2025 Headlines from the Future

WEBVTT
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Michelle, thank you for making the trip out to California to meet in person.
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It was so much healthier.
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We just get so much done in person better than, you know, just remotely over
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Zoom or Teams or whatever. So I appreciate you doing that. Thank you.
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Yeah, definitely. I sacrificed a lot to be there.
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And, you know, it was really important to me to spend time with you,
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but really it was important to me to take away, Mo. And so that's why I really went.
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That's why I really went. That's why you came out. That's why I said yes.
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You got to take your first Waymo. That's good. Exactly. They're just coming
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out here in Miami, but this was commercially available in San Francisco.
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And so I thought, why not?
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I got to be an early adopter of this stuff. Yes. Super cool.
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So I took a wonderful trip.
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I filmed the whole thing, even though I have no social media.
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You filmed your whole Waymo trip.
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Oh, there you go. Filmed it all, sent it to my mommy. And my mommy sends it
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to every family chat we have, of which I'm included. and is like,
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Michelle is living in the future.
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Yeah. Just call me an influencer, you know.
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See, I thought there you were, that you're making the trip out for this meeting
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because you were committed to the cause.
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Really, you just wanted all of your Peruvian relatives to know that you were
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living in the future. Yes, yes, exactly. Fantastic.
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I'm Dave Pitnayek. And I'm Michelle Ardamola. And you're listening to The Jump
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Podcast, the conversation for future-focused leaders.
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And today we're going to be cutting through the noise and figuring out which
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headlines from 2025 really actually matter for the future.
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Are you ready, Dave? Let's go.
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Michelle, this was a topsy-turvy year, up and down, good and bad on all sorts of fronts.
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My head was spinning by the end of 2025.
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Oh, yeah. This has been lots of, I think, ups and downs, global news, national news. Wars.
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Wars. I mean, we started this year to take you back to the L.A.
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Wildfires that kind of kicked off the year. Oh, gosh, you're right.
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That started. We had a lot of friends who lost their houses in that.
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It was just terrible. Yeah.
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Right? Then on the other side of the world, we had the Gaza ceasefire deal that
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started in January but then broke down by March.
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You know, we've got the FDA revoking red dye number three and routine vaccine
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policies cracking open.
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Yeah, right. It's like, but wait, there's more. You know, you've got U.S.
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And that's just like March, right? Yeah, that's just like March,
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right? Yeah. We've got U.S. immigration policy tightening.
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We've got sweeping new tariffs, trade fragmentation deepening.
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I think you must have heard of a lot of China plus one, China plus one strategy, right? Yeah.
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We've got this year. It could not be this year without AI being one of the biggest
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stories, right, when it comes to CapEx spending, data center spending.
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And even there, up and down, it's like, no, the AI is going to transform the
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world. And the payoff is not really there. Actually, the payoff is transformative.
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Yeah. Right. I mean, just up and down news on that as well.
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Exactly. And in that backdrop, right, in that we have the political government as well, the U.S.
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Government shutting down for 43 days, the longest shutdown on record,
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right? Yeah, right. So lots of confusion, let's call it.
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Lots of confusion. But, you know, OK, so that is all turbulence.
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But, you know, as we're constantly telling our friends and clients,
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which is don't get distracted by the turbulence. You know, don't get distracted by the noise.
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Look for the signal, you know, that's shining through that. Or what we're always
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talking about is, you know, that idea of momentum over moments.
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Look for the broader momentum, not just the individual headlines of what is
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bugging you this week, because otherwise you'll make yourself crazy.
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I mean, and not to say there are stuff that's going to be immediate impact that
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we might have to react to.
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Right. But there are some things that happened this year that signal that the
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future will be different than maybe the direction we thought we were on or where we're going.
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And those are super important to also pay attention to, because if we don't
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start like building the things now to prepare for that future,
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it's going to be too late. You're right.
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And so that's why we do the headlines from the future on this podcast where
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we talk about, you know, what are the latest two or three headlines that we
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see that we think are going to matter that we will look back in five or seven
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years and say this was a distant early warning signal of what's to come.
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We've now done that all year long.
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And just like last year and the year before, we should go back and actually
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say, OK, what were the big headlines for the future of 2025?
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The things that we think are going to really matter over time.
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The momentum, not just the moments. Exactly.
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All right. So we've gathered about 10. Yeah, Dave?
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Yeah, we have 10 of these. And I should say, you know, usually when we're playing
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this game on this podcast, I haven't heard what you put together ahead of time
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for this. But with these, we were all, you and I were going through these together
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and collating and arguing about what actually mattered.
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Yeah, I actually made you do
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some prep work. You actually made me do some prep work for this podcast.
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Exactly. But which means that I'm also, therefore, not sitting here deer in
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the headlights like I normally am.
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No, no. Now you get to make others feel that way. That's right.
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Exactly. We brought those 10 today. And so I thought we could just,
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you know, I could start with one. then you could share another and we'll just
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trade off like that, sound good?
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Great, and let's start with ones that we think are important.
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You know, like accelerate. Let's start from the 10th most important and go to
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the first. You know, like let's, we'll do it as a countdown to the,
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to the, to the biggest one. How about that?
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So that everyone can know how dramatic you are. Yes, exactly.
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Thank you. It's a dramatic end. Got it. Thank you. All right. Cool.
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What do you got? Headline number 10. Give it to us. All right. Headline number 10.
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Adoption and effectiveness of GLP-1 drugs continue to expand.
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Yeah. This, this makes sense. I mean, Ozempic was,
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was the big headline a couple of years back, But it seems like we're finding
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new uses for GLP-1s and we're finding new form factors, like maybe it can be
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a pill and it's not just Ozempic.
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Other people have piled on as well. And particularly Eli Lilly has been making
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great breakthroughs in this area.
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Exactly. So we've seen everything from liver disease and kidney disease actually
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be approved for Ozempic use or other GLP-1s. So, again, last year was a lot
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of studies showing indications of this use beyond diabetes and weight loss.
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And this year, seeing it actually go into not just beyond trial,
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into trials, but actually going into approval.
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What is fascinating is the number of experiments that are going on,
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the number of trials about other things, because as best as we can surmise,
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GLP-1's effect are pleasure centers.
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So we're seeing early research on, you know, maybe it can help with gambling
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addiction. Maybe it can help with, you know, all sorts of other things beyond
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just, you know, weight loss.
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It's almost like people are saying, like, let's see if it gets rid of my hiccups.
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I'm not surprised it doesn't, you know. Well, and I think that's the biggest
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kind of momentum indicator is compared to some other, you know,
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medical uses or new solutions out there. You just have to look at the speed
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at which this has gone from.
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Obesity, to weight loss, to other things and through FDA approval.
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And that tells you, like, we're investing
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here. Right. We're fundamentally changing how we are going to live.
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And if you are someone who has spent a lot of your time focusing on the pleasure
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centers of your brain, meaning if you make salty snacks or you make candy or
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you run casinos or you run a social media company.
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That's what I was going to say, the scrolling, right? Yeah, right.
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Will a GLP-1 help me to not be addicted to TikTok?
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Right. That'll be an interesting dynamic. Let's hope. Let's hope for that.
