Why Scott Shut Down His AI Persona, His Daily Routine, and When to Give Kids Money

Summary

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

Episode: Why Scott Shut Down His AI Persona, His Daily Routine, and When to Give Kids Money
Release Date: January 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this Office Hours episode, Scott Galloway responds to three listener questions, covering:

1. Why he shut down his Google/AI persona and his views on character AIs
2. An honest breakdown of his daily routine when not on book tour
3. His take on the best ways—and pitfalls—of giving money to your children, including commentary on inheritance strategies

The tone is classic Galloway: candid, introspective, practical, and at times self-deprecating.

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1. Why Scott Shut Down His AI Persona

[01:31 – 06:35]

Background and Intentions

• Origin: A former student, now at Google, invited Scott to take part in a project creating AI versions of prominent people, so users could interact with their “character.”
• Scott’s Motivation:

  “I get between 20 and 30, that's conservative, outreaches a day—from single mothers, from young men, from people in the mental health profession, from high school teachers looking for help, advice, insight… and I can't get to 1% of them. So I thought, how could I come up with something that would say, hey, here's my character AI, ask it the same question and there's an 80% probability it'll get it 80% right.” (Scott Galloway, 02:54)

• No money was involved; it was about helping more people than he could personally.

Why He Pulled the Plug

• Changes in AI: During the year-long development, “character AIs became a thing,” and it emerged that minors (especially young men) were building intense, sometimes unhealthy, relationships with these AI personas.
• Ethical Concerns:

  “I just was so uncomfortable with the idea of contributing to the sequestration of young men from their parents, their mentors and their friends. And I thought, if I'm in any way giving a young man an excuse to spend less time pursuing offline relationships, then that is bad and I don't want to engage in it.” (Scott Galloway, 04:02)

• Quote on Decision:

  “If you're having trouble making a decision, the answer is usually no.” (Citing Naval, 04:24)

• Was live for only four hours before Scott asked Google to take it down.
• Key Stand: He will not do character AIs again unless there is verified age gating.

  “I don't think anyone under the age of 18 should be in a synthetic relationship. And supposedly three quarters are already in some sort of synthetic relationship.” (Scott Galloway, 05:16)

• In summary: Potential upside exists, but the downside is “unknown.” The issue needs more guardrails and ethical scrutiny.

Notable Moment

• Memorable line:

  “Started out as a good idea… but increasingly uncomfortable with the development and evolution of character AIs and decided to pull it down.” (Scott Galloway, 05:48)

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2. Scott’s Real Daily Routine

[06:36 – 09:36]

Initial Joke

• Scott sarcastically describes an absurd influencer-style morning routine (“cold plunge… sheep oil… serum mined from algae off the coast of Sri Lanka”), then debunks it:

  “None of this is true. Alright, let's start with night…” (Scott Galloway, 06:40)

Actual Daily Rhythm

• Nights:
  • Evenings are spent with friends, family, watching TV, writing, with his dogs on the couch.
  • Used to drink, but no longer—citing both health and concerns about the anti-alcohol movement.
  • Sometimes takes an edible, stays up working or thinking until 2 or 3 am.
  • Self-aware joke:

    “So I can… I'd like to think I'm creative. I can definitely confirm I'm not that productive.” (Scott Galloway, 07:46)

• Mornings:
  • Sleeps in—gets up around 10:00 or, if he feels like it, 10:30.
  • Nothing is scheduled before noon (helped by London/New York time difference).
  • Quick coffee, then breakfast and a workout (free weights, rowing machine, a tonal-equivalent device).
• Daytime:
  • Podcasting, writing, meetings, interviews run from noon to 8 or 9 pm.
• Late Evening:
  • Goes out to dinner, socializes, then works late again from 11pm–2am.

