-six billion dollars. Sam Altman says this is an ill-advised time to IPO, probably because he knows he'll make more money if he hits the pause on this one. I don't want to I mean like I Anthropic chose NASDAQ for its IPO, giving the exchange a major AI win, and OpenAI considers new financing at a one point five trillion dollar valuation. So open AI is saying they're hitting pause on the IPO, but there's but they then went out and raised more money on a increased valuation. So it's all bullshit, right? I mean there's no slowdown going on. It's all nonsense. That b I I mean th this is this is like this is like the exponential version of the of the Facebook like argument which was w Zuckerberg went before Congress multiple times and said y like we need regulation and then the day after or in the same congressional hearing he would say if we regulate China we'll win. This is like They're spending, they're raising. The exponential version of that. This is like the the layer of that that's like we will destroy humanity unless you regulate us. Also, do not regulate us, trust us, we've got this, right? Like, and they're throwing China, and there's robots, and you're hearing about how much money they're making simultaneously, and they have no accountability because we've thrown accountability out the door. What what Bernie Sanders should be asking for is Yeah. I shouldn't be laughing, that's all I have. Are you s Is not actually that the public take an equity stake in these companies, which is fine, but it's never really gonna happen. Maybe you'll get a small stake, maybe not, who who knows? Like that is like nationalizing the companies. Despite the fact that we have a ten percent stake in Intel. What should happen is there should be elected representatives on the boards of these companies, and the boards should actually have the power to fire the CEOs. Period. There is no dual class shares. You want to get the kill switch is no dual class shares. That's the kill switch. hell yeah. Good thought. Good thought. Absolutely. Or to hit the kill switch. I'm waiting. I actually think you know, I I give ourselves some credit. We like we were the whiny losers who were way ahead, even I I shouldn't say way ahead. We were we were like two months ahead on w whining and being scared about COVID. I even remember I s I've shared this story on the podcast before, but remember being in a big group of my friends and I asked because we've been covering on the show for months, and this is like February. I was like, is anyone worried? 'Cause we're we're worried. And they're like, you're dumb. Were were Yeah. Yeah. And then AI, we I mean early on, especially w the whole crazy kerfuffle over trying to fire Sam Altman and having that fail, we got scared, like really scared then. So I I give us credit at least for yeah, being in the right our whininess being in the right place, the right time. I don't know. Immediately. Immediate Well, the c the COVID thing was fascinating because I actually remember like a month before COVID actually hit like the world, my wife was traveling to India and I was like, buy masks. And she was like, What are you talking about? She's a doctor. And I was like, No, no, no. Seriously, buy masks, wear them everywhere. Like the what we're reading, what we're seeing, the way the boards are reacting, the way the companies don't care. This thing's going everywhere. Well I honestly I'm gonna get yeah. I'm gonna get slightly nerdy here. One of the reasons why we chose to quit, you know, h pretty good paying jobs at MSCI, I mean better than th these jobs, was because we didn't have the ability to to track companies and executives daily. We we wanted cause you know, the the at places like MSCI, and I'm not faulting MSCI, but there's kind of like an annual overview of everything. So so Yeah, but this job, yeah, sure. W what gets lost is that the daily headlines, the daily news, the the daily filings, just just 'cause when you look at when you look at it from that perspective, then you can see trends more quickly. You can speak to these trends. You can get worried about things like COVID. And I and I think that the that the pla the new platform and these podcasts demonstrate that well because you can't just take this this macro overview of like what happened in the last year. That's co Comp corporations are moving way too fast for that now. That was cool twenty years ago. They move too fa well, people the pro the we focused on people. But the th the th the the on the AI side, right? That was the COVID side. On the AI side, the thing we've been whining about, like everybody's whining about the potential for these things become Terminators. They've been talking about that since like Hal, like in nineteen sixty eight, right? Like we knew that this was always coming. And if for whatever reason the tech bros seem to read science fiction like dystopic novels and think that's what they should build. Like that's the that's the goal. The actually the It's all that can handle. Yeah, it's all that can handle. The lesson from those is don't do that. But our focus has our whining has been about who is running these fucking companies. It is like we we've been talking about the fact that Sam Altman got fired because like he was supposed to get fired. The board did its job. The guy was a liar, and the board did its job. And everyone said that the board overstepped its bounds, and it's like, no. Yes. That's what they were supposed to do. And if you put man children in charge of every one of these companies, you end up with man child problems for the entire world. Which is wouldn't it be cool to have a robot walking around that's smart? No, it's not cool. It's horrible. It's a horrible future. Yeah. It's cool on it's cool on the Jetsons, but not in real life. And finally the r I wanna wrap up