AI Investment: Balancing Public Interest and Oversight (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Did we just learn, because of DeepSeek and China, that investing hundreds of billions of dollars helps the tech bros but may not be what we need for the people in terms of getting the most out of AI?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, just quickly, I don't think we know everything about this. I don't trust that we have heard all the information. First of all, this is a potentially world-saving and also world-destroying technology. It should be compared to nuclear. We have a really good system in the world for monitoring nuclear. It's a big part of what the CIA and the State Department do. Part of the problem with the lab leak is that Fauci skirted the restrictions that Obama had set on gain-of-function research. Nuclear is a really strong bipartisan position, that this is something that we want the private sector involved. We really do, and we have the private sector involved, but we also have a very strong oversight by the government. Let's stick with that American tradition. It's worked really well. We had heard from Mark Andreessen that the Biden administration wanted 100 percent government control. That's unreasonable. Look, I think it could be a Sputnik moment. We were beat by the Russians on the first satellite, Sputnik, but then we ended up becoming dominant in space. Look, AI, we are at the very beginning of this technology. Chris, we're going to be talking about AI for the rest of our lives. It's a huge issue. We're just a few days into this story, so let's just give it a minute and see what we find out.

Speaker 1: But throwing around $500 billion when these guys did it for $5 million is worth investigating before that. I know why Elon and those guys want the money invested, but that's a lot of money if you don't need to do it. That's why I'm bringing it up.

Speaker 2: Elon didn't want the money invested, remember, because he didn't want his competitor Sam Altman to have the money. Look, I think there is a public interest in some amount of public investment, but we need to know what's going on. I mean, we need to figure out. But I do think that we should have a view that there probably needs to be a partnership because I don't believe that Chinese story of they spent a couple bucks and got a world changing AI. It's a little hard to believe.

Speaker 1: And you know what? Them putting it out right now is also to stimulate the conversation I'm having, which they wanted to embarrass us. And now stupids like me are engaging into the conversation. But to our original point, if the government is straight with us about what's real and what isn't real, then we'll be in a better position. We'll see if they can do it. Michael Schellenberger, I look forward to your next offering and begging you to come on.

Speaker 2: Appreciate you.

Speaker 1: Thanks, Chris. Hey, thanks for watching. Go to joinNN.com to find NewsNation on your screen. And don't forget, click the red subscribe button below to get more of NewsNation's fact driven, unbiased coverage.