But I think the person who's really [__] up AI, the brand, is the president by not giving people any sense that it's a fair game. Having surrounding all these people at the White House, talks of a bailout, talks of an investment, and no regulation, it just feels like here we go again and the government is now a giant bet on AI that's responsible for 93% of GDP growth, 75% of earnings growth. So people think, okay, people are getting rich, but I'm not one of them, and my electricity bills are supposedly going to go up. And these individuals don't seem that concerned with the labor force.
In today's office hours, we discuss AI's branding problem, how to become a better public speaker, and the value of changing your mind. Question number one, our first question comes from Reddit user Hot Singer 4266, who asks, by the way, I've not seen or read these questions. I love your takes on branding and 100% agree the brand around AI has plummeted for good reason in recent months. Without specifically mentioning a model company, what recommendations would you make to improve the sentiment around AI? Uh, stop asking for bailouts. Say you're going to agegate it. Don't lend your models to character AIs. Say you're not going to have porn or you're going to agegate porn. Maybe cooperate with a great university such as Berkeley or there's another great university in the Bay Area, University of San Francisco. Get that little bit of dig at Stanford. Um, so I would try and I don't know, get Altman to shut the [__] up. He keeps saying dumb [__]. So I don't know, just try and be good citizens. I've said that I don't think it's these companies' fault. Uh, I think that these companies are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They are doing whatever they can legally to maximize profits or revenue growth and shareholder value, which is, you know, all they care about and all they should care about. It's the government's job to regulate them. In China, 75% of the citizens there feel good about AI. In America, it's the opposite because there's a general sense that they can trust their government there. They've put in age limits. They've put in job protection. So people feel optimistic about AI's upside and aren't worried about the downside. Whereas in the US we have people including Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O'Leary, who I actually have enjoyed, I've been on a couple debates with him and I've enjoyed the discourse. He is exactly the wrong person with these data centers and there's a general feel that there's going to be another bailout of these companies who want to hold on to their $800 billion plus valuations despite the fact they're spending against a valuation or spending against a future of demand which isn't materializing. So I would say AI has become this giant bet by the administration and it's gotten so frothy and so far the kind of indications of AI are it seems like some people are getting very rich and all I know is supposedly my electricity bills are going to go up. I think this is more the fault of the government than it is the specific company. Sam Altman has made some stupid tone-deaf statements, but you know, welcome to being a CEO. But I think it's the externalities of the notion that they haven't positioned it correctly because if you think about, I mean, the AI framing is pretty ugly and or the accurate framing and it's the following that these companies are essentially ingesting the entirety of the world's written work. They are then strip mining it and selling it back to the people. And they've done this without the consent or compensation of the people whose work they're borrowing or stealing. And then they strip mine it and sell it back to the people who are about to be laid off because of what AI is doing. That's just not a great narrative. So I think that they should be working with the government to create trust around employment. I think all the catastrophizing they've been doing, this is something they can do. Stop catastrophizing and stop saying this is more powerful than nuclear bombs because if it is it should be regulated. We wouldn't let Oppenheimer sell bombs into China or into Mexico. Uh, talk about the upside more and then I just think the senior management here has done a really shitty job and all of the discussion around the AI job apocalypse from Dario and Sam. So far it's not happening. And also it feels more like a fundraising tactic to justify the token spend at companies looking for efficiencies which is Latin for layoffs. So some tone-deaf statements from the companies, be more concerned proactively about some of the harms. Some of it is unfair. Actually AI interestingly enough is a bit of a moderating force. Social media takes people to the polls. What's interesting, I find fascinating about AI is it's actually moderating. It creates more centrists. But I think the decline in the brand that is AI is mostly about them getting out over their skis and creating an environment where it feels it's very much a bubble and similar to technology. The future is here but it's just not evenly distributed. But I think the person who's really [__] up AI, the brand, is the president by not giving people any sense that it's a fair game. Having all surrounding all these people at the White House. Talks of a bailout, talks of an investment and no regulation, it just feels like here we go again and the government is now a giant bet on AI that's responsible for 93% of GDP growth, 75% of earnings growth. So people think, okay, people are getting rich, but I'm not one of them, and my electricity bills are supposedly going to go up. And these individuals don't seem that concerned with the labor force. Long-winded way of saying I don't really know, but I think the brand has more to do with public policy than anything the individual CEOs are saying themselves.