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All right. That's number 10. I
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have number nine for you. Headline number nine. All right. Give it to me.
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Cities struggle to adapt to the face of deadly climate disasters,
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where we've been talking about climate change for a long time,
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but it's happened this year, And cities have just been struggling to deal with that.
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Yeah, and I think struggling and that to me, the unique part has been seeing
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us as a society actually immediately go to the cities, to the infrastructures,
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to our government and say, hey, this could have been prevented.
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Yeah. And why wasn't it done? Whether it was because the stormwater infrastructure
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isn't appropriate, whether the emergency protocols aren't in place.
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People are saying, hey, you know, we knew about this before. Why aren't we ready?
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Yeah. I mean, the floods that happened in Texas, that horrible situation where
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all of those those little girls who are camping got, you know,
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washed away. It's just a terrible, terrible thing.
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Yes, part of the blame you can say is, OK, we didn't have proper alarm systems
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in place to warn about this.
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But let's also be clear, you know, like many of these governments have been
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trying to insist that climate change is a myth.
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And when the impact is happening around, it's like, well, perhaps we could have
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done something about this.
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But no, I guess we really have moved to adaptation strategies.
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And some cities are doing these better than others. I think you've talked about,
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like, New York City is doing a much better job, say, than Houston or Miami.
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Absolutely. New York recently had a few deaths in the subway system because of floods.
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And again, you know, people commute there all the time through the subway system.
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So this was a huge problem.
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And what New York City has been doing in the last year especially has been figuring
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out how to turn areas like parks, even like basketball courts,
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into these flood areas, meaning they're extra porous. They're meant to, like, take in the water.
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They're a little bit below the sea level of the rest of the island.
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And so hopefully trying to prevent in areas where that stormwater could cause
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these issues, like, again, not just infrastructure problems or problems to our
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housing, but actually the deaths that have happened this year. Yeah.
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And we're going to see this going forward. The future focused aspect of this
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is, you know, much of the stock market was focused on the MAG7 this year for
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obvious reasons with AI, NVIDIA and the rest of them.
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But there's a lot of great work that has to be done around rebuilding our infrastructure.
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For years, we didn't want to do anything about climate change because we said,
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oh, it's too expensive to change that.
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We're going to pay a whole lot more just in terms of adaptation because we didn't make those changes.
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And that actually is opportunity for construction companies and other people
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who are deeply invested in infrastructure.
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I think there's opportunity to pay attention here, but I also think that there's
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liability to pay attention here, right?
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Because certainly for the states and the countries, but I think if your company,
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especially a big company today, and some of these issues,
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let's say your infrastructure isn't up to date and there's some issue and cause
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of death, I think these are pretty good leading indicators of the blame will
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be placed on you for not being ready. There you go.
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So if you're an infrastructure company, if you're a financial services company,
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certainly we've seen the impact it's having on insurance where,
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you know, companies like Allstate saying they're pulling out of insuring homes
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in California because of wildfires.
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Yep. Right. The, you know, the check is coming due across sectors for this.
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And we're only going to see that continue to happen over the next several years.
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Absolutely. All right. What's the next one? Okay.
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Headline number eight. Technology started to be treated like tobacco as AI led
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to psychosis and suicide.
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AI led to psychosis and suicide. Okay.
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I mean, you know, you think we've been talking about this for a while.
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We used to think about technology as an unvarnished good.
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It's great. It's going to connect the world. we're going to democratize everything
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democratize everything that's right and over the
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last few years there's been this shifting tide that
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people are starting to think about social media and
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mobile phones kind of like we think about alcohol and tobacco like should we
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be allowing 10 year olds to have a mobile phone like is it actually healthy
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for them right should we be allowing 14 year old girls to be on social media
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right when there's so much data that it does terrible things to our kids.
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So the shift to thinking about technology like it's tobacco is a big deal.
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But then we have AI and there's been all sorts of stories about crazy stuff
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happening with folks who are playing with LLMs.
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Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, because last year we saw some of this
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stuff with social media, phone bans in schools, right?
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Australia passed their phone ban, which went into effect this year.
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But to me, it's been impressive to see how quickly, like it took us a while
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there to get that word, social media and phones.
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But with AI, it is happening right now very quickly.
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And so we're seeing things like parents bringing lawsuits towards places like
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opening AI, as well as going into Senate hearings and talking about their kids
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committing suicide because of conversations with their chatbots.
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Right. And you might say horrible things. Right. And you can go back and see
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the details of this. You can see the conversations that parents have access to them or publish them.
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Right. And if you have not seen this, I think it's important because is,
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you know, you'd say, like, how does a chatbot convince someone to commit suicide?
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It's not like that. But when you see someone say, hey, you know,
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I'm about to kill myself, you'll see the response of the chatbot being like,
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you know, you have done a lot in the world.
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I will always remember you. Oh, my God.
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Right. And so it does. Right.
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And it's something for us to, you know, everything from that to grandiose thinking,
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what we've now termed as AI psychosis.
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Yeah. Right. And that I have invented a perpetual motion machine.
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Jet TPG thinks I'm the next Einstein.
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I'm why won't anyone listen to me? Well, religions and cults are being born from this kind of stuff.
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Right. So I think this is, to me, a fascinating thing because it's happening,
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but very quickly we're also seeing, you know, parents and Senate hearings turn
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around and say, no, no, no, we need more safeguards around these things.
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Right. And especially you think of like things like therapy, right?
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There's a lot of people who are using, you know, ChatTPT as their therapist.
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Right. And in most places, a therapist requires a license to make sure that,
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A, that they're not doing any harm, but B, that they're not sending you down the wrong path.
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Chat TPT is an unlicensed therapist with massive capacity for hallucination.
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Yeah. And so I think, you know, when we think about what are possible,
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you know, I've talked about Chernobyl's events for AI.
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For me, this is one of those when I think, you know, pay attention.
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It might just come from a social thing that we just, you know, we we say no more.
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We we don't want it like this. And that that stops the creation of it.
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Well, I mean, or at least that we think more smartly about how we want it and
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in what way do we want it. Yeah, slow down the creation, let's say, right?
00:15:05.190 --> 00:15:08.090
Like, it's a, hey, we do need safeguards. We do need transparency.
00:15:08.430 --> 00:15:13.330
That's right. We, you know, the internal combustion engine has been a very good
00:15:13.330 --> 00:15:16.110
thing for us by and large in the 20th century.
00:15:16.290 --> 00:15:21.150
But I don't need my neighbor running a diesel generator in his backyard all night long, right?
00:15:21.530 --> 00:15:25.110
And so there are impacts of that. And we have to pay attention to this.
00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:29.810
The fact that we're looking at technology now in a different viewpoint,
00:15:30.130 --> 00:15:35.370
kind of a gimlet eye, is probably a healthy thing if we can evolve quickly enough.
00:15:36.148 --> 00:15:39.348
And I think if you're an organization who's thinking about, you know,
00:15:39.428 --> 00:15:42.888
whether it was like social media advertising, you've seen the death of that in some ways.
00:15:43.048 --> 00:15:47.828
I think it's also the whole, you know, we just need to market to AI chatbots.
