Podcast Summary: On the Media – "Deep Fakes, Data Centers, and AI Slop — Are We Cooked?" (Dec 20, 2025)

Overview

In this episode, hosts Brooke Gladstone and Michael Ohinger explore the chaotic state of artificial intelligence in America as 2025 draws to a close. The episode tackles the political, economic, social, and environmental fallout of a breakneck rush toward AI adoption—including attempts at federal deregulation, the insatiable hunger for power and data, the rise of deepfake-driven "AI slop," and the uneasy relationship between tech companies, government, and the public. Via expert guests and investigative journalists, the episode dissects how AI is transforming truth, economics, power structures, and daily life—and asks if we’re actually in control, or already cooked.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Trump Executive Order and the Battle over AI Regulation

[02:09–09:07]

• Background: President Trump’s executive order aims to block state-level regulation of AI, igniting outrage among both political allies and opponents.
• Maria Curie (Axios) explains:
  • There was no major federal regulation of AI to begin with, so the executive order is more about forestalling state action than removing barriers ([03:58]).
  • The order establishes a DOJ task force to challenge state laws deemed "overly burdensome" for AI and threatens to withhold federal grants from states with “unfavorable” AI laws ([04:25], [06:12]).
  • Pushback: Major GOP figures like Ron DeSantis (FL), Spencer Cox (UT), and even Steve Bannon have criticized the approach, seeing it as federal overreach or cronyism ([05:43–08:38]).
  • Legal Doubts: The executive order treads questionable constitutional ground—both in preempting states’ rights and in threatening Congressional spending powers ([06:12]).
• Public Opinion: AI guardrails remain popular with the public: "80% of U.S. adults said that governments should prioritize rules for AI safety and data security, even if it means developing AI more slowly" —Brooke Gladstone ([05:43]).
• Political Fallout: The order exposes fractures within the Republican party and presents Democrats an opportunity to unite around AI regulation for the 2028 election ([08:14–08:44]).

2. National Security, Nvidia, and Chips for China

[09:07–13:06]

• Trump’s Deal: The administration allows Nvidia to sell advanced H200 AI chips to China, with the US taking a 25% cut—despite national security concerns ([09:07–09:43]).
• National Security Risks:
  • Some argue it's reckless to sell cutting-edge tech to rivals; Trump frames it as an economic win ([09:43–11:24]).
  • Nvidia’s Jensen Huang convinced the White House: if China’s going to build AI anyway, better on American tech than Chinese ([11:24]).
• Skepticism: No specifics on how security will be ensured; media notes lack of detail ([12:11–12:19]).
• Broader Coverage: AI’s societal benefits (like drug discovery) are underplayed by media because they’re overshadowed by dangers—e.g., chatbots' role in suicides ([13:10–13:54]).

3. Data Centers: Power, Water, and the Environment

[15:52–29:49]

• Infrastructure explosion:
  • AI’s energy demands are colossal—"We've never seen anything need this much electricity" (Steven Witt, [00:27], revisited [17:01], [18:08]).
  • One AI data center rack can use as much electricity as 70 homes, and big centers equal the usage of a city ([18:25]).
  • AI data centers projected to consume up to 12% of US electricity by 2028 ([17:43]).
• Water Use: Generally not as concerning as electricity, says Steven Witt: heavy industry uses more ([20:35–21:26]).
• Costs & Climate:
  • "It doesn't matter if you live near it. The grid is a giant system. Electricity rates have gone up a lot lately....A huge part of that is just the industrial demand for training and inference for AI" (Steven Witt, [21:43]).
  • AI contributes to worse climate outcomes: “already catastrophic climate change curve has been shifted upwards by this…second industrial revolution for AI” ([22:07]).
• Economic Stakes:
  • US economic growth is tied to AI/data center investment ([22:38]).
  • Data centers are profitable… unless the bet on AI fails ([23:03]).
  • "If the pace of growth were simply to slow down, that would have catastrophic effects for the data center industry, and it would probably have cascading effects for the American economy as a whole" (Steven Witt, [24:12]).
  • Nvidia’s unprecedented dominance raises concerns about market stability ([24:17–24:38]).
  • “People like Jeff Bezos… have started to admit that we’re in a bubble” ([24:38]).

4. The Bubble Question and The Future of AI

[24:38–31:05]

• Reality Check:
  • While AI is not a scam like NFTs, even paradigm-changing tech can fuel dangerous speculation (railroads, the Internet—both formed asset bubbles) ([24:47]).
  • “AI is a real thing that’s going to transform our economy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a bubble.” ([24:47])
  • Enterprise adoption is falling: “demand for generative AI seems, quote, unquote, surprisingly flimsy” ([26:33]).
• Investor Psychology:
  • Tech investment is driven by fear of missing out (FOMO) as much as by fundamentals ([28:59]).
  • "All the internet skeptics were dead wrong...every promise they made, did eventually come true." — Steven Witt ([29:03])
• Societal Cost vs. Innovation Imperative:
  • "In order to achieve prosperity and avoid, you know, crashing our economy. To beat China in the never ending AI race. These companies claim that we need to allow them to expand as widely and as quickly as possible doing whatever damage to our environment they desire. Is that worth it?" —Michael Ohinger ([29:29])
  • “They have been completely reckless in the development of this stuff...they have their eyes on the prize, which is an AI company that has the kind of platform dominance in software that Nvidia has in hardware...it would probably disempower average individuals to some extent. I just don’t know how you stop it.” —Steven Witt ([29:49–31:05])
  • Antitrust action is the only potential check—but political will is lacking.