Struggles & Honesty

• Mentions dealing with anxiety or fear lately; needs to get outside more (hates the London weather:

  “It's dark at 4pm right now, so I don't go outside as much as I should, which is a really bad thing. All the things I preach to people… cobbler's kids have no shoes.” (Scott Galloway, 08:49)

• Important advice:

  “I keep very odd hours and I don't. I've been struggling a little bit lately… I would not recommend this to anybody. I'm not saying it's the right way, it's just my way.” (Scott Galloway, 09:19)

Summary Table of His Routine

| Time | Activity | |----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10am | Wakes up, coffee, breakfast, works out | | Noon–8pm | Podcasting, writing, meetings | | 8pm–11pm | Dinner/social time | | 11pm–2am | Thinking, writing, relaxing (TV/internet/dogs/edibles) |

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3. When—and How—to Give Kids Money

[12:28 – 16:53]

Listener Question

• Charles from Texas asks: Instead of giving a big inheritance at 70, what about earlier staged gifts: $25k at 18, $100k at 30, $1 million at 40, and then cut them off? “Genius or financial cosplay?”
  (Listener Email, 12:28)

Scott’s Analysis

• When inheritance usually arrives: Median age is around 49–50. This is likely to get later as people live longer.
  • Younger people spend windfalls on life necessities; older inheritors often spend on “discretionary spending.”
• Benefit of Early, Targeted Gifts:
  Lump sums for housing, business seed capital, or education “can be more financially productive than inheriting money late for discretionary spending.”
• Key Principle:

  “You want to give your kids enough money so they can do anything, but not enough money so they can do nothing. That's a Warren Buffett quote.” (Scott Galloway, 14:38)

Personal Plan & Flexibility

• Scott prefers flexibility and ongoing assessment over rigid formulas.
• If a kid works hard (nonprofit, teaching) but makes little money, he’ll help. If a kid is just partying, he’ll withhold:

  “If my kid is not doing a whole lot of anything but partying and I keep seeing on his Instagram he's in Ibiza… I'm not going to give him dick.” (Scott Galloway, 15:23)

• Adapt support to the child’s conduct, not just their age.
• Also suggests possibly limiting what money can be used for (e.g., education, primary residence under 40).
• Doesn’t believe anyone has “figured this out.” Strongly advises not to “lock yourself into anything.”

Closing Thoughts

• Contrasts two examples: friends who totally cut kids off after college vs. those whose kids never fly commercial.
• Advocates for a tailored, ongoing approach, with the only strong advice being:

  “My only advice is not to lock yourself into a construction.” (Scott Galloway, 16:42)

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Notable Quotes

• On ethical ambiguity of AI personas:

  “If I'm in any way giving a young man an excuse to spend less time pursuing offline relationships, then that is bad and I don't want to engage in it.” (Scott Galloway, 04:02)

• On routines and productivity:

  “I keep very odd hours... I would not recommend this to anybody. I'm not saying it's the right way, it's just my way.” (Scott Galloway, 09:19)

• On inheritance philosophy:

  “You want to give your kids enough money so they can do anything, but not enough money so they can do nothing.” (Scott Galloway, quoting Buffett, 14:38)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:31] – Scott’s AI Persona and why he killed it
• [06:36] – Scott’s real daily routine, personal struggles, and sleep schedule
• [12:28] – Inheritance strategies: How and when to help your kids financially

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Summary Takeaways

• Scott Galloway is uncomfortable with current character AIs and withdrew his involvement to avoid unintended harm—especially to young people.
• His routine is honest, unconventional, and not an ideal to copy (late nights, late mornings, lots of podcasting, and candid self-reflection).
• On giving kids money: flexibility and responsiveness to character matter more than formulas or fixed schedules. Don’t “lock yourself in.”

For more, reach out to [e-mail] or the Scott Galloway subreddit with your questions.

Transcript

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[Scott Galloway]