00:15:48.188 --> 00:15:51.808
Right. Might be something to question. Right. We'll take a look at it.
00:15:52.128 --> 00:15:55.348
All right. I've got another one for you, Michelle. Headline number seven.
00:15:55.828 --> 00:15:59.568
All right. Fusion power. Move down the path to widespread commercialization.
00:15:59.968 --> 00:16:04.068
I love this. Yeah. This is Star Trek technology. This is amazing.
00:16:04.128 --> 00:16:05.668
Not just Star Trek, but this feels good.
00:16:06.148 --> 00:16:10.548
Right. Like this is one. I mean, it's cool. It we didn't think we would get here.
00:16:10.668 --> 00:16:13.528
We did talk about this last year. Right. That that, you know,
00:16:13.608 --> 00:16:16.708
we were starting to break ground here in the U.S.
00:16:16.868 --> 00:16:22.148
But this year has just accelerated and just in time, because if you think about
00:16:22.148 --> 00:16:26.848
all the energy demand and everything we've been talking about, man, do we need fusion?
00:16:27.208 --> 00:16:31.768
Right. Yeah, right. I mean, cheap, clean, plentiful energy, right?
00:16:32.128 --> 00:16:37.168
Something that the size of a shoebox can power a small town.
00:16:38.228 --> 00:16:41.488
That's something we've been dreaming about for generations.
00:16:42.088 --> 00:16:47.768
And thanks to some, again, your tax dollars at work, Lawrence Livermore Labs
00:16:47.768 --> 00:16:51.708
made some huge gains over the last two years, this front.
00:16:51.708 --> 00:16:55.688
And what has been fascinating in the last year, though, is that many of these
00:16:55.688 --> 00:16:58.188
things have actually moved to commercialization.
00:16:58.448 --> 00:17:02.168
The big ones. Okay, let's actually build a fusion reactor.
00:17:02.408 --> 00:17:06.448
Let's actually see if we can put this to work for commercial applications and
00:17:06.448 --> 00:17:08.548
for industrial applications, which I think is really cool.
00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:13.359
Yeah. And speaking of momentum, there's also just been a ton of investment,
00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:16.439
even more investment in this space in the last year.
00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:19.599
And so it really tells you, like, we're committed, right? Even from in the U.S.
00:17:19.699 --> 00:17:23.859
Point of view, the Department of Energy has now put together their fusion science
00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:24.939
and technology roadmap.
00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:29.759
They have a dedicated office of fusion now. So despite everything we've talked
00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:33.179
about within the government, it's interesting to see, like, no,
00:17:33.199 --> 00:17:34.479
no, we're on the fusion train.
00:17:34.479 --> 00:17:40.159
Yeah, this is going to happen if only because Google and Microsoft and NVIDIA
00:17:40.159 --> 00:17:46.239
and everybody else, you know, whose futures depended on data centers needs energy, needs power.
00:17:46.499 --> 00:17:51.719
And so it is going to drive advancements quickly in this space over the next few years.
00:17:52.499 --> 00:17:56.179
Exactly. And again, good clean energy, right, which is the cool thing.
00:17:56.479 --> 00:17:57.819
Love it. All right, give us another one.
00:17:58.439 --> 00:18:02.599
Headline number six, gene editing technologies began to save human lives.
00:18:03.179 --> 00:18:06.479
Yeah, this is great. You know, we've been talking about CRISPR for a few years
00:18:06.479 --> 00:18:09.339
now, about the ability to modify human genome.
00:18:10.259 --> 00:18:13.539
It's starting to have real payoffs in actually helping people.
00:18:13.939 --> 00:18:17.599
Yeah, this is another one that sort of has moved from fiction to,
00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:21.299
oh wait, no, it actually is already here, saving everything from,
00:18:21.499 --> 00:18:23.479
we talked about Baby KJ this year.
00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:26.339
Yeah, share a little bit about Baby KJ, which I think is a beautiful story.
00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:34.959
Yeah, baby KJ, so born this year and within, normally given the rare disease that baby KJ had,
00:18:35.479 --> 00:18:39.919
within, usually the lifespan would have been less than a month from birth, right?
00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:43.739
So it was a serious rare genetic disease, but luckily he was born in a hospital
00:18:43.739 --> 00:18:49.939
where the doctor had access to another doctor at the university nearby who had
00:18:49.939 --> 00:18:51.979
been working on some CRISPR treatments.
00:18:51.979 --> 00:18:56.959
And so it fast-tracked, I mean, incredible story of just, you know,
00:18:57.139 --> 00:19:00.379
communication, collaboration all over the country.
00:19:01.103 --> 00:19:04.563
Different universities work together as well as they fast-tracked FDA approval
00:19:04.563 --> 00:19:08.623
to get baby KJ in this treatment, and it saved him.
00:19:08.803 --> 00:19:15.283
So he was able to go home about six months later, and he is expected to have a normal life.
00:19:15.663 --> 00:19:20.043
That's so awesome. Now, it's fascinating. Back in the 90s, the first concerns
00:19:20.043 --> 00:19:22.643
were happening around GMO crops, right?
00:19:22.763 --> 00:19:25.703
Genetically modified organisms of food.
00:19:25.903 --> 00:19:29.283
And we kind of backed away from it. People were very scared about frankenfood
00:19:29.283 --> 00:19:33.283
for reasons good and bad. We want it organic, natural, whatever that means.
00:19:33.663 --> 00:19:36.343
But if you think about it, what we're basically saying is, okay,
00:19:36.383 --> 00:19:38.623
we're actually going to have genetically modified people.
00:19:39.543 --> 00:19:44.103
Baby KJ is a GMO person, right? Yeah, exactly.
00:19:44.443 --> 00:19:46.843
And so we're starting in a place, okay, where are you? Okay,
00:19:46.903 --> 00:19:51.063
you don't want your bread grown from GMO wheat, but can we save this baby's life?
00:19:51.489 --> 00:19:57.349
And so it's happening. We are modifying the DNA of living creatures.
00:19:58.349 --> 00:20:03.009
We're starting in a place that is, you know, like very hard to argue against.
00:20:03.369 --> 00:20:07.549
At some point. Who doesn't want to say baby KJ? Who doesn't want to say baby KJ?
00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:11.409
But at some point, it's going to shift to say, yeah, but can you just make me
00:20:11.409 --> 00:20:14.049
a little prettier? Or can you just make my kid a little smarter?
00:20:16.449 --> 00:20:19.349
And we're only going to see more of this over the next few years.
00:20:19.629 --> 00:20:22.749
If you're a pharmaceutical company, some of the things that you've been treating
00:20:22.749 --> 00:20:28.329
with pharmaceuticals is just going to change to a gene editing solution.
00:20:30.289 --> 00:20:35.229
Only more of this to come. Well, think about pre-existing conditions with insurance,
00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:37.689
right? Like, I think it just changes the whole landscape.
00:20:38.109 --> 00:20:41.309
That's right. Exactly. Like, if you have a pre-existing condition,
00:20:41.449 --> 00:20:44.329
is there something we can do about it to repair you?
