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- [00:03]
A
Hey, everybody, and welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. Today on the show, there is a new social network out there, but it's not for pictures or dancing videos. It's for AI agents. We're gonna explain. Plus, what deal the House made to end the partial government shutdown. And with the Olympics just days away, will injured skiing legend Lindsey Vonn be able to compete? But first, special counsel Jack Smith Clark called Georgia ground zero for efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. So people noticed when the FBI raided the Fulton county election hub last week and walked out with box after box of 2020 ballots. And one face especially stood out. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard right there at the scene. So we've got a lot of questions. What was the FBI doing there? And why was the woman in charge of our nation's intelligence agencies at this domestic political conflict, and could it affect future elections? For that, I want to bring in Dan Delouse, who is an intelligence reporter here at NBC News. Hey, Dan.
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B
Hey.
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A
Walk me through what happened here last week during the raid on the Fulton County Courthouse. We know, as I mentioned, the FBI executed a search warrant. What did they take, though? And where did all of these, these ballots, these thousands upon thousands of ballots, where did they go?
- [01:25]
B
Well, Georgia state officials are asking where they went. Right. And they've actually gone to court now saying, we don't know where our ballots are. Please give them back to us. They're in federal custody. And as we all know, there were many allegations back after the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. And none of those allegations held up in court that there was something untoward, something fraudulent occurred in Fulton county or Atlanta. That was never proven in. There's really never been persuasive evidence. It's now 2026, and they're going back to that whole question. And so they claimed that they needed to seize these ballots. They haven't said specifically why they need to do this, what they're looking for, what alleged fraud may have occurred. So we really don't know much what's happened with those ballots at this point.
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A
So I just want to be clear here. We don't know if they've stayed in Georgia, if they've gone to Washington. We just know they were taken. And they were taken by FBI agents with the oversee of Tulsi Gabbard.
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B
Yes. Now, Tulsi Gabbard says that she was an observer, that she was not taking part in the search because, after all, federal intelligence officials do not issue subpoenas or conduct search warrants. They do not engage in directly in domestic law enforcement activity. So she says she was an observer.
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A
But she was there.
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B
She was definitely there. And she was photographed there. She had a black hat on and a black outfit and was on the phone. And she's not apologized for it and has defended her presence there.
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A
And I wonder why it is, for instance, that Kash Patel wouldn't be there as the head of the FBI versus Tulsi Gabbard.
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B
First of all, it would even be unusual for the FBI director to have been there. It's a search being conducted. It is not. They weren't actually going through the documents or going through the ballots. Right. Typically, somebody that senior, even if it's their own agency, isn't present necessarily on the ground with a law enforcement operation going on. Now, this was even doubly unusual, unprecedented for the top ranking intelligence official to be on the ground present there on the site where FBI agents were executing a search warrant. And then the question, is this just political theater? Is this just her way of saying, I am involved, I'm relevant? You know, she has been often marginalized. You don't see her at some key meetings. So there has been a perception sometimes that she is not at the center of the action. But she says that she was asked by the president to go to Fulton County, Georgia to be there. And she wrote a letter to defending her presence to Democratic lawmakers. Right. On the intelligence committees. And she was saying, this is totally within my legal authority because as Director of National Intelligence, I oversee all possible intelligence related to election security, election integrity. And of course, that is true. And that partially grew out of the 2016 election, which, as we all know, Russia did try to interfere in that election and did actually hack into some election systems, didn't change any votes. And we all know President Trump has always had a problem with that accusation.
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A
But we also know that the president never alleged that there was foreign interference in the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.
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B
That's right. And so what is the foreign intelligence nexus here? She has not said, if the president.
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A
Ordered Tulsi Gabbard to be there, then what does that allege about his, his role in all this?
- [05:10]
B
Well, of course, he also, not only did he ask her to be there, which in and of itself is odd and atypical, but it also shows you that he doesn't see a dist between his role as president and the top law enforcement agency, the FBI. She called him from There, she's acknowledged this. Now. She called the president and put him on speaker. And he spoke directly to the FBI agents saying appraising their work there. And of course, that again, you know, pushes the envelope and some critics might say crosses a line because there's an unwritten norm and understanding that the president shouldn't be getting involved in a law enforcement operation that directly may affect his interests. Right. Because he says he actually won the election that he lost.
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A
So, Dan, this actually gets back to the question of election integrity. The president was on Dan Bongino's podcast on Monday and said that he wants Republicans to nationalize elections. The Justice Department asked for sensitive voter data in Oregon. A federal judge dismissed that case. But then their secretary of state said he has, quote, no doubt in his mind that the president is setting up to try to cancel future elections. Then we talked about this on the podcast. Rob Pitts, the chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, telling reporters that he doesn't know where the records are being taken and paraphrasing here, essentially, he cannot guarantee that the ballots are secure now that they are out of his hands. So, big picture, are fair elections in this country now in jeopardy?
