The Politics of AI Are About to Explode

Joe Weisenthal (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:22)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:23)

Tracy, something I've thought for a long time. I think you might feel the same way. I'm glad we're not like politics reporters or journalists.

Tracy Alloway (0:32)

No, absolutely. I cannot imagine what that job is.

Joe Weisenthal (0:37)

I sometimes look at some of the stuff that our colleagues in the political media have to report on. And like, look, like a lot of it does touch what we do, and they're obviously like, there's no way to avoid it all together. And obviously, some of the stuff has big implications. But by and large, you know, getting to look at the numbers on the chart, or learning how debt structures work, or learning how cardboard boxes work is just much more, is very satisfying to be relative to.

Tracy Alloway (1:02)

You prefer the lines over the lines coming from the mouths of politicians. The lines over lines.

Joe Weisenthal (1:08)

That's a good one.

Tracy Alloway (1:09)

Thank you.

Joe Weisenthal (1:09)

But it's gonna fall apart, I think, because I think this AI story is such high stakes, and there's so many different policy questions, et cetera, whether it's related to electricity prices or the possibility for labor displacement. I think there's basically no way at this point that 2028, maybe even 2026, AI somehow is going to be a big political story in a way that it was not really in 2024

Tracy Alloway (1:34)

Well, I think you're already seeing it in 2025, right? So we had Sarah Fryer came out and said she was talking about maybe getting a government backstop for AI capex spend.

Joe Weisenthal (1:45)

This is the open AI CFO. Yes.

Tracy Alloway (1:47)

And of course, she rolled it back a little bit, but it got everyone talking about, what is the government's involvement or obligations here? We know that JD Vance, of course, has been supported by Peter Thiel, who has very strong and possibly idiosyncratic opinions when it comes to AI. And of course, there's the labor market aspect. There's also electricity prices. Inflation is still a big political challenge for the administration. And having all these data centers consume energy is pushing prices up. And so I expect you'll hear a lot about AI.

Joe Weisenthal (2:22)

I don't think, you know, we're recording this November 13th. I don't think we're probably not currently in a recession, though the economy is not booming. But who knows exactly. But you know, if you imagine a recession is going on, and here is this technology where many of its biggest backers talk about the ability to replace a lot of labor. And you know, there's some debate, but and there's this talk about placing greater strain on electricity. And as you mentioned, there's the possibility that, oh, and maybe the government should backstab. I mean, this is a lot. This is a powder keg.

Tracy Alloway (2:52)

Absolutely.

Joe Weisenthal (2:53)

All right. We have to learn more, though, about the different factions, how it's going to play out politically. Will AI have any friends in Washington, DC whatsoever? How the different candidates are positioning themselves vis-a-vis this. So I wanted to talk to one of the most plugged-in guys I know in DC., someone I've talked to for a very long time who's been talking about the politics of AI on his own show for a long time. Literally the perfect guest. We're going to be speaking with Saagar Enjeti. He is the co-host of Breaking Points, a massive, popular podcast. Knows a lot more about all the political dimensions than we do. So Saagar, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Saagar Enjeti (3:31)

Thank you for having me, guys. Long time listener. And congratulations on your 10-year anniversary.

Joe Weisenthal (3:35)

Thank you so much. You've been doing these segments on AI and they're blowing up on YouTube, huh?

Saagar Enjeti (3:41)

Yeah. I mean, purely analytics wise, I have a little bit of a test here for how the people are feeling. And I think you summed it up actually really well, Joe, is in a time of economic precarity, a very low consumer sentiment, when Dario and Elon and Sam Altman just routinely go on podcasts in 2025, right? And they're just like, yeah, we are going to replace you. You don't have to work anymore. It's basically the embodiment of that World Economic Forum meme about you will own nothing and be happy. And so, I mean, I don't think that they really understand the implications that a lot of us are actually taking their words very seriously. And I'm increasingly tapped into both not only the data center backlash, which is real, by the way, Heatmap just did a fantastic piece about the data center backlash, how it's swallowing American politics. Georgia's power races very recently were massively influenced by AI and data centers specifically. And I'm watching this, like, fascinating. Horseshoe is really not the right word because horseshoe implies, you know, far right and far left. I sent you a tweet earlier today, Joe, which kind of brings it together. And it was like, if Tim Miller of The Bullwork and Ryan Grim, co-host of mine, far lefty, and then Matt Walsh are all agreeing on attacking AI with John Favreau of Pod Save America coming in. We're not really horseshoe, are we? Like, we're the entire spectrum of American politics, all agreeing to stand in opposition, I think, to what fundamentally is about an issue where we do not feel that we are in control of this technology. We are not sold yet on the benefits. And you guys talked about that recently in one of your latest episodes about how AI is not even going to make you rich, which is what was also one of the promises. That's kind of behind the entire pitch.