00:20:44.769 --> 00:20:48.489
Yeah. All right. We're halfway through this now. Right. Take a look at that.
00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:50.469
We just went through five of these.
00:20:50.609 --> 00:20:55.669
Right. Yeah. We started off talking about GLP-1 drugs. We talked about climate change.
00:20:55.989 --> 00:21:00.829
We talked about AI psychosis and technology, you know, like. As tobacco.
00:21:01.369 --> 00:21:05.529
Yeah. As tobacco. We've talked about fusion power. We talked about gene therapy and CRISPR.
00:21:06.324 --> 00:21:09.904
General take? What do you think? Like, it's, it's, there's a lot that happened
00:21:09.904 --> 00:21:12.404
this year on that front, and we're only halfway through the headlines.
00:21:12.644 --> 00:21:16.324
There's a lot, and I was excited, I think, towards the end, as soon as we started
00:21:16.324 --> 00:21:19.604
talking about fusion power and gene editing, you start getting this sense,
00:21:19.704 --> 00:21:22.004
like, oh my gosh, the future, right?
00:21:22.084 --> 00:21:25.844
Like, it felt a lot more things that we used to think as, like,
00:21:25.964 --> 00:21:29.104
totally fake, and here they are, and exciting stuff.
00:21:29.224 --> 00:21:31.944
It's making me feel good. So far, I feel good. I'm nervous then.
00:21:33.544 --> 00:21:37.344
And these are also things that had reasonable concerns, you know,
00:21:37.464 --> 00:21:40.644
GMOs and gene editing. Yeah.
00:21:41.064 --> 00:21:45.844
Look, bad stuff may still happen due to gene editing. Bad stuff may happen as
00:21:45.844 --> 00:21:48.044
a result of fusion power. No question, right?
00:21:48.424 --> 00:21:52.944
Yeah. But no question that the technology went from science fiction to reality
00:21:52.944 --> 00:21:56.124
in a way that is incredible, right? That's right.
00:21:56.404 --> 00:22:02.524
That's right. And if our brain said, yeah, I imagine only linear change going
00:22:02.524 --> 00:22:06.724
forward, just look back over the last couple of years, look back over 2025 and
00:22:06.724 --> 00:22:07.884
see how much change there's already.
00:22:08.683 --> 00:22:11.423
Oh, that's also my takeaway, just how smart we are.
00:22:11.603 --> 00:22:16.983
You know, many of these we called out last year. Wait, are you saying how smart human beings are?
00:22:17.303 --> 00:22:21.163
No, no, you and me, Dave. You and me? Oh, for God's sake. Yeah, right. Okay.
00:22:22.043 --> 00:22:24.923
I got another one for you here. Let's get into this. Headline number five.
00:22:25.863 --> 00:22:29.863
Self-driving trucks when commercial and robo taxis expanded to new cities.
00:22:30.303 --> 00:22:33.503
This is your Weibo. I love this. Yeah, I love this one.
00:22:34.303 --> 00:22:37.283
Right. It's, you know, we've been talking about robots for a while.
00:22:38.183 --> 00:22:42.043
Robots are on the streets now in cities like San Francisco and Austin.
00:22:42.203 --> 00:22:44.823
You can drive a Waymo. You can drive a Waymo.
00:22:45.103 --> 00:22:47.743
And now they've launched actually Dallas, Houston, San Antonio,
00:22:48.023 --> 00:22:50.283
Orlando. They've just launched in Miami.
00:22:51.043 --> 00:22:56.583
Amazon has gotten huge into this, but there's Zoox. You've probably seen those training all around.
00:22:56.983 --> 00:23:00.143
Yeah. So that's really just taken off in a commercial way, which,
00:23:00.243 --> 00:23:04.143
again, do you remember like self-driving vehicles was, you know,
00:23:04.263 --> 00:23:07.483
oh, it'll come next year. No, no, no. We're 20 years away from it. No.
00:23:07.703 --> 00:23:11.963
And just, oh, no, they're here. You can pay for them. You're actually here right now.
00:23:12.123 --> 00:23:16.343
You can come to San Francisco like you just did, and you can ride in one yourself
00:23:16.343 --> 00:23:20.783
and then have everybody in Peru talk about how you're living in the future. How cool I am.
00:23:21.463 --> 00:23:26.823
But the other side is the commercial vehicles and the trucks,
00:23:26.863 --> 00:23:28.363
which I find really fascinating, right?
00:23:28.803 --> 00:23:32.003
Yeah, exactly. So that has been the cool one sort of under the radar,
00:23:32.003 --> 00:23:35.023
in my opinion, because it's a little small right now. But again, let's look at signals.
00:23:35.303 --> 00:23:40.603
You've got a company called Aurora, who their semis are running between Houston and Dallas. Thank you.
00:23:41.073 --> 00:23:45.453
Yeah. Right. And so today. Yeah, that's that's on the road.
00:23:45.673 --> 00:23:49.893
Right. And this is something that, look, there's a lot of freight that gets
00:23:49.893 --> 00:23:52.793
shipped across the country. The United States is a big place.
00:23:53.233 --> 00:23:57.053
And we ship a lot of goods, you know, with with trucks.
00:23:57.273 --> 00:24:00.513
And being a trucker is a hard job. I mean, they're long hours.
00:24:00.693 --> 00:24:02.533
You're supposed to take regulated sleep.
00:24:03.053 --> 00:24:06.973
We hear stories that they folks don't do it. And there's all sorts of,
00:24:06.993 --> 00:24:09.833
you know, addiction issues because addiction issues as people are trying to
00:24:09.833 --> 00:24:11.993
find ways to stay awake. longer, right?
00:24:12.893 --> 00:24:18.753
So, you know, maybe robots are a viable, you know, alternative having autonomous trucks.
00:24:19.273 --> 00:24:23.033
The challenge is, is we have, by anyone's count, anywhere between three and
00:24:23.033 --> 00:24:25.973
a half to four million truckers in America.
00:24:27.013 --> 00:24:30.933
And so is this the writing on the wall for them? Are they all going to be out
00:24:30.933 --> 00:24:33.653
of a job in the next five years, right?
00:24:33.833 --> 00:24:36.773
Think about that. Like that's, you know that's one percent
00:24:36.773 --> 00:24:39.713
of the population right one percent of
00:24:39.713 --> 00:24:43.453
the predominantly male working age population will
00:24:43.453 --> 00:24:46.633
be unemployed thanks who's doing really well right
00:24:46.633 --> 00:24:50.313
now too yeah right who's doing really well right now
00:24:50.313 --> 00:24:53.193
like trucking is a great job in terms of like its
00:24:53.193 --> 00:24:55.953
benefits and it's pay we can't oh no sorry i just
00:24:55.953 --> 00:24:59.273
i was being ironic as when you said that men predominantly
00:24:59.273 --> 00:25:02.893
men are losing this job i was like they're already we
00:25:02.893 --> 00:25:05.773
already have so many stats of how how men are doing
00:25:05.773 --> 00:25:10.193
right so i was like great this is another one yeah no exactly that so this is
00:25:10.193 --> 00:25:14.793
this is something to pay attention to in terms of huge impact going forward
00:25:14.793 --> 00:25:21.113
yes at the same time i will say for me personally dave yes i i totally see that
00:25:21.113 --> 00:25:23.773
with our jobs but i also have to say,
00:25:24.464 --> 00:25:28.324
The vision I have for safety, like road safety in the future,
00:25:28.564 --> 00:25:30.624
whether it's pedestrian deaths, car deaths.
