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Welcome to the AI Chat podcast. Today on the podcast we're talking about a trend in AI and politics that we've been seeing play out over the last year, I would say, but really getting stronger in the last number of months. And the big news that I want to break and talk about today is the fact that Sam Altman was just named as the co chair of the new mayor of San Francisco. The mayor elected Daniel Lurie. He just got added to his transition team. Now there's a lot of interesting things I want to break down here because, you know, typically I'm not like, you know, I don't. There's not like politics on this podcast in a big way. San Francisco is an interesting place. I'm not really weighing in on what candidates better or anything. I just want to talk about some of the things that they've done, who opposes them, who agrees with them. And the reason why we talk about San Francisco in particular and the politics there, probably more than anywhere else, is because this is where a large majority of all the AI companies are coming out of and all the biggest ones have headquarters there. So it really plays directly into it. And then having someone like Sam Altman as the co chair there, I think there's some big implications for AI and what we might see in it in the future. So if you don't love politics, you don't have to listen to this podcast. I'm honestly not super opinionated on any of the candidates or anything. I'm just talking about it as I see it from an outsider's sort of perspective. Okay, so this is really interesting. Daniel Lurie had a really contentious kind of run. Um, and before we get into that, I did want to mention that if you want a newsletter about different AI tools, you can go over to my website, AI Box AI scroll to the bottom and put your email in. Every single day we send out a daily newsletter with the top three AI stories that were seen that are really interesting. I try to make this, this isn't super long. I put, you know, three little blurbs in there and the links usually to where you could click on the article or a tweet about what people are talking about it. Try to make it really short and digestible. If you're interested, go check it out. It's a great newsletter where you could get really in depth info and try to make this thing actually useful. Okay, so let's get into what is going on with, with this Mayor Dan Lurie. So he had a pretty, a pretty solid run from what I hear. Was pretty contentious. He had some, you know, a lot of people were for him, some people were against him. In case you don't know who Daniel Lurie is, uh, he is 47 years old. Uh, he is Democrat. Um, as you know, everyone in California is. Uh, he is, you know, if you look at his like about section or whatever, it says he's an American heir and philanthropist who is the mayor elect of San Francisco. Okay, pretty much who he is is the heir to the Levi, you know, Levi Jeans, Levi Strauss. So he's the heir to the Levi fortune from Levi Jeans. I think he self funded his campaign to a large degree, which some people thought was cool. Some people complained about, you know, this rich guy that didn't actually build Levi Strauss is just the heir spending his money that he inherited. So you know, you can imagine that that was controversial on both sides. He beat London Breed, who I don't know, seemed unpopular. I could be wrong out of San Francisco. I think specifically with San Francisco's rampant issues with crime and drugs and poverty, um, I think that's probably why London Breed got elected or got booted out. I for one, you know, with my own AI startup have looked at a lot of different places to base my startup out of. Right now we're based out of Phoenix, Arizona, which is, you know, the next state over from California. When people ask me why I'm not in San Francisco, I've been there for a lot of meetings and with a young family and young kids, it just wasn't a safe or good environment for me, you know, that's my own choice. And walking there for meetings and seeing smashed windows and needles on the sidewalk and poop and stuff like that wasn't what I was looking for. So I know there's a lot of incredible talent there. There's a lot of good in that city and I really hope it makes a bit of a comeback. But I think it's uncontroversial to say a lot of big companies have left, a lot of people have complained about it. So hopefully we are flipping over a new leaf with Daniel Lurie, but some people don't think so. In any case, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. So that's a little about who he is now. He's pulling on Sam Altman because I think he really wants to build and bridge a connection between the tech industry, I think especially with all these AI companies. And Sam Altman obviously is kind of like the, he's the king of tech and definitely the king of AI at the moment with OpenAI and everything that they've been doing. So Sam Altman, you know, replied to kind of give a note on this. He said, I'm excited to help the city. I love where OpenAI has started. And it began its next chapter with Mayor elect Leary stepping into this new role. What's interesting is