AI Takes Center Stage From Washington to Wall Street

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News. Bloomberg Tech is live from the heart of Silicon Valley with Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.

Ed Ludlow (0:23)

This is Bloomberg Tech coming up. President Trump puts AI at the center of his agenda today with a new AI-powered web site called America.gov. Plus Anthropic warns of, quote, existential risks to humanity in its prospectus ahead of its IPO, according to reports. We got the details. And AMD makes a big AI bet on the frontier by acquiring Fei-Fei Li World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at $8.2 billion. Welcome to the program. We will also hear from Ford CEO Jim Farley, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer later this hour. Stick around for that conversation.

President Trump is putting AI at the center of his agenda today, launching America.gov, a new AI-powered website designed to make it easier for Americans to navigate federal services. Separately, President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson are sitting down with some of the biggest names in tech, including NVIDIA's Jensen Wong, Metta's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei, as the debate over AI safety and regulation intensifies. We've heard from the president already this morning. And now, let's hear from both Tyler Kendall, joins us from Washington, DC. Before we get to the big lunch, the president's been speaking about AI, he's discussed it with Xi Jinping, just not that much. What do we need to know?

Tyler Kendall (1:50)

Well, Ed, at this point, President Trump is really using today to highlight his embrace of the technology. He had this event really touting this AI enabled tool. I was there actually earlier this morning where a White House official told me that this is designed to be a quote one stop shop It's a top. where essentially Americans can go online and ask any question about any federal agency and get a prompt answer about whether that is federal assistance or applying for a national park permit, for example. But it really goes to underscore how the administration wants to utilize AI and make the American public comfortable with it amid what is this growing concern from the industry. And take a listen to some of what he said, in part, quote, I will never stifle the growth of technology, adding, quote, we do not surrender to fears of what technologies will do to us. It will no doubt be a top topic of discussion. Today, President Trump just moments ago arriving back here to the White House for this big lunch with these tech leaders. You name some of them, including Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Wong. But importantly, from a DC perspective, House Speaker Mike Johnson is going to be in that room too, as Washington tries to figure out what should happen here next, including what has been a flurry of legislative efforts on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. Though, Ed, we should say there's an expectation that none of that's actually going to pass by the midterms, let alone after it, amid what is the administration bolstering its embrace of the technology. Though, I will quickly say that Anthropics' Dario Amadei was spotted on Capitol Hill earlier today, speaking with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. We'll have to see if we get any update on what they discussed behind closed doors.

Ed Ludlow (3:26)

The headlines that come out later in the day, that's probably for tomorrow's show. But something here and now that our audience is talking about is America.gov. Could you just explain the basics? I'm seeing a lot of traffic on social media across venture capital, founders, leaders in industry, who are saying this is a really big thing.

Tyler Kendall (3:47)

And it's being touted by the administration as one, as well as a bipartisan initiative that's supposed to last beyond just this administration. You heard President Trump say that this could be part of the administration's legacy, that they are trying to help the American public in terms of interfacing with the government. In fact, at the beginning of the event, they played what I think is a pretty common thread for most Americans. If you call up the government and you're given a busy signal, or you're told you have to wait three hours to get online. Now, there are questions about how it will handle the influx of users. We're going to have to see sort of the trial and error that this goes through. But it is something that the administration has been working on for months, and they say will impact every agency. In fact, President Trump signed an executive order while he was on stage, mandating every agency to interface with this AI-enabled tool. Whether you have questions for the Department of Energy or the Interior Department, it shouldn't matter. It should all be in one defined space. As I mentioned, a White House official was really touting this as a way to streamline communication with the American public, especially amid growing skepticism around AI. As we look at some of the data and the polling, as we get closer to the midterm elections, it's very clear that the White House wants to put it front and center and get the American public comfortable.