00:25:30.724 --> 00:25:32.904
In the U.S., we have a huge problem with that.
00:25:33.244 --> 00:25:37.844
Yeah. Even trucker deaths, right, or cars by semis who are tired and a normal
00:25:37.844 --> 00:25:41.944
pedestrian car or civilian car gets, you know, gets run over.
00:25:42.364 --> 00:25:47.644
So to me, I think of this as also just imagining that real Internet of Things,
00:25:47.884 --> 00:25:49.824
connected highways, et cetera.
00:25:50.184 --> 00:25:54.104
Right. Yeah. I mean, this is something that we're going to see more and more of.
00:25:55.084 --> 00:25:59.344
Freight, logistics, supply chains are going to be transformed by this,
00:25:59.544 --> 00:26:03.504
not someday soon, but kind of starting now.
00:26:03.864 --> 00:26:07.104
As you said, the trucks are already on the road between Dallas and Houston.
00:26:07.644 --> 00:26:11.204
And it's going to change the cost of goods, the cost of supply.
00:26:12.064 --> 00:26:15.364
We've got to figure out what to do for everybody who was a trucker.
00:26:16.164 --> 00:26:22.124
Just telling them to go it alone or sign up to be an Internet influencer is
00:26:22.124 --> 00:26:27.224
not viable. And I feel like we have not paid attention to this for 20 years.
00:26:27.384 --> 00:26:30.004
We were just like, no, no, no, people will retrain and reskill themselves.
00:26:30.204 --> 00:26:32.984
And that's not happening. And this is going to make things even worse.
00:26:33.704 --> 00:26:36.804
All right, give us another one. All right. Headline number four,
00:26:37.464 --> 00:26:40.184
China pulled ahead as the world leader in green technology.
00:26:41.044 --> 00:26:45.424
Yeah, look, we keep cutting back in the U.S. The current administration thinks
00:26:45.424 --> 00:26:50.764
that green technology is a scam. And if you're the Chinese, you are just delighted
00:26:50.764 --> 00:26:53.044
to watch America just, you know.
00:26:53.578 --> 00:26:56.278
Cause, you know, self-inflicted harm as we're just like, no,
00:26:56.378 --> 00:26:58.318
no, no, we want to lose this race.
00:26:58.498 --> 00:27:02.398
Like, please jump ahead for us. We're seeing this across the board with China's
00:27:02.398 --> 00:27:07.078
doing both in terms of electric vehicles, but just also in terms of electricity
00:27:07.078 --> 00:27:08.918
production has gone green.
00:27:09.338 --> 00:27:12.918
I think this, I got to be honest, out of all our headlines, this is one that
00:27:12.918 --> 00:27:15.678
probably surprised me the most, like caught me by surprise.
00:27:15.918 --> 00:27:18.658
And I think it's probably because when I think of a few
00:27:18.658 --> 00:27:21.758
narratives like one is you know when we think about China's
00:27:21.758 --> 00:27:24.478
the great polluter right that's been the narrative for a
00:27:24.478 --> 00:27:29.398
long time and like oh well it's about cheap manufacturing and so imagining that
00:27:29.398 --> 00:27:34.298
they would choose to take the lead right like and take this investment which
00:27:34.298 --> 00:27:38.398
requires like redoing a lot of whatever the infrastructure they currently have
00:27:38.398 --> 00:27:44.218
because to your point they now are producing three quarters,
00:27:44.518 --> 00:27:51.398
I think it was, three quarters of all wind and solar projects are in China.
00:27:51.918 --> 00:27:56.718
Exactly. And they themselves, their clean energy is number one for them right
00:27:56.718 --> 00:27:59.818
now for their own energy production. But that's been fascinating.
00:28:00.018 --> 00:28:03.638
If you're building a wind turbine now, it's probably coming from China.
00:28:03.798 --> 00:28:07.258
And that's not to mention, like you already said, it's like their EVs,
00:28:07.318 --> 00:28:08.178
which we don't have them here.
00:28:08.358 --> 00:28:11.618
But man, are those doing well and selling well? Yeah.
00:28:11.758 --> 00:28:15.338
You know, at the end of December, Ford announced that they were going to have
00:28:15.338 --> 00:28:20.518
like huge cuts because they were actually dialing back their EV models in the United States.
00:28:21.118 --> 00:28:27.078
And man, at the same time, BYD and sister companies in the United States are
00:28:27.078 --> 00:28:30.218
just going great guns on this. And the cars are crazy.
00:28:30.875 --> 00:28:35.255
Super cheap. They're like, you know, like 10 grand and they're like fully automated
00:28:35.255 --> 00:28:38.495
and electric and running much better.
00:28:38.635 --> 00:28:41.915
They look like a generation ahead of anything we have in the U.S.
00:28:42.335 --> 00:28:46.115
In part because of government support, right? China is going all in on green tech.
00:28:46.415 --> 00:28:49.395
And I think it really speaks to, again, momentum versus moments,
00:28:49.495 --> 00:28:52.475
right? Like, where do we think the world is moving?
00:28:52.635 --> 00:28:57.835
And if you take this plus fusion, plus just the demand that we have for energy,
00:28:57.835 --> 00:28:59.995
It's clearly saying, you know, some people might have thought,
00:29:00.135 --> 00:29:02.955
okay, well, that'll bring us back to fossil fuels because the demand is going
00:29:02.955 --> 00:29:06.395
to destroy all of the clean energy tech advancements.
00:29:06.535 --> 00:29:09.935
And what you're seeing is actually, no, it's pushing us towards newer,
00:29:10.355 --> 00:29:11.295
like, no, we need fusion.
00:29:11.315 --> 00:29:17.895
We need other sources of energy that are more clean, is one version.
00:29:18.015 --> 00:29:24.895
But I think also just we need more of it. And fusion is that sort of unending source. Yeah.
00:29:25.653 --> 00:29:28.833
It's true. I mean, you still have politicians in the United States who are fighting
00:29:28.833 --> 00:29:32.733
for coal at the same time that, you know, China is leaping ahead.
00:29:33.313 --> 00:29:38.573
You talk to people from China and they do not understand our desire to just
00:29:38.573 --> 00:29:39.653
kind of abandon the field.
00:29:39.773 --> 00:29:42.773
It's one thing to compete with someone else.
00:29:42.933 --> 00:29:46.273
It's another thing to abandon the field and say you win for no reason whatsoever.
00:29:46.273 --> 00:29:48.633
No reason. And that we seem to be doing that.
00:29:49.333 --> 00:29:54.133
Which, you know, takes us to the next headline, headline number three.
00:29:54.353 --> 00:29:57.113
And this is one that is deeply concerning to me.
00:29:58.193 --> 00:30:03.133
Headline number three, America dismantled a century's worth of security and trade alliances.