Lurie, he invested, I think about $9 million to fund his campaign. That's just his own, you know, money or his inherited money. He's going to be taking office January 8th, and at that point, I think people are really going to be looking closely at what is happening with the public safety crisis and a lot of stuff that's going there. We have a lot of prominent people, right? So Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, he's invested a ton of money, millions into the city and he has been very, very vocal about criticizing San Francisco and kind of the, the. Some of the issues that the city of San Francisco faces, saying we need to refund the police, not defund the police. He's got like a huge post all about it. He said the DA's office must, you know, prosecute to the fullest level of the law. So, you know, very prominent people are quite fired up about this. And yeah, Marc Benioff is one of the big ones. Elon Musk also closed X's office in downtown San Francisco and left. But he does have X AI's office still there. I think it moved into opening eyes old office. So I don't know if he did that just because he thought it'd be funny or I probably is going to stay in San Francisco long term because there's a lot of great talent there. I guess that's to be determined. In any case, with all of the drama with all of these tech people, there's a lot that have left that are going to Miami or Austin because of the issues that they're saying. And a lot of times on their way out, you'll see, like Elon Musk and everyone else putting these big condemnations out on, on the city of San Francisco and how it's kind of difficult. So the new mayor's job right now in attracting these young professionals to the city, especially when we have this big AI boom and a lot of money that be made there. He's got to convince them that this is a safe place, a good place to come. And maybe it's less important for families because maybe there's a lot of people that don't have families like young in their career that can be attracted. But Like, I for one, know if I was ever going to move there with my family, they would have to do a lot on the crime and safety side because I've just heard, you know, horror stories and seen firsthand some stuff. So, you know, I think that there's definitely something that could be done very quickly, but that it's up to them if they want to do it. So the new mayor wants Sam Altman to help lead the effort in attracting those young people. He previously called Sam Altman one of the, quote, one of the most important figures on the planet. So he. I think he really understands the importance of AI, the importance of tech, importance of everything that's kind of coming in the ecosystem right there. He said that in a. In a recent interview that he did over on the information. So he's quite vocal about this. And a lot of people are kind of talking about, you know, talking about this issue, and he, you know, obviously thinks Sam Altman is important. So there's someone else that's going to be joining Sam Altman kind of from the tech side as well. Ned Siegel, he's Twitter's former cfo. He left Twitter when it was purchased by Elon. He left with the former CEO Pagal Argwal, or Paragual. And today he's on a bunch of different. He's on the board of a bunch of different companies, including Beyond Meat, Ringcentral, and also Lurie has a nonprofit called Tipping Point, which is interesting. We could talk a little bit about that. But he's also on that board, so that probably seems like where he's coming. So in regards to Tipping Point, this is the nonprofit that Daniel Lurie is currently the. Or was the CEO of. I think he'll probably be stepping back a bit, but with this nonprofit, it spent the last 20 years fighting poverty in the Bay Area. Now, I. I don't know. You can. I'm sure lots of people disagree with me. I have such a hard time with nonprofits because I. I want them to be successful, and I want this. Like, the causes that they espouse, I think are so important, and I want them to have the solutions. Sometimes it feels like nonprofits, and I'm not saying this is the case with Tipping Point Community, but I just feel like a lot of them get donation money and they run a company. It's like they're running a company, and if they really solve the problem, then there wouldn't really be a use for them. So I don't know. What do you do? Right. It's kind of this Catch 22 thing. So, in any case, 20 years of fighting poverty, they've invested $440 million into 200 organizations. And this sounds amazing, and I don't want to diminish it because I'm all about charity and giving and whatever. It just feels like in the Bay Area, the homeless crisis and the drug crisis, which is obviously, I think, a really big part of the poverty there. You know, I. I just think that those issues. We've seen some studies that say, you know, there's billions of dollars unaccounted for, and lots of it goes to NGOs and other organizations that don't seem to have actually solved the problem. So, in any case, I hope that he does good things here. And I don't want to, you know, just crap talk a potentially great charity, but it doesn't seem like this, this