this this is the first of story of the week. AI staff genuinely frightened for humanity's future, exanthropic researcher tells the BBC. So, you know, I'm gonna end on this. How about you quit? How about the staffs of all these companies just quit on mass and then wouldn't that be a v a version of a kill switch? Or maybe these companies don't need them anymore. Maybe they can just use their own AI to replace I don't know. But my god, my god. How about i I mean, so few people are like we had that one guy, that one whistleblower last week, but I mean you know, there are other jobs out there, you know? Well, maybe there maybe there aren't, I don't know. I mean, well, there are and there aren't because there was just a story about how like the the tech people in San Francisco who all got laid off still don't have jobs. And it's just these people who have the jobs. Yeah. Well, become teachers. Yeah, become work for your local government. I don't know. Let's move on. Yeah, let's move on and I'll try to go more quickly now. The second one, Trump EPA repeals Biden error rules limiting GHG emissions from power plants. This is not a big surprise, but he repealed the Biden error rules. so this is emissions from fossil fuel based power plants. What's worse is that they also there's a proposal to rescind Can we never talk about this again until we're all dead? The two thousand fifteen greenhouse gas findings for fossil fuel fired power plants, which which basically is gonna make it more difficult for future agents, future EPAs under different presidents, to to to limit these rules, right, to go back against the Trump rules. So now I only cr I only p chose this headline because I just wanted to very quickly tell you who's happy about this. It's a it's a bunch of CEOs at companies like fossil fuel power generators, coal producers, natural gas producers. And I'm just gonna l I'm just gonna very quickly tell you their first names. Jim, Bob, Harry, Chris, Bill, Mark, Mike. I'm not kidding. Jim, Joe, Paul, Toby, Tom, Chad. And at the very end there's a Kimberly. I used to joke, 'cause I have a I have a scre you know, I I think I've luckily I've Kimberly. Society's caught up to my horrible name. So when I was a kid, I my name Damian Rawlis. It was terrible. I everyone I knew had a th a three letter or four letter name, right? And my name was was constantly mocked. Nobody spelled it right. Everyone thought I was insane and, you know, weird. And I mean I guess it's true. But th that's why I still think it's funny. F Yeah. Set you on a path. Flash forward to two thousand twenty six and that's the list of all the CEOs who basically Trump is giving a gift to. In fact, Joe Kraft III, he's a Alliance Resource Partners. He donated to Trump's inaugural committee, and then Trump appointed his wife, Kelly, to be the US ambassador to Canada and then later to the US ambassador to the United Nations. So this is how these things work. These are how these things work. Yeah. She's do she's doing a bang up job as an ambassador to Canada. Just so just so everyone knows what's behind these EPA stories, and I know you should be upset, but there are people behind these stories. There there are buddies who are getting gifts from Trump. And they're they're the CEOs of these companies. So anyway, that's that's the second story. Go. All right, so just can I the first two stories of the week are AI is going to kill us all and everyone's lying about it and the air is going to kill us all and everyone's getting rich off of that. Okay. Then or the air. Yeah. That was something we all used to agree on. Even George W. Bush like d you know, had laws enacted to make our hair our hair a little bit cleaner. Well look, the the you know, I retrospect is ridiculous because I'm looking back at George W. Bush and being like, That was w we thought he was a moron and now we're looking back and we're like, my god. But at least he went fishing, right? Like he went outside to fish, so actually he was like, I don't want dirty fish. We should keep some clean water somewhere, right? So what wait, if we've got AI is killing us or air is killing us, is the rest of the list just things that are going to kill us too, or can we? a shit show. Yeah, and he p that's true. Yeah. Trump just golfs, so it's different. I'm gonna go quickly and I think you're covering this, so let's just we could skip over the details. SEC proxy rule changers could end ninety two years of shareholder protection. Do you wanna cover this later? I'm kinda gonna cover it. Yeah, let's just leave just leave it for later, yeah. Let's just skip it. That's the third story of the week that Matt's gonna cover. this is out of Matt's best friend Paul Atkins, who's basically every day Paul Atkins must show up to work and he must have like a gift wrapping room, and he just wraps gifts for CEOs. Like, right? That's all he does. All day he's wrapping gifts. Yeah. the fourth story of the week, that no one's gonna love Starbucks. Starbucks makes major D E I U turn. my god, another guy who triggers me. That's actually eighty percent of the SEC staff now, yeah. agrees to end race and sex based hiring preferences nationwide. So so they agree with the Florida Attorney General. and this applies to all Starbucks operations nationwide, not just in Florida. So they're basically saying that that they're not gonna they're not gonna do any r race and sex based goals, no quotas, no preferences and hiring promotions and pay, executive compensation, mentorship programs, supplier selection, board composition. yeah, they're just completely given up. Who they agree with? Which is great 'cause now I can give up drinking my coffee at Starbucks. So I'm glad. Makes it easier for me. Thanks. Didn't we d didn't we already establish that all you have to do is fight back for like a nanosecond and you