Welcome to office hours of ProPG. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofgmedia.com Again, that's officehoursoropertgmedia.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode. Question number one Our first question comes from Pygny Nuthatch on Reddit. Pygmy Nuthatch. What do they get these names? They say, I'd like to ask some questions about your Google Persona. What were the original goals of the project? Do you have any Future plans for PropG AI offerings? I was lucky enough to get to use the Persona. It helped me with a complex career question. The tool or something similar could do a lot of good, though. We all understand and respect the reasons you gave for ultimately deciding not to move forward with an expanded launch. Thanks. So just some background here. A former I have students and then the best students I asked to be my graduate student instructors. I usually have four or five because I usually have about 180 students and I say, you're running the class. I'm just the talent. And then one of my graduate student instructors went on to go to work for Google about seven, eight years ago. She's been very successful there and she contacted me about a year ago and said we're doing a bunch of profiles where we crawl everyone's a person's information or all of their ip and create a character AI for them such that people can ask them questions. And they were doing some in the health space, some in the business space, and then some of the academic space. And they asked me if I'd be interested and I said sure. And there was no commercial agreement, no money involved. But the impetus and the motivation was the following. I get between 20 and 30, that's conservative outreaches a day from single mothers, from young men, from people in the mental health profession, from high school teachers looking for help, advice, insight, basic questions. Where did you find this piece of information? Here's an idea. And I can't get to 1% of them. So I thought, how could I come up with something that would say, hey, here's my character AI, ask it the same question, and there's an 80% probability it'll get it. 80% right. And so we started working on this thing about a year ago. And then in that time things changed dramatically. And that is, character AIs became a thing. And it was discovered that a lot of young people, minors, were engaging these character AIs and starting to develop these, not even parasocial relationships, but in depth relationships that oftentimes led to very dark places. And so when it came out, it was launched, I went on it, and I just was so uncomfortable with the idea of contributing to the sequestration of young men from their parents, their mentors and their friends. And I thought, if I'm in any way giving a young man an excuse to spend less time pursuing offline relationships, then that is bad and I don't want to engage in it. So it was up for about four hours. And the Twitter philosopher, I think his name's Naval, he said something that struck me. He's actually, I think, a venture capitalist, but I think of him as a philosopher. There's a few things I miss about Twitter, but he's one of them. I found his stuff was really interesting. He said that if you're having trouble making a decision, the answer is usually no. And I was just so uncertain and uneasy about this thing. It had only been up four hours. And I felt bad because the good people at Google, and they were good people, I think the world of this woman and my interaction with this team at Google had been nothing but positive. And they'd spent so much time on it. And I just finally, I said, I'm just not fucking comfortable with this thing. And I called them and said, can you take it down? I just don't want to be part of the character AI dilemma right now until we figure out what the guardrails are and how to handle it. And so they took it down. Is there potential upside? Yeah, but the potential downside I think is unknown right now and I'm very uncomfortable with character AIs. I don't think there should be. Until there's age gating, I don't want to participate. And that is I don't think anyone under the age of 18 should be in a synthetic relationship. And supposedly three quarters are already in some sort of synthetic relationship. So where was I? It started out as a good idea. I think my intentions were good or in the right place, but I was increasingly uncomfortable with the development and evolution of character AIs and decided to pull it down. Appreciate the question. Question number two also comes from Reddit. Radicalbuy Ask Scott what is your daily routine when you're not out on a book tour? Would love to see how the big dog spends his time. Well, I usually get up at about 4:45, I do a cold plunge and then I take I have a massive protein shank including all sorts of grains and sheep oil and also this serum that's mined from algae off the coast of Sri Lanka. None of this is true. None of this is true. All right, let's start with night. I'm usually doing something out with friends or with family or watching streaming media. The family goes to bed sometimes. I used to have a drink. Now I don't do that anymore because this anti alcohol movement has even me a bit freaked out. And my 50 year old liver 60 can't handle 61 can't handle alcohol the way my 30 year old liver could. So I don't wanna. And also I think drinking alone's probably not a good idea. But I try and unwind at night. I watch streaming media. I let the dogs up on the couch with me. I like to write. I like to cruise the Internet. Sometimes I take an edible and I'm up to 2 or 3am in the morning. I'm a night person. That's where I get my best thinking done. They say that people who get up early in the morning are more productive and people who stay up late are more creative. So I'd like to think I'm creative. I can definitely confirm I'm not that productive. So I'm up till 2 or 3 in the morning. I usually get up around 10. If I want to sleep in I'll sleep until 10:30. My assistant doesn't book anything before noon, which helps because I'm in London so it's 7am where my team is back in New York. And then I get up, I have my quick hit of coffee, I try to have a breakfast, I try to work out. I have free weights and a rowing machine and this new thing called an amp, which is basically a tonal. So I try and get in some exercise and then I basically start the day of podcasting. And between writing and podcasting and team meetings and editorial calls and interviews with media, I'm kind of going from about 11 or noon until about 8 or 9pm at which point I kick off, sometimes go out to dinner, I go out a lot, sometimes go out, meet friends, do something with family. And then everyone's in bed by call at 11, 11:30 and I'm up for another two and a half hours kind of doing my work, so to speak. So I keep very odd hours and I don't. I'm struggling a little bit lately with. I don't want to call it anxiety, but just more fear, if you will. Is that anxiety? Maybe it's anxiety, I don't know. So I need to get outside more. That's one thing. That's probably the only thing I really don't like about London, but it makes me. In many ways it's just kind of a deal killer for me. I can't handle the fucking weather here. It's dark at 4pm right now. So I don't go outside as much as I should, which is a really bad thing. All the things I preach to people about, it's like the cobbler's kids have no shoes. But anyways, mornings are basically kind of free time or sleep. 11 to 8. Podcasting 8 to 11, socialization, 11 to 2. That's my time, I guess. And then I hit. But I go to sleep very late. I keep very odd hours. By the way, I would not recommend this to anybody. I'm not saying it's the right way, it's just my way. We'll be right back after a quick break.