issue in San Francisco has been helped. I'm pretty sure if I looked at it, pulled up a crime and poverty statistic, it would be trending upwards to the right. So, you know, that's. I think that might be some of the criticism that he gets on this charity, and I could be completely wrong. So this is not my opinion. I've just seen some, you know, I've seen some things. So just bringing that up. All right. He has the cherry. He also. Yeah, I think, you know, in addition to kind of these new, these new tech executives that are kind of being brought in. The reason I bring this up is because this seems like a really big trend we're seeing, not just on a, you know, like a mayor race in a city level, which obviously San Francisco is like the most important city in tech and in AI. So that's why I bring San Francisco up. I'm not going to be doing this, you know, podcast about the mayor of, like, Colorado or something, Boulder, Colorado, for example. But I think this is important in San Francisco. But we're seeing this exact same thing play out on a national stage, right? We have Donald Trump, who's recently announced Elon Musk is going to advise him in the White House to drive efficiency in the government. So it seems like these tech companies and these tech, kind of these tech giants, these guys that have started a lot in tech, are coming in and becoming advisors, national and kind of Sam Altman on, like, more of a local level. So what I did find interesting, though, because I expect, like, this trend will continue, right? You can expect that if there's a big tech guy in any city, Boulder, Colorado, they. You could expect that they may be pulled in to, to help with, you know, some of the local government stuff. I think there's a lot that I can do for government. I've spoken to people on this podcast that are working in government, nonpartisan people working with, you know, Republican, Democrat on whatever, you know, improving government efficiency in their administrations using AI tools. So I think there's a lot that can be done there. But one thing that I did want to say that's really interesting, both with Elon Musk and with Sam Altman, they won't, like, they're going to be essentially advisors. They're not like, they don't have a Cabinet seat or, you know, a place in the Cabinet. So they're essentially advisors and they don't need to dynamic divest from their financial interests. I mean, Sam Altman is going to keep running OpenAI, Elon Musk is going to keep running, like 100 companies. Um, they'll give, you know, advice and advisory stuff, but it's not like they need to be. I don't even think they need to be confirmed by, like, in Elon Musk's case, I don't think they're going to, like, need to confirm him in Congress or anything like that. Just kind of an outside of the government advisor. And I think Sam Altman is going to play the same role. So. And I mean, this is interesting too, because obviously Elon Musk and Donald Trump are the Republican side. And when you have, you have Daniel Lurie and Sam Altman that are on the Democrat side, so you're seeing it on both sides of the spectrum in different sizes, national or local. So I just think this is a trend we're going to see a lot more of. So one thing that I do find interesting is that other than obviously running OpenAI, which is one of the biggest, you know, leading AI companies in the world, or is the biggest leading AI company in the world. Sam Altman also was. Is very famous because he ran Y Combinator, the most famous, you know, tech startup. He ran it from 2014 to 2019. And some are speculating that he's going to actually help essentially, Lurie make some friends at Y Combinator. Because one of Lurie's biggest critics, and also I think one of the most vocal tech people that are, you know, political tech people in Silicon Valley is Gary Tan, who's the current CEO of Y Combinator. He's been very vocal about all of the issues and, you know, very vocal in supporting candidates. I don't believe he was. Yeah, I think TechCrunch says that Gary Tan has given San Francisco's new mayor a less than warm embrace. Okay, so what exactly did Gary Tan say about this? Gary Tan said in a tweet back in October, he said, I can't believe how many Lurie shows are reached out to silence me and my friends. I don't need a thing from the city. If Lurie wins, I will watch his admin like a hawk and will be relentless and he'll be relentlessly held accountable by me and all my friends. The city demands great governance. To be honest, it doesn't seem like Gary Tan is necessarily saying, like, anything in particular is horrible. He's just saying, if this guy wins, I mean, I get, yeah, he's critical, sure. But he's saying, if he wins, we're going to be watching him. We want great governance. And if Lurie is great at governing and does a great job, I don't think that Gary Tan is going to have an issue there. So I don't know. I think that's kind of interesting. Yeah, I don't know. Gary Tan doesn't seem to be a fan. He's responding in some tweets that he doesn't like the ads, that he doesn't like the ads that Daniel is running. So Daniel, I guess he was running like, he was running Google Ads that