'Like I Trust A Rest Stop Bathroom': John Kennedy Pulls No Punches On AI Industry Leaders In Hearing

Senator Kennedy, the floor is yours, sir. Mr. Fyfe, is that how you say your name? Yes, sir. I continue to read and hear that we have to win the AI race. What does that even mean? Generally, we heard that with 5G. Generally, we hear that when somebody in the private sector says, we're behind China, give us some money. If we are ahead, eventually China's going to catch up. And then China gets ahead, and we catch up with them. Ultimately, And there's no finish line here, where the first one who crosses gets a gold medal. This stuff keeps evolving. Aren't we ultimately going to have to sit down with China and reach some sort of compromise in terms of a modicum of cooperation? Well, I think, Senator, I think the questions about whether this race vocabulary and And metaphor are exactly right, are very well taken. I think it's inexact at best, but there are comparisons possibly with. Previous generations of strategic technology like nuclear weapons, where I think maintaining that the U.S. and our allies have a stronger foundation of strategic technology, including as it needs to be innovated across generations and including as, you know, after the Soviets got a nuclear weapon in their time several years after us, is extremely important. And the fact that this is commercially innovated. I got it. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for history. Dr. Winston, I want to make sure you're heard. Well, before I come to you, let me ask you, Mr. Reinhart, do you think we ought to have state-owned AI companies? Are you a fan of the state-owned companies in China? No, not at all. Whether the federal government takes a big stake and runs the show? No, I do not. We can't even deliver the mail, can we? Especially in my neighborhood, yeah. And the stuff has an address right on the front, doesn't it? Yeah, I think that we can be smart about how we do grant programs. I mean, there's ways that we can be smart about the… Grant program? Well, just the various, you know, we've had, as we've talked about, some of the CHIPS Act, parts of the CHIPS Act program are still out. I understand there are alternatives to grants. They're called loans. Of course, yes. Okay. Yeah. I'm just saying that I think there's a lot of, there's lots of parts of the federal government that we can think about being smart about our investments in AI. And that doesn't necessarily require any sort of ownership. Well, look, I think the people developing AI, this is true worldwide, but it's certainly true in the United States. These are brilliant people. Right now, they're spending money to try to be the biggest and the best and the wealthiest. And I don't mean disrespect when I say this. I'm proud of them as American entrepreneurs. But I trust them like I trust the rest stop bathroom. I remember when one of the leaders in another hearing about a year ago, I asked him, I said, man, you must make a lot of money. And he said, oh, no, no, no. I do this for the goodness of the people. I only get my health insurance paid. Wrong. So, Dr. West, you make a good point, but I guess my question is, what do you expect us to do if it's here, and what do you expect people are going to lose their jobs? I hate to see that. I might lose mine, but what are we supposed to do about that? I think it's a great question because there's this sort of generalized environment that this is inevitable and we all have to just kind of deal with the consequences. I understand the problem. I'm looking for, I admire the problem. I'm looking for a solution. Tell me what we think we ought to do when somebody loses their job as a result of that. In the next 10 seconds. Oh, wow. I think we need strong accountability measures that restrain the, you know, the actions of this industry that are sort of experimenting in the wild with the release of these. Dr. West tells me not to. I'm sorry. I'm way over. But you're a good man for letting me go over. Well, I just wanted to associate myself with your comments about the red-stop backers. Thank There's not a lot of confidence in those. You've got to be careful. The coffee's lousy, too. Yes, sir. I hadn't had that experience. you.