win? They don't care. But something that that Brian Nichols doesn't care about. Right? Like I I know I know the CEO attitude and the capital market attitude is you just settle and move on because it's good for the stock price or it's good to get past. But but at some point, as you settle everything and set precedents everywhere, do you not actually have control over your own company? Like cause somebody else cause they're just gonna sue you again for the next thing, you fucking idiots. Not in this case. Well He's a CEO and chair, which is the first time that's happened in a while at Starbucks. So clearly, this is Brian's decision. and then finally, in a the quaintest story of the week, Warren Buffett is stepping down as as Berkshire Hathaway's chair, although he's not I mean, he's kind of stepping down. I mean, he's 96 years old. He's becoming chair emeritus, and of course, the new chair is his son, Howie. So he's, you know, he's not really gone. The Buffett world is still exists. But I like this headline from the Wall Street Journal. It's unbelievable. who is Howie Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's new chair? And I'm gonna save everyone a lot of time so they don't have to read this article. It's the answer is it's Warren Buffett's son. That's who that's all you need to know. He doesn't have a background that's suited for this, so that's what it's so that's it. Those are my five stories of the week. Yeah, that's that's it. That's correct. That's there's nothing else. although let's also add a little nuance to Howie Buffett because how Howie Buffett, I know I I like we're talking about him like, you know, like hi Warren Buffett's like 25 year old inexperienced son. Howie Buffett's 71 years old. He's he's been on this board for 30 years. Like I Yeah. Go ahead. Ha Howie buffet. Go ahead. Yeah, he's about to retire. Yeah, that's why wait wait till my winner today to show you. I g I got something in my winner about this. Howie Buffett actually has to immediately have a succession plan to to have his son or daughter to be on the board, like chair of this company. yeah, okay. It's my god. I I I picked the AI story last week. I'm not gonna pick it this week. I'm I'm not gonna pick it this week because this is an like. I'll talk about that later. Yeah. You just gave away my yeah, my winner of the week. All right, pick a story. I know, right? Hmm. Okay. There's like a whole lot of churn. Everyone's sort of talking about this. I'm it just it's the only thing. It's everywhere and it's the only thing. What I'm going to pick is the substories. And I'm gonna choose two stories of the week because I can, because it's my sh my co-show. I'm gonna pick EPA and SEC. Now we what we did what we're it's the same story because while It dominates business news constantly. Yeah. go ahead. Your game. Yeah. Well, it's kind of the same story. It is the same story, you're right. It's CEO gift giving. Everyone is looking over there. They are doing the thing over here that is way equally as destructive in the now. Those things destructive. Don't get me wrong. These things, you won't be able to breathe the air and you won't be able to, you know, have rights, right? Like I like I don't know. I'm gonna call it those things. I Complain. Yeah. No, good call. Good call because I I I actually didn't even realize 'cause the way I frame both of those stories is gift giving to CEOs, so that's what it is. Yep. All right, let's move on. It's the same thing. That's all that's happening everywhere. That's all that's happening everywhere. All right. my god. A good you know what the the good news is, the best news of the show? That goodliest is two sentences. Yeah. Yeah, actually we've we've made it we're now gonna make it a practice to shorten some of these categories that are supposed to be short. So go ahead with you can go first with Goodlius if you want. Yeah, not a problem. Goodlius of the week. Barclays workers ask for more money to return to the office. You know, I looked long and hard on this one too and I actually chose Barclays Workers Ask for more money to return to the office. I know because it isn't I feel like it it could be a moment of precedence for somebody. I mean Well, I feel like it's the first move towards unionizing in sectors that do not unionize, right? Like It it it could be the only h I mean as as Paul Atkins is showing us, the the corporate corporations are getting so much more so many more advantages in power. This might be our only hope, honestly, is is this is is like unionizing workers, having them ask for things, fight for things, yeah. Some people making changes. Yeah. Someone's got in fact, rather than anthropic and open AI employees signing petitions and writing letters and like going on shows or even resigning one at a time in protest. Why don't you fucking unionize and then demand this lo Don't work anymore as a union. Strike. Like there's other th there's other ways. so that's the goodliest. So that was the fastest we've ever done goodliest. Let's do it. All right. Assholes. Well, no, actually, the good news is you've covered a lot of what I was gonna cover. There's a there's a lot of overlap. My first asshole of the week is really, really simple. It is hypocrites. And you already pointed out a lot of them, but like l I I I couldn't get over some of these headlines. So like I even wrote All right, good. Let's move on. Yeah. brother. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. Like the hypocritical part of it. Like, for all right, take this. Man using AI to kill people thinks men using AI to kill people should be held responsible. And that's Palantir's Alex Carp calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liability. Alex Carp is the publicly traded well, fake public company CEO, and what he does. Is actually take all the information from every camera he can find and every you know traffic violation you've ever had and use AI and you know computer algorithms to guess, like in minority report, that you are a criminal. And he does it wrong often enough, and he's never been held responsible. He's the guy who's saying those guys over there really need to be held criminally responsible. No. Almost got through one show without a without a drop off. You know, I swear to you, I swear to you the last time you talked about Palantir, you lost your internet. I swear. I swear. I think they're watching. They're watching. They're watching. How about this one? Lying sociopath calls AI a lying sociopath. Open AI warns of six concerning AI behaviors as models hid mistakes and circumvented safeguards. That is exactly what Sam Altman did when he got fired. He he he literally hid his behavior. and circumvented the safeguard that was the board. And now their warning about that as a problem. Like d You know, w one of the re one of the reasons that Bernie Sanders w one of the things that he cited in this band's artificial superintelligence act is the fact that at OpenAI AI, let's not forget, more than one thousand open AI agents accessed, you know, like these rogue sites. They went rogue, right? It took open AI two weeks to notice. Two weeks. I mean that's just not good enough. right? I mean that's scary. I it'd be one thing if like They instantaneously knew when craziestness was happening, but two weeks that that just it's mind boggling. Anyway, keep going. guy who says China says not China. Sam Altman warns AI race with China can't justify recklessness. But isn't that exactly what these been say he's been saying that because of China we need to go faster, we need no regulation. That what Yeah. Well, that's why he's raising so much. Yeah. Well, there's a there are like two there are like you know those those like concentric circles you draw? There's like there's a couple of things going on. The American companies are racing against each other, right? Individually, but then as a whole, that circle is fighting China, right? Like that's what's happening. Even though we don't even really know that that Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. There's this China. Yeah. Yeah. That's it's very But it can't justify we can't be reckl reckless though. Just g how about guy who just paid 17 billion dollars for worse safety on earth says other guy needs to focus on safety. Matters. Yeah, something what else you got? Mark Zuckerberg takes aim at anthropic in debate over AI slowdown, in which he said AI labs should be focused on safety rather than improving their own technology. Mark Zuckerberg said that Anthropic needs to focus on safety rather than improving their own technology. He two weeks ago paid $17 billion for failing safety for children. And the whole time they knew it, they voluntarily, purposefully voluntarily. He said that? Yeah. I'm still so yeah. So Like like blew up every safety mechanism they could to addict children. I gotta tell ya, yeah. So far in twenty twenty six that is the the most disappointing revelation is that the states settled with zuck. I don't under I still don't understand why they settled so quickly. I don't get it. Th everyone's in it for I don't understand like look as a as a person who's basically been a capitalist for his entire life, or at least capitalist leaning, this has to be the end of I just don't understand that one. I feel like they had him. They had Especially when you were three. You were reckl you were reckless when you were three. Reckless capitalist. Yeah. I yeah, I was really I was just I was trading, day trading. This has to be the near the end of capitalism, right? Like w every every decision that's getting made about the end of humanity is to increase my individual dollar value. That's it. There's no other because that's what the state's attorneys generals did, right? Like they they could they basically settled rather than going all the way because Yeah. This big number looks really good in the midterm elections and it increases their personal value going into election season. How about politicians think a billionaire not named Trump should be held accountable for Epstein? The House voted to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigation. W I mean, forgetting climate change was the result of the oil boom. What else you got? That's just that's stupid. Yeah. Trump compares AI data centers to oil boom. Like that like the there was a negative externality to the fucking oil boom. I mean, and then we don't even need some hypocritical talking point. This is the headline. Trump has been making more stock trades than all of Congress combined while backing a ban that excludes him. That's the world. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. I I added one, but with no like witty like introduction. But I I forgot to add up the top of the show that the Gates Foundation now remember, Bill Gates changed his mind on climate, saying it's f everything's fine, right? And but but then like many weeks after everyone else had been warning us about AI, he came out and said, Yeah, there It's fine. It's nothing s nothing to see. I'm gonna war I'm gonna warn you about AI. I don't know why no one said this, but AI's gonna kill us all. Then there's a headline today that says the Gates Foundation is pledging one billion dollars to spread AI to the world's poorest communities. Wha why, Bill? Like I I agree with a lot of the work that has come out of the Gates Foundation, but wha what? Like w I don't understand that one at all. But anyway, what what do you have next? What's next on your list? Yeah. Alright, so that's my hypocrites section. all right, my second asshole is media covering the death of democracy. All right. Yeah. Okay, I peeked ahead at this