Journalist Jasmine Sun defined AI populism as a worldview in which AI is viewed not only as a normal technology but as an elite political project to be resisted. The core problem, the backlash against AI is diffused across many companies and many harms simultaneously. Jobs, energy, misinformation, kids, creative displacement. There's no single actor who can earn back trust on behalf of the entire category. I think that's really insightful. According to a 2026 NBC poll, 46% of registered voters hold negative feelings toward AI versus only 26% positive. According to Pew, only 10% of US adults say they're more excited than concerned about AI in daily life. 50% say they're more concerned than excited, from 37% in 2021. The contradiction here is that despite the fact trust is declining, usage is actually up. Two-thirds of people globally use AI regularly, but only a half are willing to trust it, 39% in advanced economies. Since 2022, willingness to rely on AI has fallen from 52% to 43% even as adoption has surged. What's the model of the benchmark? Nuclear, right? In 2019, the share of Americans who view nuclear power plants as unsafe overtook those who viewed them as safe for the first time in Gallup's decade-long trend. In the same year, support for nuclear power fell to 49%, below the 62% record high from 2010. Then it recovered not through a PR campaign, but through necessity. By 2025, support for nuclear reached 61%, just shy of the 2010 record, as major companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon pledged to expand nuclear power to meet surging, wait for it, AI data center energy demand. A 2025 industry survey found that among people who feel very well informed about nuclear energy, those strongly favorable outnumber those strongly opposed 5 to 1. In sum, nuclear did get liked back into, you know, the cool kids club. It got kneaded back into favor and understanding followed. Another analogy, the Meta and Cambridge Analytica scandal. Belief that Facebook was committed to privacy fell from 79% to 28%. Shocked it's that high. And the usage barely moved. Facebook's monthly active users grew 2%. Engagement dropped 20% after April 2018, but the user base itself kept growing. In sum, a lot of the trust makes for great headline news, but it doesn't really have much of an impact oftentimes on the economics and the shareholder value. I think the word is out that Mark Zuckerberg may not be concerned with the well-being of your children, but the only brand reputation he needs to cement is someone who increases earnings and increases the share price. That's the ultimate brand in a capitalist society. So, I don't know if anything's going to change here. And the weird thing is from a stock perspective, I'm not sure it needs to change. This data center buildout will not happen at the same rate for a lot of reasons. I think demand is going to collapse but also because the brand has been managed so poorly. Appreciate the question.
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Question number two also comes from Reddit. Boulder Maker says, "Hey, Scott. My career has finally hit its stride." Okay, well done. "And I've started to receive invites to speak at events and join panels at conferences. However, I've turned down more opportunities than I've accepted because I find myself feeling extremely self-conscious and awkward in front of large crowds. I've shared this with a few people who assure me they couldn't tell, but it still feels like a major blocker on my potential. I'm so jealous of your incredible confidence, likability, and ability to command a room when you speak. Do you have any advice or suggestions on how to calm the nerves?" Uh, so DLD 2015, I get on stage, I start talking about trends. I feel weird. I start sweating. I start gulping for air. And I thought I was having a heart attack. I wasn't. I was having a panic attack. I was about to go on Bill Maher for my first time and I was trying to, as they pull the, he does this interview then he comes back and says, "And now on the panel joined with Larry Wilmore and NYU professor Scott Galloway." And the thing actually physically moves and as it was rushing forward I started swallowing hard because I was worried I was going to throw up. I was so nervous. So boss, panic attacks, being nervous, that's just part of it. Couple things I do. One, you know, try and prepare. Try and come up. If you have the benefit of slides, go through the slides such that you feel like you get more confident, you're excited to give the presentation. I mean, preparation does absorb some anxiety. Let me summarize. Yeah, welcome to public speaking. You're going to get nervous. Everyone gets nervous. There's some mental tricks. Imagine there's one friend, you know, in the front seat and you're speaking with that friend. On a more meta level, no one cares. Even if you were to have a panic attack, everyone goes, "Oh, he's having a panic attack." And then they go back to thinking about themselves. Preparing such that you feel really confident about it and you have slides that kind of help you kind of get through it or frame it. If your doctor recommends it or you feel like it helps, beta blockers. I'm not going to recommend alcohol. I'm just telling you authentically that's helped me a couple times. Not a lot, but like a beer before I speak. Uh, and recognizing that you are more like people than you aren't. The majority of people who get up in front of people get very nervous. So time, practice, see what hacks work for you, and forcing yourself to do as much of this as possible because ultimately I speak about, I don't know, 40 or 50 times a year in front of crowds ranging from a board of directors to 10,000 people. And every year, the likelihood I'm going to have a panic attack seems to go down. Also, a weird thing, I tried to reverse engineer it. I did some data around it. I get about one every two years, three years. Uh, jet lag. So if you have a big speech, try and get there a day early. Also, I found working out in the morning helps. Sweating, getting some sunlight. So, I don't know. I don't know if I have a solve here other than to tell you you're not alone, my brother. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.