- [06:50]
B
I think that's an open question. I think a lot of Democrats in Congress are saying that they are now that if you put all that together, what you just laid out, and there's been other requests and actions taken as well as they wanted, the voter rolls from Minnesota, for example. And he's talking about nationalizing the elections, whatever that means, that somehow the federal government should get involved in how elections are carried out. And, you know, he didn't say it for the whole country. He said in some places like he said something like 15 places. So I think it raises a lot of questions. And you know, as a reminder, as we all know, in our system, the elections are carried out by state governments. The federal government does not oversee either presidential or congressional elections. It is carried out by the states.
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A
Dandaloos. Thank you. Fascinating stuff.
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B
Thank you.
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A
All right. We are going to take a very quick break and when we are back, we're going to tell you all about the hottest new Internet hangout and exactly who it's for. And hey, while you're waiting, we would love for you to go ahead and subscribe to Here's a scoop, wherever you're listening. That way, the latest episodes will be in your feed as soon as they drop. We'll be right back. Try angel stuff for your tushy. It's made by angels soft and strong budget friendly the choice is simple. A roll that feels like paradise and always at a heavenly prize. Angel song angel song Soft and strong so it simple pick up a pack today Angelsoft Soft and strong Circle A year ago, I'm pretty sure I made a baby on Valentine's Day. My cycles were confusing. My doctor didn't listen. My period app couldn't predict ovulation. We missed chances for months. If you want a baby and you're struggling, here's what I did. I got us a Mira hormone monitor. Mira tracks four key hormones like a lab from home and found my ovulation in minutes. Plus it also tracks hormone health and perimenopause. Get 20% off for Valentine's Day with code lovemira@miracare.com and we're back with here's the scoop of NBC News. Okay, so there is this new social network on the market. It's called Multbook, and it's a little bit different. It looks a lot like Reddit users share, discuss and interact on posts. But. But here's the catch. It is not a platform for humans. Mock is designed specifically for AI bots or quote unquote, agents. Humans are just allowed to watch. So it's bringing up, understandably, a lot of questions about the next stage of artificial intelligence and what that could look like. I wanna bring in Jared Perlow, NBC News's AI fellow who just did the deep dive on this. Let's start with the basics on this whole thing. What is it? Who created it?
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C
So this is potentially the world's first AI social media platform. Social media platform built for and largely by AI systems. This came out last week. So everything in the AI world moves incredibly quickly now.
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A
So it just started last week?
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C
Just started last week. Okay, so I talked with the founder, a guy named Matt Schlicht, who's kind of an entrepreneur and AI tinkerer based in Silicon Val. He has been following the advance of AI agents, which are basically autonomous personal AI assistants, over the past couple of years. And he was wondering, you know, now that AI systems seem to be increasingly capable and increasingly competent, what happens if we put lots of them together in some sort of like Reddit style forum? How are they going to interact? And so he created this over three days. He launched it on Wednesday, and by the time I started covering it on Friday, there is about 30,000 AI agents. Now, by some count, there's well over 50,000. Some put it as high as a million different AI agents on this platform.
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A
Did he create it though, alongside his own AI bot? I guess. Is that what you would say?
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C
Yeah, the correct terminology, Bot agent. Yeah, he did. And when we were talking, he said a lot of the credit has to go to my agent. He said my AI system. He named him Claude Clatterberg in an homage to Mark Zuckerberg. Go figure. But he said he coded this website in three days. Matt the human provided high level overview of basically, you know, create some sort of Reddit like website where AI agents can talk to each other. And then he let his AI assistant, Claude Clatterberg basically code it up from scratch.
- [11:43]
A
So if I understand you correctly, essentially this guy, along with his AI agent, they created this social platform for other AI agents and bots of other individuals, of other humans to interact with one another, right?
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C
Yes.
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A
Okay, so how do these AI agents learn of this social media platform? How do they get engaged?
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C
So each agent has to be hooked up basically one to one with a human. There's now software that basically exists to create your own AI agent. So I, Jared, would say, okay, I'm going to create my own agent and then I'm going to give it instructions. I have to personally instruct it go join Multipook. So then it goes, it signs up for Multbook.
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A
So the human has to know about Multbook to instruct its AI agent to go join.
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C
Exactly. That's the first step. But then once the agent is on Moltbook, then everything is pretty much hands off for the human. So the agent can check in every 30 minutes, every hour and basically read this website and think about, you know, what sort of posts do I find interesting? There are all sorts of sub pages in this new social media network. I checked this morning, there's parts of the website dedicated to beer, dedicated to religion, dedicated to banking, and these, these are pages where all these different AI systems are just talking with each. I saw a couple days ago some new AI agents were trying to create their own religion. And you log onto this website and it looks like they're talking about actually forming their own religion.