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[Scott Galloway]

Welcome back. Our final question came from a listener who emailed us hey Scott Charles from Texas Hi Charles, I want your take on my inheritance strategy for my son. Instead of giving him a pile of money when he's 70, when he'll just spend it on knee injections, a firmer mattress or some dick pills, I want to give him cash when it actually matters. Plan is 25k at 18 so he doesn't start adulthood. Broke $100k at 30 so he can buy a house or start a business and then 1 million at 40. After that the gravy train stops, dad retires from being the bank. What pitfalls should I watch for? And feel free to tell me this whole plan is genius or just financial cosplay? Huge fan of everything you do. Thanks Charles from Texas so Fed data shows that US inheritance recipients had a median age of around 49 to 50 at the time they received wealth transfers. And according to the Richmond Fed, at least half of people don't receive their first inheritance until after age 40. I would bet that's going to go up because people are living longer and what people actually spend on Younger groups tend to spend a larger share on categories including shelter, food away from home, transportation and education. And overall consumer spending data confirms necessities dominate budgets when they're younger, which is why a lump sum for housing, down payment or business seed capital can be more financially productive than inheriting money late for discretionary spending. So I don't think anyone's figured this out. I always go to I'm thinking about the same thing. I always go to a couple things. One, you want to give your if you have the blessing of having some money to pass on, you want to give your kids enough money so they can do anything but not enough money so they can do nothing. That's a Warren Buffett quote. And my approach is going to be I learned this from Morgan Housel I'm going to scale up or scale down my kids efforts and that is I'm not sure I'm going to lock into and I don't think there is a reason to create a suicide pact or something you have to stick to because I think a lot of it depends on the kid. Now what do I mean? So if my kid gets out of college at 22 and wants to be in nonprofit, I'm going to give him money to try. And if he's a productive citizen and works hard and is in a low paying industry, if he wants to be a high school math teacher, I'm going to give him money. If my kid is not doing a whole lot of anything but partying and I Keep seeing on his Instagram, he's on in Ibiza or something. By the way, I don't have that problem. My boys are 15 and 18 right now. I'm not going to give him dick. It's like, okay boss, if you have enough time to just party all the time, you don't need my money. So I will likely not have a tried and true strategy. I'll scale up or scale down when I pass away. That's a whole other. That's a whole other thing. I'll probably limit the distribution while they're under the age of 40 because I don't know if a lot of money under the age of 40. I think men under the age of 40, you know, or maybe you put parameters around it, they can use the money for education or a house, a primary residence, but for nothing else. I think about this a lot and I still haven't figured out what to do. The only pushback I would give is I would not lock yourself in anything because if your kid's a great kid and wants to buy a house and is having a kid, you may want to pull some of that million dollars at 40 forward. But at the same time, if they're just living in your basement and not motivated, I don't think you want to give them any money. But again, I think this is a personal question. It's kind of up to you. I have friends who are wealthy and cut off their kids after college. Just like that's it, you're done, you're out. And it's my money, not your money. I'm rich, you're not rich. And then I have other friends whose kids have never flown commercially. Even when they're adults, they pay for their private air travel. So I would argue the former is probably much better than the latter. I think it's a personal decision and anyways long winded way of saying I don't know. My only advice is not to lock yourself into a construct. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursofpropertymedia.com that's officehoursofpropertymedia.Com or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

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