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Welcome back. Question number three comes from Jakev. What is the political stance or take that you feel strongly about that you realize now was wrong or misinformed? Here we go. We need a bigger boat. I think I grew up, there's a bunch of them or they've softened or modulated. I would say DEI. I used to think that DEI, as a progressive you kind of sign up, or conservative, you sign up for a certain narrative. I've now come to believe that DEI is no longer effective. 60 years ago, 12 black people at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale combined. Now 54% of Harvard identifies as non-white. I think it causes a lot of problems. Accidental racism, people stereotype, this person didn't deserve to get in here. So I think affirmative action should be, I think it should have an adversity score and that is Trevor Noah or Barack Obama's kids don't need help but some white kid in Appalachia whose father's incarcerated and mother's addicted, that person should get a hand up. So I believe in affirmative action, I just think that usually DEI, when you have a DEI department, usually means you're in already one of the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive places. So I've kind of changed my mind on that. I used to think that tax rates shouldn't be above 40 or 50%, that that would disincentivize people and that capitalism and profit. I now think if you make say over $10 million or you're, I just don't see any reason why we shouldn't have 50, 60, 70% tax rates because the idea of a tax is that it's not that taxing above a certain amount of money you get no happiness. But that money used for whatever it was, universal pre-K or universal healthcare, can make a lot of people much happier. So, I've become much more progressive or much more believe in a much stronger progressive tax rate and I still believe in an assault ban, excuse me, assault weapons ban. I do understand now a little bit more about the importance of the Second Amendment, which is weird for me. I used to think I wanted, you know, I've always said I'd like to ban all guns. I don't, I think I've softened on that recognizing, um, it's kind of part of our heritage and most licensed trained gun owners are actually very responsible. I've changed on that. I think we should lower the drinking age. Probably wouldn't have said that a few years ago. Yeah, I don't, I used to think, uh, you know, free trade, total maximalist. Now I think that there's probably asymmetric trade such as with China where we need tariffs. I think that's one of the few things Trump got right, not on tariffs but on the need or recognizing the asymmetry of trade around China. I think I've just modulated, I kind of come to the center a little bit. Anyways, I don't, there's no like one thing I've done a 180 on trying to think about. Uh, something else I've changed my mind on is, um, not free speech, but I think anonymity is something online. I used to see a lot of value in that. I think that there should be verified anonymity. In other words, if you want an anonymous account on Facebook or on Instagram, it should be verified that the person behind it is an actual person. So, I don't, I think, you know, that privacy or anonymity is overdone. And I used to be a total free speech anonymity zealot. And I've softened on that and think that if you can put an anonymous call to child services saying that Mayor Pete across the street is abusing his children and a team shows up and separates them from their children, that they have an obligation to investigate the people who made the call. And if in fact they made the call for reasons that are not valid because they're trying to take revenge on these people who don't believe in their lifestyle, that those people should be prosecuted. In sum, I don't think the internet has a free speech problem. I think it has an accountability problem. So I've changed my mind on a decent number of policies. I supported military action in Iran or the most recent one. I thought that there was a chance to topple the regime, the weakening their navy, their missile launch capability, and giving what I thought was a real likelihood that the people would rise up and kick out who I think has been an incredibly oppressive regime that's created instability. Uh, what I realized now was that this administration in this situation, I vastly oversimplified it and that this was just a terrible idea. So I don't know if my stance has changed, but there's just no getting around it. Those of us who thought it was a good idea were wrong. And to not recognize the choke point of the Strait of Hormuz, to not recognize the complexity of the situation, to not recognize the incompetence of the person making these decisions, specifically Trump and Secretary Hegseth. I don't know if I changed my view, but I definitely got that wrong, if you will, and I need to own it. Anyways, I appreciate the questions. It's really made me kind of stop and think. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours.com. Again, that's officehours.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we might feature it in an upcoming episode.
