Episodes
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Host Steven Overly is in Canada this week for the Eurasia Group's
U.S.-Canada Summit — and it got him thinking about another Canadian
who's been on the podcast before: Canadian computer scientist Yoshua
Bengio, who has been dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI,” although he’s
not exactly thrilled about the title. Bengio devoted most of his
professional life to making AI smarter. But now, he wants to prevent AI
from destroying humanity. On POLITICO Tech, Bengio tells host Steven
Overly about his professional pivot and what policy changes he’s pushing
for around the world. -
After the EU elections over the weekend, the continent’s politics seems
to be shifting. So what does that mean for tech? Host Steven Overly
talked with Politico EU tech reporter Clothilde Goujard to break down
the results and decode what to watch for next. -
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Former President Donald Trump is in his second week on TikTok, and
already soaring past President Joe Biden in both followers and views.
But that doesn't necessarily mean he's having more influence. Or that
other Republicans will rush to join TikTok, a platform many have called
a national security threat. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly called
up Republican digital strategist Eric Wilson to make sense of it all. -
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says climate tech is all opportunity, no
hype. That’s why she wants to pour $1 billion into the sector over the
next decade, along with as much federal money as she can get from
President Joe Biden’s climate legislation. On POLITICO Tech, Healey
joins host Steven Overly after speaking at The ClimaTech Conference this
week to defend her bet on climate tech and explain why she fears former
President Donald Trump could undermine it all. -
What do Scarlett Johansson, Bette Midler and Johnny Carson have in
common? All three have been at the center of controversies over the
impersonation of famous people — and tested the limits of what U.S. will
allow. On POLITICO Tech, George Mason University Law School professor
Sandra Aistars breaks down the legal precedent on celebrity
impersonation, and what that means in an AI world. -
Disinformation and conspiracies that run rampant online, and the
business models that fund them, have created a world in which people no
longer agree on a shared set of facts. That was the impetus behind, “The
Death of Truth,” a new book written by NewsGuard co-CEO Steven Brill. On
POLITICO Tech, Brill tells host Steven Overly how he thinks the truth
can be saved. -
India’s election finally came to a close last night. But the long
campaign brought out some of the most novel and bizarre examples yet of
generative artificial intelligence in politics, from personalized
robocalls to deepfakes of deceased politicians. On POLITICO Tech, host
Steven Overly talks to Oxford University scholar Amogh Dhar Sharma about
India’s unique political culture and whether it offers a lesson for
future elections. -
European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová has been on the road
talking about disinformation and foreign interference ahead of the
European Union elections later this week. And that “Democracy Tour” took
Jourová to California last week for meetings with tech CEOs about their
role in the fight. On today’s POLITICO Tech, Jourová explains what she
learned during her Silicon Valley visit and whether she’s feeling
confident as voters head to the polls. -
Garry Tan, the CEO of startup accelerator YCombinator, has made waves in
San Francisco politics, helping to oust the city’s most liberal
politicians in favor of more centrist Democrats. Now, the
tech-entrepreneur-turned-political-changemaker is turning his attention
to Washington. On today's Politico Tech, host Steven Overly talks with
Tan about exactly what he wants out of Washington. -
Schools across the country are grappling with a new kind of harassment:
generative artificial intelligence being used to create sexually
explicit images and videos of students and teachers. States have passed
a patchwork of laws to deal with the issue, but so far federal lawmakers
have yet to act. On POLITICO Tech, reporter Dana Nickel and host Steven
Overly break down the uneven legal landscape and discuss the victims who
suffer as a result. -
Artificial intelligence can do more than shape the future; it could also
rewrite the past. AI-generated images and videos are now finding their
way into documentary films, and the recently formed Archival Producers
Alliance wants to set some ground rules. On POLITICO Tech, archival
producers Rachel Antell and Stephanie Jenkins join host Steven Overly to
discuss their concerns with AI muddying the historical record. -
Congress allocated $39 billion to subsidize microchip manufacturing,
part of President Joe Biden pledge to revive a dormant U.S. industry.
Then, a backroom deal led to a chunk of that money being funneled into a
furtive government program —- one quietly backed by national security
agencies and a major technology company. On POLITICO Tech, reporter
Christine Mui tells us all about “Secure Enclave.” -
Dozens of governments around the globe cut their citizens off from the
internet in 2023 — the worst year for such internet shutdowns since
digital rights group Access Now began tracking them. It’s a trend that
could have major consequences in 2024 as many countries hold elections,
and as wars persist in Ukraine and Gaza. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven
Overly talks to Access Now Executive Director Brett Solomon about the
reasons for these shutdowns and why he thinks they violate a “superhuman
right” to internet access. -
Colorado is the first state in the nation with major artificial
intelligence regulations on the books. Starting in 2026, consumers will
be notified when "high-risk” models are used to make important decisions
about them. Colorado’s Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez — the guy
who pushed the bill through — tells POLITICO Tech host Steven Overly how
the law got over the finish line and why there’s still a fight ahead. -
President Joe Biden just ramped up tariffs on electric vehicles, solar
cells and other products made in China. It marks Biden’s latest move in
an ongoing tech and trade war with Beijing, as well as his newest
attempt to show voters he’s tougher on China than 2024 challenger Donald
Trump. On POLITICO Tech, former White House senior director of
international economics, Jen Harris, joins host Steven Overly to break
down Biden’s trade approach to China and how she thinks he should be
selling it on the campaign trail. -
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman floated a radical idea recently: What if everyone
got to own a piece of artificial intelligence? He called it “universal
basic compute.” And while it may never become actual social policy, it
reveals how the nation’s most influential tech brains are thinking about
the AI future. POLITICO Digital Future Daily author Derek Robertson
joins host Steven Overly to discuss. -
The Senate spent months consulting dozens of experts when crafting its
new AI “policy roadmap.” One of them, computer science professor and
former White House adviser Suresh Venkatasubramanian, is now blasting
the final plan for being too favorable to the tech industry and failing
to address risks like bias and deception. Venkatasubramanian joins
POLITICO Tech host Steven Overly to explain where he thinks the roadmap
comes up short. -
The roll out this week of the Senate’s artificial intelligence policy
roadmap was about as close to bipartisanship as Washington gets these
days. But can it last? Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), one of the roadmap’s
four co-authors, joins host Steven Overly to discuss what’s next as
lawmakers look to pass actual legislation, and political divisions begin
to emerge. -
Colorado and Connecticut attempted to become the first states to
regulate artificial intelligence but faced significant pushback from the
tech industry. In Connecticut, the governor then threatened to veto the
legislation. And in Colorado, the governor is under pressure to do the
same. Mallory Culhane, author of POLITICO's Morning Tech newsletter,
joins host Steven Overly to discuss the fate of Colorado's AI
legislation and whether other states will follow similar approaches to
AI regulation. -
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s AI policy roadmap is out this
morning. The bipartisan report, co-authored with Sens. Martin Heinrich,
Todd Young and Mike Rounds, calls for big bucks for AI research, and
legislation in areas like workforce training. It’s expected to kick off
a flurry of legislative action in the Senate, even as the election
rapidly approaches. Reggie Babin, an attorney and lobbyist at Akin,
worked as Schumer’s chief counsel until 2022. He joins POLITICO Tech
host Steven Overly to break down the impact of the new AI roadmap. - Show more