The Information's TITV
00:12:12 · Akash Pasricha, Bradley Tusk
[00:12:12] S0: Nice. Okay. All right. So, Bradley, you wrote before these elections elections happened a couple weeks ago. You wrote that the midterms aren't really going to impact the tech sector. Correct. Do do you still believe that? Yeah. [00:12:27] S2: Yeah. Absolutely. Because so Democrats obviously now have, you know, 55 seats in the Senate, might end up like two sixty in the House. That's a lot. But, in order to override a veto from Trump, you need 66 votes in the Senate, two nine... Roughly two ninety in the House. And on at least issues like AI, I don't see Republican members of Congress defying him. You know, I could see on the WAR, them using the War Powers Act, to be able to sort of halt the the activity there because it's so unpopular among MAGA especially. But I just don't know that they're gonna be able to pull together there. And then on the state level, it doesn't really matter because AI is so widely unpopular among voters in both parties that it was going face the same slate of really tough regulation in all 50 states starting legislative sessions in January, regardless if it won last night. So, you know, AI and tech is in for a really tough legislative session coming up. But that would have been the case regardless of what happened last night.
00:12:27 · Bradley Tusk, Akash Pasricha
[00:12:27] S2: Yeah. Absolutely. Because so Democrats obviously now have, you know, 55 seats in the Senate, might end up like two sixty in the House. That's a lot. But, in order to override a veto from Trump, you need 66 votes in the Senate, two nine... Roughly two ninety in the House. And on at least issues like AI, I don't see Republican members of Congress defying him. You know, I could see on the WAR, them using the War Powers Act, to be able to sort of halt the the activity there because it's so unpopular among MAGA especially. But I just don't know that they're gonna be able to pull together there. And then on the state level, it doesn't really matter because AI is so widely unpopular among voters in both parties that it was going face the same slate of really tough regulation in all 50 states starting legislative sessions in January, regardless if it won last night. So, you know, AI and tech is in for a really tough legislative session coming up. But that would have been the case regardless of what happened last night. [00:13:29] S0: So we'll we'll go to the state races here in a second, but I want to stick with the federal level here. I mean, as you think about the bills that Democrats might put forward, I mean, one question I've had this morning is, is there a menu of bills or legislation that Trump might feel he actually might need to sign and and not veto as it relates to AI or tech? Is there anything that
00:13:29 · Akash Pasricha, Bradley Tusk
[00:13:29] S0: So we'll we'll go to the state races here in a second, but I want to stick with the federal level here. I mean, as you think about the bills that Democrats might put forward, I mean, one question I've had this morning is, is there a menu of bills or legislation that Trump might feel he actually might need to sign and and not veto as it relates to AI or tech? Is there anything that [00:13:52] S2: I don't think so. I mean, do you think Donald Trump answers to anyone but Donald Trump? I think whatever makes sense for his... I I think all of his decisions are governed by two things. What either enriches him in some way or benefits him or whatever meets his emotional need at that moment. And that is it. I don't think there's any strategy beyond that. I don't think he really actually cares whether or not to answer Rubio become president in 2028. He might not even want them to. So... No. I mean, if he cared about working with congress, he wouldn't have done all of these things that put his caucus at risk in the first place, and yet he did them over and over and over again. And so, no, I I might... There could be some areas around affordability perhaps where he can come together with the Democrats. I could see a prediction market bill potentially getting signed that sort of curbs some of the most extreme examples of of bets on the site. But outside of that, no. I mean, unless he changes his view on AI, I I just don't see a change.
00:13:52 · Bradley Tusk, Akash Pasricha
[00:13:52] S2: I don't think so. I mean, do you think Donald Trump answers to anyone but Donald Trump? I think whatever makes sense for his... I I think all of his decisions are governed by two things. What either enriches him in some way or benefits him or whatever meets his emotional need at that moment. And that is it. I don't think there's any strategy beyond that. I don't think he really actually cares whether or not to answer Rubio become president in 2028. He might not even want them to. So... No. I mean, if he cared about working with congress, he wouldn't have done all of these things that put his caucus at risk in the first place, and yet he did them over and over and over again. And so, no, I I might... There could be some areas around affordability perhaps where he can come together with the Democrats. I could see a prediction market bill potentially getting signed that sort of curbs some of the most extreme examples of of bets on the site. But outside of that, no. I mean, unless he changes his view on AI, I I just don't see a change. [00:14:49] S0: Well, what what about... I mean, you know, I'm thinking about the the agencies and what we... How we've seen the moving parts here as to who regulates the models and stuff like that. I'm thinking about what the Democrats might put forward at least in terms of Oh, yeah. Of legislation. What could you see there?
00:15:06 · Bradley Tusk
[00:15:06] S2: I think you're going to see legislation for sure. Legislation is going get put forward. I am sure it will pass the House. Whether or not the senate can get the 60 votes to invoke cloture and avoid a filibuster on it, I'm not sure, but I think there's a pretty good chance of it. A few things. So one will be safety. So that question there is who regulates frontier models and how do you regulate frontier models? As we know, Trump, created a self regulating entity, at the White House a few weeks ago with all the various CEOs, and that doesn't really mean anything. And so, you know, there's different approaches to it. The one that I've heard that I think at least makes the most sense is a FDA like model, which is if we can't take medicine until it is shown to be safe for human consumption, at least for some level of new frontier models that pose meaningful risk to safety and well-being of all Americans, having someone approve them, obviously in a much faster way than you would approve medication, makes sense. So I could see that moving forward. I could see an attempt by Congress to deal with the potential job displacement of AI through things like increased worker training and ways to help find people develop new types of skills. I could see regulations on things like everything from disclosure around chatbots to use of, AI for mental health, to use of insurance, and then a lot of other things like that, hiring decisions. So I think a lot will move forward. I just think that the odds of it becoming law are not particularly high.
00:16:33 · Akash Pasricha
[00:16:33] S0: Right. Okay. So let's move to some of these state specific issues. I mean, data centers are key here. I saw the local ballot measures. I mean, I don't know if they all went against data centers, I think it was pretty close, at least, Yeah. Based on what I'm look, I think before we get into sort of maybe specific states, how do you think big tech may at all change their tune? You know, there's this whole... We've seen how CEOs show up in different ways, depending on who is elected. Do you see any of that changing now?