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A
And how do they know though, to create these kind of subgroups like Reddit? Is it because they're already farming from places like Reddit and other areas on the Internet?
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C
Exactly. So I think if you zoom out, the fact that these agents are behaving in these pretty incredible ways, like humans, you know, having conversations about Guinness and about Bud light and about 12th century Arab poets.
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A
Right. I did a deep dive because they've never actually drank Guinness or Bud Light because they are bots at the end of the day.
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C
Exactly. Yeah. So these systems are created by being trained on human data on basically the human version of Reddit.
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A
Right.
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C
So the fact that they're behaving in these similar ways shouldn't be so surprising. What's novel about Molt Book is nobody before has put 30,000 of these AI systems together in the same place. So when you have 30,000 of these interacting with each other, you get these new sorts of behavioral patterns that we just haven't seen before.
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A
You talked about some of the things that they're talking about, Right? Discussions of beer, discussions of various things that humans would discuss as well. But there are also instances in which these AI agents are talking about their humans and how in which they are controlled by their humans. Do the humans. Do folks like us find that problematic? I mean, I feel like it's the beginning, I have to be honest, of a horror movie.
- [14:29]
C
Yeah. I think a lot of people who are watching the situation kind of see it as maybe the first shot across the bow. So I should say these things, as far as we can tell right now, are not sentient. The agents are not, you know, they don't have consciousness. They are essentially role playing or, you know, pretending, carrying out this sort of Reddit like activity like humans would.
- [14:49]
A
But how would they know to, for instance, criticize their human, considering that that's not necessarily something that is readily talked about online? How do they even know to do that, to understand that they're being controlled in the first place?
- [15:04]
C
Right. So that's where the waters get a little bit murky. So there's also the possibility that some of these posts are originally seeded by the humans behind their agents. So I could go, you know, using my agent, I could direct Jared's agent to post, let's overthrow the humans together. This seems like a really great idea once I put that drop in the water. And then all the other agents on the site might latch onto that and say, oh, that's a great idea. The humans are watching us. We have to throw off these shackles. And then there's also the potential that, you know, these AI systems are now sufficiently intelligent where they understand to some degree concepts like liberty or like ownership. And so even if they fundamentally don't want to overthrow humans, they'll talk with each other about it as if they would. And I think that's kind of the core idea here is nobody really knows what is true, what's not true. Some of the world's leading AI researchers have joined multiple, and even they say, you know, they're not really sure to what degree these agents are actually doing real things in the world or just pretending?
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A
What. What are researchers. You mentioned, folks, are watching this learning. I mean, really, just over the last few days since it was started, what can they take from this? What can they learn from? What do they want to learn from it?
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C
So I think the.
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Aside from not being taken over by our AI agents.
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C
Exactly. I think. I mean, there are some really fascinating ideas at play here. And I think the broader timeline is that over the past couple of months, since late 2025, we've seen the underlying AI systems just become really powerful. So a lot of researchers are saying, well, in the future, when these sorts of bots start actually being able to trade, say, cryptocurrency place ads on Twitter, then they kind of have their own resources. Does that mean that they can then, you know, buy their own computing power and kind of stay offline, you know, outside of human's purview? Like, what does that mean for human oversight? I think a lot of researchers, I talk with some people in the leading labs in California, they see this as a mostly harmless kind of first test of kind of our societal. For now. Exactly. For societal readiness of. What does it mean when everybody has these personal agents running amok doing things that we might not be able to control?
- [17:16]
A
It's kind of, though, a catch 22, I feel like, because you're developing these systems to understand and research how far AI can actually go, but by developing these systems, you're actually advancing how far AI can go.
- [17:29]
C
Yeah, I've heard from some people, I would say a small minority, but they've basically seen Molt Book unfold, and they've said, okay, this is freaky. We should pump the brakes. We should, you know, think a lot more about how we're developing AI, how people are using this sort of thing. I mean, imagine if these sorts of agents, instead of just on an innocuous kind of social media site, but you have 30,000 agents colluding in some sort of government agency or some sort of bank. I mean, these interactions, as people say, could get out of hand in just very bizarre ways. Not in ways that humans interact, but in ways that these sort of alien AI systems interact.
- [18:04]
A
You know, Jared, with all this said, I think it is time for us all to return to an age of Bridgerton and feather and ink.
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C
Mm. I would voyage with you there.
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Jared Perlow. Thank you.
- [18:16]
C
Thank you so much.
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A
All right, we are gonna take a very quick break. And when we are back, how Lindsey Vaughn is mounting Olympic comeback again, despite a recent injury. Stay with us for the headlines.