00:30:03.993 --> 00:30:07.833
Man, this was brutal this year. Whether you talk about, you know,
00:30:08.273 --> 00:30:12.733
killing off USAID and the support it provides to all sorts of people in dire
00:30:12.733 --> 00:30:16.413
straits, whether you talk about tariffs and putting up protectionist barriers,
00:30:16.633 --> 00:30:20.893
whether you talk about being dodgy on NATO and standing by Ukraine.
00:30:20.893 --> 00:30:27.833
On multiple fronts, the United States in, call it like 12 months,
00:30:28.713 --> 00:30:33.953
dismantled many of the key military security and economic alliances.
00:30:35.079 --> 00:30:38.979
That have kept the peace, you know, like what we call the Pax Americana,
00:30:39.179 --> 00:30:41.679
have kept the peace for the better part of a century.
00:30:42.459 --> 00:30:47.279
And this is just deeply troubling. And I don't know that it's something that
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:50.999
you can, you know, once you do this kind of dismantling, I don't know that you
00:30:50.999 --> 00:30:52.639
can put it back together again afterwards.
00:30:53.419 --> 00:30:56.959
I think that's why this is a headline for the future for us, right, Dave?
00:30:56.959 --> 00:31:02.659
Because that's important, I think, for us to really concentrate when we do these
00:31:02.659 --> 00:31:04.479
things to say, okay, what doesn't feel,
00:31:04.699 --> 00:31:07.639
especially with political things, it feels like, is this happening,
00:31:07.639 --> 00:31:11.719
but, you know, new president next year or two years or new Congress,
00:31:11.719 --> 00:31:13.719
and this goes away, right?
00:31:13.799 --> 00:31:18.939
That's right. But this the reason this is here is because when we think about
00:31:18.939 --> 00:31:23.879
the future and when we think about cutting those those agreements or putting
00:31:23.879 --> 00:31:26.919
the tariffs or the relationships that are that are breaking,
00:31:27.159 --> 00:31:29.019
it's the consequence of that,
00:31:29.259 --> 00:31:31.239
whether it's, you know,
00:31:31.499 --> 00:31:36.339
Germany doing their largest ever defense procurement package or South Korea
00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:38.299
debating having their own nuclear power.
00:31:39.099 --> 00:31:43.379
That really matters because you can't just, you know, get your nuclear power
00:31:43.379 --> 00:31:46.379
and say, yeah, okay, but now it's a new president, so I'm going to take it away.
00:31:46.619 --> 00:31:49.279
You know, I'm going to put that in the closet. Don't worry about it now.
00:31:49.479 --> 00:31:51.579
Look, for 80 years, we told the world,
00:31:52.210 --> 00:31:55.250
Don't worry about building up your militaries. We will keep you safe.
00:31:55.410 --> 00:31:57.310
Don't worry about patrolling the seas.
00:31:57.530 --> 00:32:01.070
We will protect the shipping lanes. Don't worry about, you know,
00:32:01.130 --> 00:32:02.650
like where you're storing your money.
00:32:02.890 --> 00:32:05.650
The U.S. dollar will be the reserve currency.
00:32:05.910 --> 00:32:10.470
Right. And that gave us massive amounts of influence and power untold,
00:32:10.570 --> 00:32:14.810
like no civilization in the history of mankind. Right.
00:32:15.470 --> 00:32:19.170
And to just kind of walk away from all of it in a way of saying,
00:32:19.250 --> 00:32:22.970
no, no, we're just going to go it alone is really abandoning the field.
00:32:23.130 --> 00:32:26.970
And even if we come back in three years and say, ha ha, we were just kidding.
00:32:27.170 --> 00:32:31.410
No, no, no, we will still support you. If you're Germany, if you're Japan or
00:32:31.410 --> 00:32:33.710
any of these other countries, why would you listen?
00:32:33.710 --> 00:32:37.770
And at the same time, if you pulled out aid from sub-Saharan Africa,
00:32:37.970 --> 00:32:41.090
at the same moment while the Chinese are coming in and saying,
00:32:41.170 --> 00:32:45.430
no, no, we'll actually help you out instead, how do you expect to have any influence in the world?
00:32:46.470 --> 00:32:51.230
You know, it's a lot of stupid headlines every day, but it's adding up to really
00:32:51.230 --> 00:32:56.990
the dismantling of what some people call the Pax Americana, maintaining the
00:32:56.990 --> 00:32:59.030
peace militarily and economically.
00:32:59.570 --> 00:33:02.970
I mean, there's the piece, and then maybe the part not everyone agrees with,
00:33:03.090 --> 00:33:05.470
but I think the part that you said of—
00:33:05.867 --> 00:33:09.407
protecting American interests, right, and influence. And to me,
00:33:09.507 --> 00:33:14.407
that's the irony of calling this new strategy, let's call it America first, right?
00:33:14.547 --> 00:33:18.087
Because it does seem to sort of hinder the possibilities of what America can
00:33:18.087 --> 00:33:19.667
do in the future. For sure.
00:33:20.367 --> 00:33:23.607
All right. That's a huge bummer for this year.
00:33:24.387 --> 00:33:30.047
Meanwhile, we're all competing on other technology stuff. What do you have for
00:33:30.047 --> 00:33:32.327
the next one? Yeah. All right. Headline number two.
00:33:32.707 --> 00:33:37.127
AI fueled the global race for energy and compute infrastructure. Yeah.
00:33:37.987 --> 00:33:43.767
Everybody's investing in data centers and computing and even nuclear energy in crazy ways.
00:33:43.887 --> 00:33:47.407
And not just Amazon and Google and Microsoft, but countries too.
00:33:47.687 --> 00:33:51.147
Sovereign wealth funds are diving into this. I mean, sovereign wealth funds,
00:33:51.287 --> 00:33:53.627
but let's talk about, you know, just the U.S.
00:33:53.667 --> 00:33:57.047
And China, you know, to pit them against each other again. This is one place
00:33:57.047 --> 00:33:58.567
where we really are racing, right?
00:33:58.747 --> 00:34:03.287
China's putting huge emphasis on saying we want to be the digital backbone, right?
00:34:03.347 --> 00:34:08.287
We want to be the infrastructure where that all the data, all the AI data is housed on.
00:34:08.727 --> 00:34:12.467
Whereas you can imagine sort of like a TikTok Oracle deal, right?
00:34:12.687 --> 00:34:16.307
Like, but then when it also comes to the actual chips, I mean,
00:34:16.407 --> 00:34:20.107
there was a story this year, I don't know if you recall, where there was a Chinese
00:34:20.107 --> 00:34:26.307
man found with like chips in his pockets trying to travel back to AI, to China, right?
00:34:26.407 --> 00:34:30.347
And so, I mean, it's truly about like who owns the best technology.
00:34:31.067 --> 00:34:34.607
And maybe at first you might have thought it was a let's all work together,
00:34:34.987 --> 00:34:38.207
but it has certainly devolved into whoever owns it first.
00:34:38.950 --> 00:34:43.850
Will own the future, right? And that's led everything from energy that we've
00:34:43.850 --> 00:34:44.710
already kind of talked about.