were, like, attacking his opponents. And it's interesting. He's spending millions of dollars, but it's all just like his own inherited wealth that does it. So, anyways, I believe it was. I believe there was, like, a Google Ad against one of the opponents. But anyways, Gary Tan said only in San Francisco, self or rich self, funding mayoral candidates by millions of dollars of ads with his inheritance wealth to claim, you know, the other guy isn't actually that rich. The worst thing is it's probably going to work. Hats off to San Francisco politics. Absolutely amazing as a screenshot of a Google Ad, which is. Learn more about Mark Farrell, the guy who's running against. And it's like, don't trust him. He's, you know, whatever. Okay, so. Oh, politics. It's always the same kind of. But I think this is interesting. So one thing that is interesting that a lot of people have thought was kind of funny is that Gary Tan, he sits on the board of a nonprofit called Grow sf. And Grow SF actually did endorse Lori in this mayor race. So, you know, he might be critical of them, but organizations he worked with are endorsing. So, you know, I'm not sure if that, you know, makes him upset or Whatever, but that's, that's the way it is. Tan is taking a really big role in politics in San Francisco. I think that's, you know, I think that's pretty obvious. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point he steps away from Y Combinator and decides to, you know, run for mayor of San Francisco or something else of that nature, since he seems so political right now. A lot of people are speculating that Lurie is going to essentially use Sam Altman to try to win over Gary Tan. Obviously they're quite connected and also a bunch of other tech entrepreneurs who, to say the least. You know, TechCrunch says that tech entrepreneurs have grown skeptical of San Francisco's leadership. I think that's, you know, that's probably the least of it. A lot of people probably have. Sam Altman is probably going to try to use this as leverage to get a little bit of a leg up in politics. Right. He's got a ton of lawsuits right now. And so it's pretty tricky. If you look at a lot of the. If you look at a lot of, like the comments in. Even when, even when Daniel Lurie made like his announcement about them and a bunch of other people that are going to be joining his transition team, one of the top comments says, so the Sam Altman, a man whose company is drowning in lawsuits due to mass copyright infringement, amongst other violations, is the right person for this. What a ridiculous joke. Thanks for telling San Francisco you don't care about laws, fairness, or actual accountability. Okay, I'm saying I agree with that. I'm just saying that's the top comment. So obviously he's getting criticism for it. And to be fair, I think all AI founders probably have a lot of that same criticism of, you know, if they're too. If they're training foundational models, a lot of them are, you know, taking data that they're probably not supposed to or whatever. It's very legal area that there's lawsuits ongoing. In any case, this is a fascinating conversation. I don't do a lot of these deep dives, especially into politics isn't something that I'm like invested in or have an emotional attachment to. So I feel pretty comfortable just trying to read off what I. What I'm seeing and share a little bit of the information. It's going to be interesting. My hope for San Francisco is that it can make a big turnaround. It could clean up the crime, it can solve a lot of the issues. And if Daniel Lurie is the guy for that, I will be super supportive. If not, I think you can expect to see people like Gary Tan very loud and vocal about that. I think, you know, everyone kind of wants the best for San Francisco in the AI ecosystem. So I have no ill wishes for Daniel Lurie. Congratulations on the win, and I really hope that he's able to help make a big turnaround where others failed. I think it's fairly obvious what needs to be done there. It just depends on if he's able to do it. So hopefully Sam Altman can put a good word in because, like, there is a lot of, there's a lot of people in San Francisco, a lot of big tech guys. I mean, you can even think of like the all in podcast you have. I think both Jason Calacanis, Democrat, moved away from San Francisco to Texas for a lot of the, you know, a lot of the same reasons that we've, a lot of people have criticized. But I'm sure he, he loves it. You have people like, there's a lot of other people on both sides of the aisle, I think, that love San Francisco and want it to thrive. So I think we'll hear a lot of commentary about this, this race and it's going to be a point of discussion in all of the AI circles over the next number of years. So hope that was insightful and useful. If you enjoyed the episode today, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review wherever you are listening to this podcast. Hope you have a fantastic rest of your day and make sure to sign up for the AI Box newsletter if you want to get interesting news tidbits. Three of them every single day. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you next time.