5. The AI Slop Era: Deepfakes, Deception, and Media Failures

[33:30–53:52]

• Platforms in Retreat:

  • Post-election, Meta, Google, and others roll back fact-checking and moderation to curry favor with Trump administration. Zuckerberg scraps fact-checkers for “community notes” ([34:23–34:36]).
  • "Fact checking is censorship" becomes the GOP’s successful messaging ([36:22]).

• AI-powered Fakery:

  • Platforms now reward viral fake content: e.g., “Bust a Troll,” who earns money from sharing 100% made-up, AI-created stories ([37:58]).
  • OpenAI and Google roll back impersonation rules to compete on features—allowing photorealistic deepfakes and voice cloning ([39:00]).
  • These tools are now widely used for scams, corporate fraud, and political disinformation ([39:00–40:12]).
  • Only the ultra-wealthy can afford to sue major platforms for deepfake misuse ([40:15]).

• Agents of Deception: From States to Hustlers

  • State actors (like Russia) are mass-producing propaganda at unprecedented scale, "overwhelm[ing]" defenses ([41:06]).
  • Hustlers use AI to concoct phony virality—e.g., fake study app endorsements, staged online conflicts ([42:35–44:09]).
  • "Andreessen Horowitz... invested $15 million...in Cluly, a company that...help[s] programmers cheat on job interview tasks" ([44:14]).

• Information Slop:

  • "There was a golden age of Diddy slop this year" — viral, AI-generated, fake YouTube videos about the P. Diddy trial with millions of views ([45:25]).
  • Even the host, Brooke Gladstone, admitted to falling for an AI-generated fake story ([46:00–46:40]).

• Memorable Moment

  • “It is not an intelligence thing, it is not a class thing, it is not an education thing. Any of us at any time can be persuaded of something...it’s really important to operate in this insane information environment with that element of awareness and humility.” —Craig Silverman ([47:15–47:19])

• Skepticism and Nihilism:

  • Too much skepticism leads to distrusting real stories, not just fake ones (“If you develop the skepticism that you think is gonna protect you, you're gonna start not just disbelieving the stuff that's false, but also the stuff that's true” – Brooke Gladstone, [47:19]).

• Case Study: Joe Rogan Spreads Deepfake

  • On his show, Rogan falls for a deepfake video of a politician but, when corrected, shrugs it off—demonstrating normalization of misinformation ([48:38–49:35]).

• Systemic Problem:

  • “The business imperative now is to show that you are a leader in the creation of AI tools and the advancement of AI tools...The race for AI supremacy has led to some of these rollbacks and the pressure from the new administration has led to the other piece of it.” — Craig Silverman ([51:36])

6. Individual Agency and Coping Strategies

[52:25–53:52]

• Advice:
  • "We individually are the atomic units that these big tech platforms need. They need our attention and they need us to spend time on them...Being conscious of all of this stuff, all of these threats, all these risks, and thinking about what you reward with your attention, it’s valuable. So take your power, put your attention where you feel good about it." — Craig Silverman ([52:36–53:34])
• Brooke Gladstone: "I think I'm going to run some patriotic music underneath that." ([53:34])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "There was no regulation to begin with. So when you say that it was clearing the path, there was no path."
  —Maria Curie ([03:58])
• "That's where the political problem comes in though, right? Because guardrails around AI are popular. In a Gallup poll from September, 80% of U.S. adults said that governments should prioritize rules for AI safety and data security, even if it means developing AI more slowly."
  —Brooke Gladstone ([05:43])
• "This technology is being released so quickly and there is zero appetite to slow down all of the other unintended consequences."
  —Maria Curie ([13:10])
• "One big data center can use as much power as like Kansas City. So it's really, really power intensive to train these things."
  —Steven Witt ([18:25])
• "The already catastrophic climate change curve has been shifted upwards by this basically second industrial revolution for AI."
  —Steven Witt ([22:07])
• "I think we're going to be having this conversation in 10 years and everyone is going to be using AI all the time for everything. That's the bet."
  —Steven Witt ([28:59])
• "Fact checking inherently, it's not removing anyone else's speech, it is critiquing it. And so the reframing of fact checking and speech of a journalistic nature as censorship was a pretty good judo trick and it was effective in the US."
  —Craig Silverman ([36:41])
• "Impersonation is in. OpenAI makes the change in March where these photorealistic things representing real people...they're okay with."
  —Craig Silverman ([39:00])
• "There was a golden age of Diddy slop this year, which, again, a phrase I never thought I would say."
  —Craig Silverman ([45:25])
• "It is not an intelligence thing, it is not a class thing, it is not an education thing. Any of us at any time can be persuaded of something."
  —Craig Silverman ([47:15])
• "The business imperative now is to show that you are a leader in the creation of AI tools and the advancement of AI tools...The race for AI supremacy has led to some of these rollbacks and the pressure from the new administration has led to the other piece of it." —Craig Silverman ([51:36])
• "We individually are the atomic units that these big tech platforms need ... take your power, put your attention where you feel good about it."
  —Craig Silverman ([52:36])

For the Time-Strapped Listener: Key Timestamps

• 02:13–09:07: Trump executive order, legal/political wrangling
• 09:07–13:54: National security, AI chip sales, economic stakes
• 15:52–29:49: Data center expansion, environmental and market risks
• 33:30–53:52: The rise of "AI slop," deepfakes, regulatory retreat, solutions for individuals

Tone & Takeaway

The episode is urgent, skeptical, and darkly humorous—balancing a clear-eyed analysis of dire trends with moments of humility and wit. The hosts and guests challenge the inevitability of AI's path, exposing the risks and unintended side effects of a tech-utopian arms race, while also empowering listeners to wield their attention more deliberately as a small but vital countermeasure.