00:34:44.830 --> 00:34:48.610
But to me, what's been fascinating has seen both where we're putting data centers,
00:34:48.850 --> 00:34:51.910
including the moon, you know, which we talked a little bit. Crazy,
00:34:52.090 --> 00:34:53.390
right? We saw all sorts of stuff.
00:34:53.490 --> 00:34:56.570
People are trying to put data centers in orbit, in space.
00:34:56.910 --> 00:35:01.770
In orbit, underwater, which has happened as well. Yeah, what was that?
00:35:01.890 --> 00:35:03.730
We talked about that one on this podcast, right?
00:35:04.490 --> 00:35:08.750
Like just off the coast of China, they're putting a big data center underwater.
00:35:08.950 --> 00:35:11.190
They're saying it's easier to cool, perhaps that way, right?
00:35:11.290 --> 00:35:13.670
So we're trying to figure out ways to do this at scale.
00:35:13.850 --> 00:35:17.670
But then, you know, what do chips, what do data centers need?
00:35:17.910 --> 00:35:22.770
They need those critical minerals, right? The things that the lithium metals, right? Right.
00:35:23.430 --> 00:35:28.190
And so that's led. We do not feel like either we have enough or enough on the
00:35:28.190 --> 00:35:29.910
land that we currently have.
00:35:30.090 --> 00:35:32.890
And so it's led us to a lot of like the U.S.
00:35:32.950 --> 00:35:38.650
Greenlit Pacific deep sea mining contracts, as well as Japan has been testing
00:35:38.650 --> 00:35:42.170
lunar soil processing for rare metal yields.
00:35:42.830 --> 00:35:48.370
Yeah. Right. And all this because there was a cool chatbot that came out three years ago.
00:35:50.070 --> 00:35:53.410
Let's hope it's cooler than just a chatbot. Yeah, right. Okay,
00:35:53.510 --> 00:35:54.910
that brings us to the last one.
00:35:55.130 --> 00:35:59.750
Headline number one, companies started cutting jobs because of AI.
00:36:00.150 --> 00:36:05.170
The AI layoffs, the downsizing, it is not in the future, it is here.
00:36:05.170 --> 00:36:09.370
Yeah, this is another one where, you know, I often think, okay,
00:36:09.490 --> 00:36:10.370
don't cite predictions.
00:36:10.530 --> 00:36:14.770
Don't cite predictions, right? So the few years before this has been all about
00:36:14.770 --> 00:36:20.910
predictions towards what AI will do to workforce reduction, especially white-collar jobs.
00:36:21.050 --> 00:36:24.590
And it was like, okay, 30%, 40% of the workforce. We don't know.
00:36:24.730 --> 00:36:28.290
But then quickly this year, it went from predictions to, oh,
00:36:28.350 --> 00:36:33.050
no, we're actually cutting jobs because of AI. Like, it's actually happening. No longer predictions.
00:36:33.765 --> 00:36:40.405
We do have some tracking that shows about 10,000 jobs cut in the first seven months of 2025 so far.
00:36:40.605 --> 00:36:44.345
Right. And that doesn't even count the big ones that came at the end of the year.
00:36:44.625 --> 00:36:47.845
You know, Amazon announced 14,000 people getting laid off.
00:36:47.945 --> 00:36:50.985
And I think that one is particularly interesting because it wasn't,
00:36:51.145 --> 00:36:55.865
hey, we can do the jobs without you because of AI. We're going to cut 14,000 jobs.
00:36:56.045 --> 00:36:58.725
It was, no, we need cash, right? Right.
00:36:58.805 --> 00:37:02.945
We need a leaner business because we have to go buy a bunch of chips and build
00:37:02.945 --> 00:37:05.485
a bunch of data centers and invest in AI infrastructure.
00:37:06.445 --> 00:37:12.485
And the investors are so used to our infrastructure business,
00:37:12.745 --> 00:37:16.665
AWS being this nice, beautiful, high margin business.
00:37:16.985 --> 00:37:20.305
We're going to have to fire a bunch of people just so we can afford the chips.
00:37:20.805 --> 00:37:24.005
Exactly. And just to give you a sense, like Google, by the way,
00:37:24.425 --> 00:37:29.705
their CapEx for the AI build out just in 2025 was $75 billion. million dollars.
00:37:30.205 --> 00:37:34.045
Right. Just think about that. And those are the headlines we're seeing from tech companies.
00:37:34.205 --> 00:37:39.105
We're seeing it from, you know, behind the scenes. You and I have been in conversation
00:37:39.105 --> 00:37:42.045
with the food companies who are saying, no, actually, we need to build out the
00:37:42.045 --> 00:37:45.105
health data so we know as much as an insurance company does.
00:37:45.685 --> 00:37:48.905
The race is on to get smart on this stuff. Yes.
00:37:49.365 --> 00:37:53.065
The race is on to get smart on this stuff and to figure out,
00:37:53.185 --> 00:37:57.125
I think, what does our workforce look like in the future. Yeah.
00:37:57.525 --> 00:38:01.845
Right? And I think it's particularly, too, if your entire workforce is not working,
00:38:02.025 --> 00:38:04.285
I'm not sure where your consumers are. Yeah.
00:38:04.850 --> 00:38:08.830
Okay, so that's our list of headlines on the future. Number one,
00:38:09.090 --> 00:38:10.970
companies started cutting jobs because of AI.
00:38:11.350 --> 00:38:15.630
Two, AI fueled the global race for energy and computer infrastructure,
00:38:15.870 --> 00:38:20.630
which in part contributed to the job cutting. Number three, America dismantled
00:38:20.630 --> 00:38:22.570
centuries worth of security and trade alliances.
00:38:23.310 --> 00:38:26.190
Four, meanwhile, China pulled ahead as the world leader in green tech.
00:38:26.770 --> 00:38:30.510
Five, self-driving trucks, right, and robo-taxis came online.
00:38:31.290 --> 00:38:35.830
Six, genetting technologies actually started to save human lives.
00:38:36.390 --> 00:38:39.870
Seven, fusion power moved down the path even further.
00:38:40.517 --> 00:38:45.117
Eight, technology started to be treated like tobacco, including people taking
00:38:45.117 --> 00:38:48.357
a look at why is AI leading us to psychosis and suicide.
00:38:49.137 --> 00:38:52.557
Nine, cities are struggling to adapt in the face of climate change.
00:38:53.177 --> 00:38:58.577
And ten, adoption effectiveness of GLP drugs continues to expand in all of its
00:38:58.577 --> 00:39:00.097
applications and form factors.
00:39:00.737 --> 00:39:06.157
That's a whole hell lot of a change for 12 months, Michelle. Yeah, what a future.
00:39:07.417 --> 00:39:11.737
Yeah, it's figuring out how to navigate that is something that,
00:39:11.837 --> 00:39:13.237
you know, you got to start early.
00:39:13.497 --> 00:39:18.277
It takes time. And you can't just try to argue to put it back in the bottle, right?
00:39:18.337 --> 00:39:21.237
This is where we're seeing people who are saying, okay, well,
00:39:21.317 --> 00:39:25.557
we should just not let NVIDIA sell its H200 chips to China. Yeah.