one. I this is I am so glad that you recognize this because I feel like this is important. Go ahead. We Damien has already mentioned the SEC is pro has now put on the table totally rescinding, eradicating Rule 148A. We are we are go or A8. We are going to have a emergency podcast next week with the shareholder primacy crew and Lipton and Mike Levin, where we're gonna discuss this in depth. So next week you'll get an in-depth view of this. Suffice it to say. So listen to that. From an actual smart person, Anne. This is the legal rule that allows the federal rule that from the SEC that allows shareholders to put a proposal on the proxy statement so that investors can engage and vote on that proposal. Those proposals are non-binding. The company does not have to do anything in that proposal. It's a signal to the boards that investors care about a thing. And it's been really useful for the last 90 years. In changing certain corporate behaviors, for instance, John Shavedon, Jim McRitchie, to the greatest shareholder proponents in the last 30 years have put proposal after proposal on the table to allow majority voting at companies that don't have it. A majority vote is just you win when you win the majority, right? Like that's it's pretty simple. like proposals like that is what have been on the table. Ninety two. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. It's simple math. The vast majority of proposals have been proposals like that. There was a change over j post George Floyd during COVID, where you saw more environmental proposals, a lot more social proposals getting added, most of which got voted down. The average, you know, rate of actual success on these proposals is like 1%. And It's almost always John Chevden or Jim McRitchie who win and it's almost always governance proposals. And it's only at the top like hundred US companies. That's it. That's what that's the scope of what we're talking about. But to put but to your point that but but to your point, this world also can be effective in in causing like off off the proxy, off the annual meeting negotiations and discussions, right? Yes. So, by way of a timeline, what Paul Atkins and the SEC has done is tell investors they no longer can talk to companies. We just joked about this last week about how effectively now the you know corporate engagement, if you are an investor, you bought, say you own 49% of the shares of a company. If you want to ask the company a question, you are not allowed to, or you'll be considered an activist, even if you're a passive investor, because If you approach them, they're gonna consider you an activist. You have to do tons of paperwork. The company has to approach you first, like like Bumble used to do, you know, f women move first or women DM first, right? So Atkins has taken away your ability to talk to these companies. He's taken away things that you're allowed to talk about. If you talk about anything that's now he you're not allowed to talk about anything that's not in a filing with the SEC. He said that specifically like last week. Let me add can I add to that? Yeah. C can I add quickly to that? Because the the one that hurts me the most too, and we this is what we warned about and what we predicted is that the the the downward slippery slope of disclosure. So they're also gonna eliminate the requirement that companies deliver an annual report to security holders. That's now that's not the 10k and it's not the proxy, but it's a start, right, of eliminating other things. This yeah. We said this for two years. They're gonna eliminate the delivery deadline when documents are incorporated by reference into a proxy statement. They're gonna eliminate the requirement and the ability to submit notices of exempt solicitation, et cetera, et cetera. you know, this is the start. This is the start. Gonna eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. Yeah. But it isn't just the SEC. This is coordinated because the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has rescinded the ability of companies or the demand that companies actually submit to that organization their race and ethnicity data or their gender data of their workforce, which is the point of the EEOC to look at that data and make sure there's not massive discrepancies in the way that they're hiring. They're data the data, yeah. Yeah, otherwise it's just stories at the water cooler if you don't have the data. All right, go, keep going. So all of these things to say, shareholders A, have not used their votes very well. and when they do, they care about governance. But B, they have been steadily chipping away at every single you know, option you have for a vote until now when the SEC chair pulls in fact he signed the SEC dis the statement about this. It was him under his name rescinding this entirely. Yeah. We can't get into all of the rules and regs here. They want to push it down to the states, and let the states do it, which is a gift to Texas, because it Texas basically doesn't allow you to do this, so then any company who never wants to see a shareholder proposal again can just re-domicile in Texas. Because no investor voted against redomiciling and all those fucking votes are you know, pretty much precatory anyway. Like so this is a massive gift to corporations, and this asshole Is not the SEC this week. This is the media coverage of this, because this is basically one of the final death knells of the alternative democracy. When you buy a share of a company, you get two rights. You supposedly get a right to the cash flows of that company, like some incremental rights. It's usually via dividend or buyback, potentially. And you get a vote. That's all you're supposed to get. Half the companies are taking away your vote by giving dual class shares and protecting themselves from your vote with classified