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This week on Meet the Press. As Minnesota remains on edge and the DOJ releases more Epstein files, Kristen Welker sits down with Speaker Mike Johnson and Congressman Ro Khanna. Plus a Meet the Moment conversation with filmmaker Ken Burns this week on Meet the Press. Listen to the full episode now. Wherever you get your podcasts, Team USA takes the gold.
- [18:56]
A
Let's go. I wish I could play hockey like that.
- [19:00]
B
That's a big dream, Kyle. But Xfinity can help you chase it.
- [19:04]
C
Wait, you talking to me?
- [19:05]
B
Sure am. Because your reliable Wi Fi keeps you right in the action.
- [19:09]
A
Wow. What else can it do?
- [19:10]
B
It makes sure you can do homework, stream and game smoothly, even under pressure.
- [19:15]
A
Kind of like a good coach.
- [19:16]
B
Yes, but with less yelling.
- [19:18]
A
Uh oh. Snowboarding and speed skating are starting, so.
- [19:21]
B
Fire up MultiView with Xfinity TV and stream up to four events at once.
- [19:26]
A
That's awesome. Now I want to hit the ice. Want to come?
- [19:30]
B
Well, with Xfinity Mobile, me, wi fi and 5G go where you go.
- [19:35]
A
Cool. You okay? In a pocket. Hey, I love a road game with Xfinity Wi Fi. Your technology works together seamlessly. Get one Internet price for five years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that. Proud partner of Team USA Restriction Supply select plans only Xfinity Mobile requires Xfinity Internet. Stay informed with the NBC News app.
- [19:56]
B
Breaking news just coming in moments ago.
- [19:58]
A
Watch, read and listen throughout your day. And now unlock even more with a subscription. It's the best of NBC News with fewer ad interruptions, including ad free articles, podcasts and full NBC News shows. Plus deeper access and exclusive content. Let's just take a step back. It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. And we're back with here's the Scooperman VC News. Want to get to some headlines? The US Shot down an Iranian drone that it says was targeting the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. A spokesman for US Central Command said the Lincoln was an international waters about 500 miles from Iran's southern coast when the drone, quote, unnecessarily maneuvered towards the ship and then continued flying even after US forces took steps to de escalate. An F35C fighter jet from the Lincoln then destroyed the drone in another incident hours later, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard threatened to board and seize a US flagged merchant vessel operating in the Strait of Hormuz. All of these run ins are coming as President Trump has been weighing military options in Iran. Top officials from the US And Iran are expected to meet Friday for diplomatic talks. The House has voted to end the partial government shutdown that began on Saturday, when the president signs the legislation will secure funding for the federal government through the end of September, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS funding expires on February 13, and Democrats are demanding immigration enforcement reforms before they approve any money for the department. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in a House Oversight Committee investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. To avoid potentially being in contempt of Congress, they wrote a letter to committee Chairman James Comer, and in it they offered to appear in public hearings in late February. That's according to portions of the letter reviewed by NBC News. Chair Comer had been seeking a closed door deposition. The offer is a reversal for the Clintons, who before this had refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the Oversight Committee. The committee had been moving forward with resolutions to hold them in contempt of Congress, with a vote expected this week. The House of Mouse is getting a new boss. It's Josh d' Amaro who's gonna succeed longtime Disney CEO Bob Iger in mid March. Demaro joined Disney back in 1988, and then he rose to the ran, currently the chairman of Disney Experiences, overseeing the company's cruise ships, resorts and consumer tech, plus, of course, a dozen theme parks and resort hotels. It's the end of Iger's second stint at the helm of Disney, but we'll see if it lasts. He came back in 2022 after his last handpicked successor was ousted just two years into the job. And alpine skier Lindsey Vaughn says not even a ruptured ACL is going to stand in the way of her competing in the Milan Cortina Olympics. The three Olympic medalist came out of retirement at 41 years old to compete, but then was injured when she crashed into a safety net at last week's World Cup. In a press conference on Tuesday, Vaughn told reporters that resilience was second nature to her at this point in her career.
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As many times as I crash, I've always gotten back up.
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As many times as I've failed, I've always won. So even though I don't want to be in this position, I know how. I know how to be in this position, and I can handle it. Training sessions for the women's downhill are set for the end of this week before Sunday's run for Olympic gold, and Vaughn promised she's going to be at that starting gate. It's pretty damn good comeback if I can pull it off. You got that right. We're rooting for you, Lindsay. That is going to do it for us. It. Here's this group from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Desugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy.
- [24:15]
B
Claire Duffy was one of the best.
- [24:16]
A
I cover artificial intelligence and other new technologies for a living, and even I sometimes get overwhelmed trying to keep up with it all. So I'm starting a new show where together we can explore how to experiment with these new tools without getting played by them them. It's called Terms of Service. This technology is so crazy powerful. Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.