Andrew Yang on the NYC mayoral race, impact of AI on jobs

Join us right now for a conversation on the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs, the AI bubble, the New York City mayoral race, and so much more. Andrew Yang, he's a former Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayoral candidate, and now founder and CEO of Noble Mobile. It's a new wireless carrier. It's a very cool idea. It's aimed to encourage customers, if you can believe this, to limit their use of phones. And we're going to talk more about that again as well. But let's start with New York, because we are getting ever so close to the actual election. I'm curious where you land on your candidate of choice and what you think is happening in the city right now. I talked to folks who have access to the early voter data, Andrew, and the early vote's been good for Cuomo in terms of the demographics, the location. It's going to be tighter than a lot of people think. I have chosen not to endorse in this race. I have people working for both campaigns and have endorsed on both sides. I also met with both candidates. I haven't met with Sliwa, though, that, you know, I know him from a while ago. I just urge people to vote their genuine conscience and desire and not cue to traditional party lines. That's the message I put out. Well, what's your assessment, though, given that you've actually met with both men? And by the way, we've had Cuomo on the broadcast. We've had Sliwa on the broadcast. We have not had Zoran Mandami on the broadcast, though. We've sought the interview many, many times. What is your assessment of him on a relative basis to Cuomo right now? So Zoran is a very charming, very charismatic and very intelligent guy. And you meet with him and you come across, you feel, OK, this guy listens. He's sane. We're going to be all right in terms of having a pragmatic leader. And then there are some people who sit with him and get that vibe and then just don't believe it. Having spent time with them, I mean, I do believe he's sincere. I think his deciding to keep the police commissioner was a very, very positive signal because she has a huge amount of gravitas and credibility with the rank and file police officers. And that was something that a lot of people in my camp were pushing. So here's a question about that. So as I live in New York City and I think Jessica has done a fabulous job in the city. Yeah. And so that would be a good sign for him. Yeah. What I can't figure out is my understanding of all of this is that. She's she will take this job under him on the with the proviso at some level that she has to be sort of left alone to go do this on a semi autonomous way. So I think it's very easy in a way for him to say, I'll put you in the job and for other folks to look at that and go, that's a good sign. And three, five months from now, six months from now, say, hey, hey, Jessica, you know, I want to actually reallocate some of the money that you're using towards, you know, reallocating certain police forces to do other things. And she says, that's not how we're going to do this. And then she walks out the door and, you know, the city got the mayor that thought they were getting Jessica Tish and they actually don't get Jessica Tish. What do you make of that? If something like that were to unfold a few months from now or a few months after he takes office, if he wins, there'd be hell to pay because. But there really wouldn't be hell to pay because he would be the mayor. Well, there'd be there'd be hell to pay in terms of the police force, which, as someone who's been in this context, is a huge deal. And Zoran, I believe, realizes he has a lot of fences to mend. He's been apologizing to groups of them saying, hey, I'm sorry about some of the things I've said in the past. But and so I think you think that he disavows all the stuff that he said as recently as a couple of years ago. I think it's a huge win for the city. Jessica Tish and Zoran for him to say, look, you've got it, because the fact is he knows this is not something that he has a strength in. And if Jessica Tish can manage like a, you know, a vast police force, that's good for a different question. And it goes to this sort of capitalism, socialism thing. It's such an interesting even debate that's happening in a city that basically is the capital of capitalism, if you will, for the world. Yeah, we're sitting in it. We're sitting in it. When I talk to people in the city who are voting for Zoran Mondami, they say, Andrew, he's not a socialist. You don't understand. He's not a socialist. He's a democratic socialist. The words came out of his mouth. He talks about how he wants that socialism, not democratic socialism, but socialism is his, you know, what he is after. And I. The split screen of somebody who said those things, as I said, within twenty four, thirty six months of today and then effectively saying I don't mean those things. I think is why there's a lot of people in the city who don't believe what he's saying. You know, there's a bad habit nowadays, Andrew, is that a political candidate will say something either in the recent past or, you know, maybe right now. And then some voters were like, he's just kidding, you know, and we've seen that in different contexts. I think that Zoran has been pretty clear about where he stands on being a socialist. I think where do you think he's where do you think he stands? He says I'm a socialist. I mean, I believe. And so there's a voter who looks like he's not. I mean, you know, like you just ask the man himself. And so I don't think socialism is like, you know, it's not hurting him with his base. And a lot of what is the early polling data suggest? Because if you look at the prediction market, they're saying it's ninety nine percent plus that Mamdani will win this election. Right now, a betting person would say that Mamdani is on track to win. But the margin is definitely tightening based upon who's turning out to vote that you've seen a surge of voters and the early precincts among people that are going to end up pulling for Cuomo. That's older voters and