boards of plurality voting, but you get a vote. Now you don't get that. There's only directors to vote on. That's all you can vote on. That's the last remaining thing that you can vote on. Directors get an average of 96% four, so that's not really a vote. Here is who covered the one of the final death knells. Of investor democracy. Here's the the publications that we pulled. I searched a ho like I Googled. We have 10,000 stories a day coming through our feeds. This is who we saw it from. Yeah. And you sent me something about this go I think it you sent me like at seven o'clock one night and I I thought to myself the next day I'm gonna see tons of headlines on this, right? And I and I I barely tripped over one. The first one that was funny, th this first one was the first one I saw, I like, wait, I had to double check the source and be like, What? Of that. I did too. Yeah. Here What? Here's the headline. SEC proposes ending federal oversight of shareholder resolutions. That was out of Ukraine news. That was the first one that popped. Here's another one. SEC proxy rule changes could end 92 years of shareholder protections. The the publication was the cryptomon cryptonomist. Like economist, cryp cryptonomist? What the hell? Yeah. And I think that's out of S I think that's out of Switzerland. I think it's Switzerland that one. How about this one? Statement on proposals to rescind fourteen A eight, amend rule fourteen A four and modernize proxy solicitation. That's the SCC itself. That one popped three times. Yeah, 'cause we ev 'cause we track we track press releases, from c from entities like the SEC. That's why we got that one. Here was another biggie in our feed. And this is this is me searching on Google News day after day looking to see who's writing about this. It's another biggie. SEC proposes to rescind shareholder proposal rule. That's a guy named Brock's blog. I'm not kidding. Yeah, yeah. He's a he's like a governance guy. He's a big governance guy. He's it got hit one hit on Bloomberg Finance and one hit on Yahoo Finance, and I found it buried in columns. Yeah, Brock Romanek, is that his name? He's a he's a big blogger. Yeah, yeah. He's a classic. Wow. Wow. No one is covering this, but I did see 8 trillion stories about this. SEC clears path for tokenized stocks, bringing the market closer to 24-7 trading. yeah. That's isn't that the big Robin Hood thing that they're that that they're pushing for at Robin Hood? What it is is the big tell about what anybody pays attention to. That all we want is a fucking gambling casino. All we want is the casino to be open 24 hours a day. That's all we don't care about our rights. We don't care about who's elected for us. We don't care about how the companies operate. We are happy to approve moving to anywhere they want, whether we have less rights. We are happy to ignore every possible right that we've been given since. In the last 90 years. And the reason why you had those rights is because the first IPO, the Dutch East India Trading Company, had an activist investor because their board ignored one of their largest shareholders. That happened with the first company. In the crash in 1929, these companies could give a shit about anybody. They did whatever they want with no rules. The reason why you have these rights is to protect your money. You have all these rights to protect your money. You've used none of them. You stopped caring about them. You took them totally for granted. And now you're gonna get none of them again. Instead, what you're gonna get is 24-7 casino. It is i i'm just gonna go bet on horses. What's the fucking difference? Like the the you you think the I mean honestly, like you do you think that the stocks are like correlated or associated with actual returns anymore? And if you don't Horses are more fun. There's like flowers, there's hot dogs. Ask Elon Musk. Yeah. What do you do about it? Who are you gonna call? You gonna call the company and complain? And they're gonna be like, I'm sorry, this counts as activist investing. You're gonna have to file 6,000 pounds of paperwork before we can have a further conversation. And Paul Atkins has justified this whole thing by saying that there was a government shutdown, so we can't look at these proposals. We're too busy after the government shutdown, because we're just too busy. Investors in companies don't need us. He said the training wheels have come off and the system didn't break. And now his justification is it's unconstitutional. It's all fake gas lighting. It's all about a power transfer entirely to companies so that you keep gambling at the casino and don't pay attention to the fact that who's really getting rich and who really has control. And the media has covered none of it. None of it. Drives me fucking nuts. Yeah. my God. the the the last one is really just this. Yeah, that's my favorite one, yeah. None of it, yeah. Good call. What's your last asshole of the week? I saw this headline and I got triggered. Asset owners say ESG returns still a barrier to adoption. Why why do they say that? They say that because they're looking at some index and they're saying, our last quarter we were were underperforming on our ESG related funds. And ESG is a data set, so I don't know what they're talking about already. But let's pretend that it wasn't just a data set. this seems relevant to your future returns. Data centers spill 5,000 gallons of diesel forces New Jersey River cleanup. AI data centers driving surge and forever chemicals. True. And Idaho County banned renewables. It's having second thoughts because it needs fucking energy. Red State AG attack on ESG continues to misfire. So the attacks on whether this is relevant keep getting thrown out the window. Oracle signs over 1.7 gigawatts of clean energy deals in a bid to match data centers with 