00:39:26.177 --> 00:39:31.577
That's incredibly short sighted. Right. Because then it just helps them to spur.
00:39:31.717 --> 00:39:36.597
How do we become completely independent of the U.S.? We saw that with DeepSeek. Yeah.
00:39:36.837 --> 00:39:42.717
I think that's the thing is don't take the U.S.'s current position as inspiration
00:39:42.717 --> 00:39:44.357
for how to fight the future.
00:39:44.617 --> 00:39:49.077
Because I think there's definitely that idea that you pull out and you see where
00:39:49.077 --> 00:39:50.637
the rest of the world fills those gaps.
00:39:51.197 --> 00:39:56.577
Right. And I think that thinking that you've that if you squeeze it so hard,
00:39:56.737 --> 00:40:01.397
squeeze the ecosystem so hard to protect that moat you have. Yeah.
00:40:01.617 --> 00:40:04.877
Right. It's going to come, whether it's robo taxis, which we thought would,
00:40:05.057 --> 00:40:07.197
you know, wouldn't happen for a long time. They're here.
00:40:07.697 --> 00:40:12.917
AI, it's here. Right. Clean energy, whether you like it or not, fusion is here. Right.
00:40:13.417 --> 00:40:16.897
And it's been interesting, particularly like fusion again is,
00:40:17.137 --> 00:40:19.517
you know, yes, we might be calling it the Department of War again,
00:40:19.737 --> 00:40:21.417
but we do have a Department of Fusion.
00:40:22.557 --> 00:40:27.617
So that's right. We set up a group inside the Department of Energy for fusion. Yeah, it's huge.
00:40:28.437 --> 00:40:33.537
A lot of change in a very short period of time. I look forward with eagerness
00:40:33.537 --> 00:40:36.997
and anxiety as to what 2026 looks like.
00:40:37.529 --> 00:40:40.489
Last thoughts as we're doing this. You know, what are the things we should be
00:40:40.489 --> 00:40:44.029
paying attention to going forward? How do all of these headlines change?
00:40:44.309 --> 00:40:47.349
How do you think about where we go from here in 2026?
00:40:48.029 --> 00:40:51.629
You know, I think that's where this moment versus momentum. I'm less concerned
00:40:51.629 --> 00:40:56.289
where we go next year exactly, but where we're going to go into the next five to seven years.
00:40:56.509 --> 00:40:59.229
And I think you're going to see like fusion, as we just mentioned,
00:40:59.369 --> 00:41:02.069
given the amount of money, you should expect some of these to accelerate.
00:41:02.629 --> 00:41:06.529
Right. But I also think I love sometimes the tension between some of these headlines.
00:41:06.529 --> 00:41:11.649
And I think where I find those, like our reaction to AI versus the race to AI,
00:41:12.089 --> 00:41:15.489
right, to building that, I think those are really important for us to pay attention
00:41:15.489 --> 00:41:18.829
to because, as we always say, don't predict the future, right?
00:41:19.089 --> 00:41:22.549
But preparing looks like, what are the little experiments?
00:41:22.549 --> 00:41:26.529
What are the little things that I can do right now to be prepared for either one of those futures?
00:41:26.529 --> 00:41:31.489
Where there is no Chernobyl and AI does go the direction we want it to go,
00:41:31.649 --> 00:41:34.149
or that would be beneficial for it to go,
00:41:34.329 --> 00:41:37.849
then you might say, okay, I really need to think about where I'm getting the
00:41:37.849 --> 00:41:42.209
talent to fuel that AI future because the talent gap is too wide and I might
00:41:42.209 --> 00:41:44.909
need to retrain my current workforce for that.
00:41:44.909 --> 00:41:49.209
On the other hand, if AI is in the complete future, how are we talking about
00:41:49.209 --> 00:41:56.189
connection or branding and marketing or brand experiences or even shopping if
00:41:56.189 --> 00:41:58.689
there's a Chernobyl-like event? Yeah.
00:41:59.889 --> 00:42:04.309
To think that further and to think big and then turn it back to say,
00:42:04.329 --> 00:42:07.649
okay, what are small experiments that I can do right now?
00:42:08.316 --> 00:42:12.616
Kind of test and learn and stay in the game. Whether you're thinking about energy,
00:42:12.896 --> 00:42:14.756
whether you're thinking about how you're thinking about data,
00:42:15.116 --> 00:42:17.996
whether you're thinking about changing consumer behavior.
00:42:18.556 --> 00:42:23.836
Your own infrastructure. Or the investments we're making in long-term infrastructure.
00:42:24.656 --> 00:42:29.156
And these are all positive things for many of the companies that you and I work with.
00:42:29.316 --> 00:42:33.996
We're seeing this already that a previous generation would be perfectly happy
00:42:33.996 --> 00:42:36.396
to say, okay, let's just kick the investment down the road.
00:42:36.536 --> 00:42:39.776
Technology debt is a very abstract thing. We need operating margins now.
00:42:40.116 --> 00:42:43.696
And to say, no, I actually have to get going on this or I'm going to be left
00:42:43.696 --> 00:42:49.176
out of the game is encouraging that certainly coming out of COVID,
00:42:49.616 --> 00:42:54.096
many of the leaders we spend time with are much more future focused, which is great.
00:42:54.396 --> 00:42:58.076
That's what I think this year crystallizes, right? Is no one can come out of
00:42:58.076 --> 00:43:00.416
this year and say, man, chill year.
00:43:00.836 --> 00:43:03.356
I could think the future feels totally predictable.
00:43:04.036 --> 00:43:07.676
And, you know, and that's a good thing, right? If we're not lulling ourselves
00:43:07.676 --> 00:43:11.716
into, I mean, it's the future is never predictable, but it's awesome if we're not lulling ourselves.
00:43:11.916 --> 00:43:15.936
And to me, that gives me hope. If we just, if we look at these things and say,
00:43:16.276 --> 00:43:19.296
hey, we want to make changes or we want to do things differently,
00:43:19.676 --> 00:43:22.476
then I think that's self-prophesizing.
00:43:26.976 --> 00:43:30.936
All right. This is a great conversation, but we got to go. We'll see you next time.
00:43:31.416 --> 00:43:34.936
Thanks so much for spending time with us. And remember, the conversation doesn't end here.
00:43:35.216 --> 00:43:38.556
Every Saturday, you can hear from Dave in your inbox with his future-focused
00:43:38.556 --> 00:43:40.056
letters for clients and friends.
00:43:40.216 --> 00:43:43.436
And you can always connect with us on LinkedIn and jeppassociates.com.
00:43:43.576 --> 00:43:45.876
You know the deal, like, share, subscribe, etc.
00:43:46.116 --> 00:43:49.456
For more thought-provoking content and all of my family stories.
00:43:49.876 --> 00:43:51.316
Which I find fascinating.
00:43:51.936 --> 00:43:56.816
Your hosts are Dave Benayek and Michelle Loretta Mola. This episode was produced by Debbie Marone.
00:43:57.136 --> 00:44:01.416
Research was done by Austin Luthridge, Michelle Loretta-Mola and Debbie Marone.