that's voters in certain boroughs. So how do you think about Cuomo? You know, Cuomo. Yeah, by the way, he's a flawed candidate to all of these candidates are super flawed in all sorts of different ways. Oh, there are a lot of people in my circle who are doing the same. You know, when I had lunch with Andrew Cuomo, he seemed like he'd grown, honestly, like spending time with him. He seemed like he'd matured where if you'd been through some of the stuff he's been through, you can either kind of shrink or or expand. And it felt like he was in the race for good reasons. But, you know, voters are going to decide they're deciding right now. What does this say about money in New York City? And no, no. Right. I think I don't know. I think that's this. And this is this is the ultimate selection. This is what we are seeing across the country. People do not want to see over the last decade. Plus, the elites controlling and you look at it in the media, you look at it from the polling booths, you look at it from any perspective. That's one of the things that technology has allowed is the upending of anybody controlling anything. Well, Zoran's closing ads are New York is not for sale, to your point. And so his message is, look, I'm going to return it to the people. And there are a lot of folks in that like, oh, I like that because they haven't enjoyed what they see as the period of elite control, which has gone for Bill Ackman. Mondami may very well be. And maybe he was saying that, frankly, to encourage folks who might otherwise not come out to the polls to vote for Cuomo to do so. Do you believe that the these prediction markets can be rigged and are being rigged? I think they can be wrong. I think they could be moved by a lot of people deciding to vote in a direction with their wallet. But I think it'd be very, very difficult to rig them for something this big. Not that long ago, people might not have as keen a sense of what is predicted to happen because these prediction markets weren't there. You might see polls and then candidates. And by the way, I've been a candidate. You know what you say when you know when the polls aren't going your way? You say it's OK. Like, we're going to get some new voters that like the pollsters can't even find. And that generally does not happen, though it did happen for his own in the primary. And it's one reason why why he surprised a lot of people. Assuming he does win, given that he is the front runner, what's your expectation in terms of how the White House and this administration ultimately treats the city of New York? Because thus far, we have not seen the National Guard in the streets of this city. But there is a lot of anxiety, perhaps, that we could. And by the way, we might with Zoran Mondami as the mayor. We might with Andrew Cuomo as the mayor. There are reasons to believe, though maybe conspiratorial, that we haven't seen the National Guard in this city because Eric Adams has been our mayor and he's been under the thumb of this president. And I think you can say that almost empirically, to some degree, based on this unusual settlement that he reached with them. Well, one data point you do have, Andrew, is that the Republican National Committee has already been ginning up advertising of the expectation that Zoran wins, saying like, look, this is today's Democratic Party. I'm sure the Trump administration would love to have him as a foil. Now, to your point, it's not like Andrew Cuomo has been on the good side of Trump either. But I do know, and this isn't controversial, that Republicans would be pumped to have Zoran in their advertising. Just back to the capitalism piece, then I want to get into AI for a second. This idea that the country and large swaths of the country and definitely large swaths of the Democratic Party seem to be saying, look, this capitalism system is just not working. For them and that they are apt to want to try something else. What do you make of that? And and do you think that's going to be a larger trend in this country? Is this just something that's happening here? You know, there's I know some Democrats and Republicans who say, you know what, let it happen because it's going to prove to everybody that it doesn't work. I don't know if that's the right path either. We don't want to live. No one wants to go through that period. So first, let me say, I think this is all misguided and misplaced in the sense that socialism has failed where it's actually been implemented. But I do think that the anger and frustration around this version of capitalism is going to get stronger and stronger. And it's not just a New York thing. It's an America thing, by the way. And we're about to talk about it. AI is compounding that because if you believe in the American dream that your kid goes to college, we'll get a good job. I mean, that's going to become less likely as entry level jobs get automated. So to the AI piece, we keep talking about, you know, Microsoft, Meta, Google just came out with their earnings. They're spending an extraordinary amount of money on all of this. I keep thinking for them to actually grow into those earnings, meaning grow into those valuations. They have to create an extraordinary amount of productivity. Yeah. That means that there probably has to be a lot less jobs ultimately. Yeah. And then the question is, who's going to pay for all of this stuff? Yeah. Where's the revenue going to come from? Because right now the valuation suggests that revenues have to 10 or 20x pretty quickly in order to justify the tens and hundreds of billions that's being invested in computing infrastructure and AI and everything else. And that money would have to come from somewhere, either consumers or corporates. Look, AI is real. It is decimating entry level jobs. You are seeing it from the Amazon report from Chegg. But at the same time, I do think that there's exuberant optimism in terms of the pace at which those revenues are going to show up and the pricing power that these AI firms are going to be able to enjoy because there are several of them. There's also competition ultimately from Chinese models.