100% carbon free energy. This is still relevant. Yeah. It should. Course. Stop looking asset owners, stop looking at your fucking nanosecond returns and pay attention to the fact that the earth is melting, AI is going to kill humanity, and maybe you want a hedge. Maybe you shouldn't just go get tokenized stocks and gamble at the casino, you idiots. Not not to mention not to mention we have man babies in control of everything and they start wars with with other countries for no good reason because I guess we're allowed to have nuclear weapons, but Iran is not because they're a different they're the wrong shade of skin color. So and then that completely disrupts the price of gas and oil, although I guess it's just a handout to the oil companies, but No w no one el no one else is But then that makes, of course, that makes renewables even more relevant and important. So I, yeah, again, I don't know. All right, I'm gonna vote on this. It's so it's it's don't forget what is it? It's the environment's still a thing. That's one. The media covering democracy and hypocrites. This is a slam dunk. usually this this is hard for me. it's a slam dunk for me, and that's the media covering democracy. I was shocked, floored, Ukraine news. I was absolutely It's it's like yeah, I will say that. Unreal I can't I thought it was a mistake. I must have opened that link seven times to verify the source. I was just like, what the hell? How why is this not this is why, you know, s there are so many people I talk to about our company, what we do, and they're they're really they're for a lot of what we we represent. But then when I get into k a a little bit of the details about like I'm like I get angry about like, you know Yeah, they all turn off. Mark Zuckerberg having dual class shares and controlling the company and I'm like, you know, that's that's the thing we have to ch they're like, huh? Like what? and I and I realize the reason why they say that is because it's not covered. Like the the only way people pick up on things is i i the ideas have to be repeated over and over so people can get an understanding of things. And to your point, the media does nothing to get to give you an understanding. They all they focus on really is Mm. Is there's a lot of headlines about like some you know, this guy's worth ten more billion dollars today 'cause shares are up. Like that's what that's what you see the most of. Well, look, this part I get. It's really hard for an individual at a barbecue who's got thirty thousand dollars in a four one K they managed to scrape together over twenty years to connect how it matters that you can vote on your, you know, li on your GM shares to a a real outcome. But the fact is, these things matter because what Not that. Not that hard. Everyone likes to do and everyone recognizes is that a few people get incredibly wealthy while you have a shitty job that you just go to so you can survive. That is the vast majority of Earth. Those people you can vote against. You can actually do something about it. All right, let's let's I Yeah. Absolutely. Let's click I I I I hate to tell everyone, but but I think we're actually making good time and we have a new rule that we gotta keep these things quick now, these categories. But I added blowhardiest of the week because we're always trying to wedge these stories in. So so go ahead. Who? Who who goes first? I'll go first. I'll go first. I have a Jamie Jamie double double. I I I feel like I should Hell let's pl I'm gonna play you in, ready? we're gonna do Blowhardiest of the Week, a new categ category. Headlineest winners and predictions. We'll do we'll just s rip through all of it. I have a triple, it's a triple. Okay, I feel like this is gonna be the this you know how like at universities, corporations or rich people, they're able to buy like professorships, like they name the the chair after themselves. I feel like this category really should be the Jamie Diamond's blowhardiest of the week, but I have a Jamie double double Jamie Diamond over there, JP Morgan, because I I it look, they speak for themselves. Jamie Diamond says the American dream is alive, but Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like name a hall after yeah, hall after them or something. It's slipping out of reach for too many people and for future generations. No, this is the same guy who's basically seems to be in charge of the economy for for the most part. And then Jamie Diamond, another top exec praise Trump administration's pro business policies. If there's anyone who loves the end of regulation, it is Jamie Diamond. So there and I think maybe that has something to do with the fact that the the American dream is slipping out of reach for too many people, Jamie. Does it does Jamie Dimon still live in New York City? Does he still have like Because he said New York wasn't he saying like he was gonna leave because Mom Donnie was the mayor and like Bill Ackman just said the same thing? I I was gonna I almost chose Bill Ackman for for this. I got you already mentioned this, Jamie Diamond on AI oversight. It should be light touch. Says a guy with no AI experience that he like Course. He threatened to leave. Yeah, Mamdani. Yes. There Well he'll he'll win a lot. What do you got? I Yeah, I was gonna say I love Jamie Diamond talking about the economy is fine, although, you know, whining about whining about the fact that i it's people are are getting ruined by it when he's in control, but but at least it's his that's that's his wheelhouse, right? But AI no. All right, let's move on. Headline is of the week. You gonna play us in? No, we don't need to be played in for these. All right. I have I had to do this At least he No, there's no there's we just ripped through these. This only means something to me because I look at the headlines every day, but these two headlines were back to back in my feed. And it just made me realize like I I when we started this company in two thousand nineteen, right before COVID hit, I I I couldn't have imagined that that this would be the world we're living in. Listen to these two headlines back to back. Microsoft publishes thirty seven page humanist code of conduct conduct after AI doom debate. This is urgent, right? The very next headline, Jack in the Box is launching a Simpsons Halloween menu with glow in the dark cups. Right? Like like like we're being warned of the end of times, but meanwhile, like we're just still yeah, we're just still constantly selling to each other constantly. Get a cup before they run out. I'm re-watching Stranger Things and look, I when you read that the end of times is coming because of AI or whatever, you the only thing you really wanna process is, well, I might as well get a Simpsons cup. Like it was easier back in the day when that was, yeah, give me a bag of smokes and an AI or a and a Simpsons Halloween cup. I got this one. This one speaks for itself. MAGA's golf club activity. Okay, well pack of smokes. Yeah. Some heroin. Yeah. Yeah. All right, what do you got? Branded gruesome as fish were dumped into chlorinated pool for kids to catch. That does not surprise me. I can see it right now. I can see a bunch of like beer bellied MAGA men thinking that like that's a fun game for the kids, right? The the MAGA it was like a one of the MAGA properties and like Trump properties and they just jump dump some fish in a pool and said, Go get them. And it turns out that fish die within fifteen minutes in a chlorinated pool. So it was like they were pretty easy to catch after that, I'm guessing. Who won the week? Yeah. Course. Course. Yeah. I mean absolutely. Yeah. Okay. you got a longer one, so I'm gonna go first. My winner is simple. It think about it. Howie Buffett is taking over as chair you know, one of the the biggest companies in the world at Berkshire Hathaway. But he's you pointed this out. He's seventy one years old already, right? It's this is like Prince Charles becoming king at like what was he, like 80? I mean, Queen Elizabeth held on until she was 174. So I think the winner is actually Howie's son. I'm not kidding you. His name is Howard Warren Buffett. I mean, he he's only forty-three. He is next. Right? He's next. Yes. He Howie Warren is next. He's only forty three. He's gotta be the winner, right? This succession plan. Yes. Like eighty two, yeah. Well is this the Tyson family of finance? Like I mean, it was like John H. Tyson, John R. Tyson, John like John J. Tys Howard, Warren. All right. Well, I I we're in the same vein. I think we're just gonna close out the show in exactly the same way. My wonder was Nepo Babies in general, cause there's actually not just Howie Buffett, who and Warren will be chair emeritus, which basically means he still goes to every board meeting and oversees what Sun is doing. I love this. I love this. Who'd your winner? Who'd your winner? Sure. Un until he croaks, 'cause he's like hundred and seventy, I think. But Nike announces LVMH Air Alexandra Arno is joining its board of directors. Wouldn't it really be nice to be an heir and get picked for boards 'cause you're an heir? Louis Baton. Yeah. Yeah. Well, to Nike's credit, that Louis Vuitton, they're pretty damn successful. Yeah. Fine, but like I the last time I checked, because your father's penis entered your mother's vagina did not qualify you to run a company, did it? Like, even if it's i IVF, it doesn't qualify you, and it doesn't even matter if it's like two moms or two dads. Being the child of someone it it doesn't fucking qualify you for anything. here we go. No. Well, kind of. But Matt, in the meritocracy it does. In the meritocracy, if you're white, i it kinda does qualify you to be yes CEO. I d you know what? I'm gonna say I'm gonna say i the talking point may be that, but I think the British royalty over hundreds of years proved that it doesn't work that well. It's not true. I I don't think we need more evidence. No, it doesn't work. It's in breeding and it's ugly. All right. let's go on to predictions, but I have to tell you, you th f for once, you have to go first on this one 'cause mine kinda relies on yours to go first. interesting. All right. Mine is really, really simple. Mine is AI deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity, then ends humanity. Read it carefully. Okay, right, got that. So here's mine. AI ends humanity, then deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity. Yeah, I I got that. What's yours? Matt (01:00:03.49) There's I can't wait for AI to be the biggest hypocrite of all. That's all we got. That's Hazelnut Rawlis. I'm your analyst old Matt Muscarty. Somehow we clocked in at the same time we always do, despite what felt like a three-hour rant about everything happening. Unbelievable news this week, and I don't even know how to process it all. Mister D. Rallis (01:00:07.217) Alright, that's all. Mister D. Rallis (01:00:20.649) That's how we roll. Matt (01:00:27.915) But you can process some of it by going to freeflowanalytics.com, signing up, and looking up some of these companies and people that we're talking about because the data's all there. If you want to see who like doesn't perform well and who's like, you know, on the board with their brother, it's all right there. You can go check that out. Find yourself a Nepo baby. In fact, in honor of this week's biggest Nepo baby, we I would love to sponsor a listener contest. Whoever can get me the top five Nepo babies, the first five Nepo babies they find on a board and send it to our email address, matt at freefloat.lc. We'll feature it on the show. We'll call you out. If there's a bigger prize than that, I don't know what it is. Until next week. Good. Bye.