Scott Galloway: I think the greatest brand destruction over the last 18 months is the US brand abroad and AI. So with America, Trump has been convinced that this was his defining moment of being known as the president that liberated the Middle East. But I think the Trump administration will be known for criminal corruption and incompetence. And that incompetence is bubbling up. And then the second greatest fall is AI. And also Sam Altman who's gone to the dark side. And I'm an AI optimist. But here's what we fail to understand. These techs, they do not have our best interests at heart.

Stephen Bartlett: Scott, I often come to you to help myself form my opinions on some of the most sort of consequential issues going on in the world. And when I look at some of the quotes from the CEOs of these AI companies, I've got one here from Elon that says, "AI and robots will replace all jobs." What's your view here?

Scott Galloway: I think it's mostly the catastrophizing is nothing more than thinly veiled attempt to say my technology is so devastating that it's going to shift society and you should invest at this crazy valuation. And the data doesn't reflect that there's some big exogenous meteor coming for the employment market. But I believe it's actually going to create more jobs than it destroys. But the scary thing for me is that because of AI and because of these frictionless relationships that people are engaging in online. I think a lot of young people are losing the ability to endure rejection. But I think a more important technology in terms of how it's going to change the world and what will create more shareholder value is not AI. It's really...

Scott Galloway: There have been few brands that have fallen further faster in the last 18 months than two brands. The United States brand abroad... For the first time in history more people feel that China is a force of good in the world than the US. The second greatest fall is AI. Your view of AI is directly correlated to your wealth. The only cohort that has a positive rating of AI is people making over $200,000... But if you're an average middle class person, what you may see is that your electricity bills have gone up and you don't even have access to invest in these companies. And you see some statements from people Sam Altman saying, "Stop complaining about energy costs. Think about the amount of energy it takes to raise a child." So they haven't really managed the brand well.

Stephen Bartlett: When I look at some of the quotes... Elon that says, "AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional..." And Sam Altman said, "By the end of 2028, more of the world's intellectual capacity could reside inside data centers than outside them." ...when I'm sifting through these CVs, yeah, I thought, "Oh, maybe things are going to change."

Scott Galloway: I think it's mostly [ __ ] and catastrophizing and a means of fundraising. Every technology in history goes through a similar arc... And I think that catastrophizing and talking about this massive destruction in jobs is a way of saying or justifying the massive investments these companies want enterprises to make in their companies... Either these companies' valuations need to be cut by 50 or 70%. Or you need a massive destruction in the labor market that creates tons of efficiencies... And quite frankly, I find it a little bit obnoxious that some of the founders and key figures in AI catastrophize just about the time they take a secondary and peace out to the Cote d'Azur. That's not helpful. I'm Dr. Frankenstein and I've created this monster, but I don't know how to deal with it. So, I'm going to go peace out to Saint-Tropez.

Scott Galloway: Let's look at the data. The unemployment rate in the US is 4 and a half%. Among youth, it's 8.8%. That is slightly below the historical average. The number of new business permits or new businesses started per capita in the United States has doubled in the last 10 years... I don't doubt that there'll be a real dip or a severe V down in certain industries, customer service, probably the legal field. But I believe over the medium and the long term it's actually going to create more jobs than it destroys.

Stephen Bartlett: Is there a case that because of the speed of this technology and the proliferation of it that it will be unlike the revolutions of the past?

Scott Galloway: Right, that's the fear that the V is so severe and so vicious that we don't have time to recover... But so far the V doesn't seem to be decelerating or diving as quickly as people had predicted... You're the example. Old media is going to lose jobs, but you're creating. How many people have you hired in the last 24 months? Stephen Bartlett: About I'd say about 220.

Scott Galloway: The labor market's absolutely reshaping. But when I graduated from business school, a lot of it, quite frankly, is your generation is spoiled... When I graduated from Berkeley in 1992, 40% of us had a job on graduation day. Meaning 60% did not... I would bet there's going to be 30 to 50 businesses that are started on graduation day. There's kids dropping out of their second year of business school to start businesses because they just raised $10 million in a series A.

Stephen Bartlett: What do you think about what Elon's doing with Optimus? ...he's predicting that you won't need to be a surgeon because there'll be so many Optimus robots that are more advanced than any surgeon on earth.

Scott Galloway: I think the robot in the context of surgery will be not a replacement but a supplement... My big tech stock pick for '26 is Amazon because I think where robotics really hit the rubber meets the road in terms of shareholder value is the collision of AI and industrialized robots... But the notion that we're going to have someone in our house bringing our tea, a robot, I don't buy that at all... Oh, that's [ __ ]. The scary thing for me that I'd want to know more about is weaponized industrialized robots as warriors.

Stephen Bartlett: ...when I watched this, the space rockets come down and be caught with the chopsticks. Incredible.

Scott Galloway: The key attribute of an innovator right now is storytelling. And that is to make sure the promise is way ahead of the performance such that you can access cheap capital and pull the future forward... Tesla's a great auto company. It should be trading at about a fifth of the valuation it is.

Scott Galloway: I'd hate to be a truck driver. To me, a long haul truck driver is the first place... I probably spend a hundred or $300,000 a year on legal fees across my organization. I think I'll cut that easily by a third this year... AI is not going to take your job. Someone who understands AI is going to take your job. So, what I tell people is have a second screen... that has nothing but AI on it.

Stephen Bartlett: Someone with AI will take your job but they won't just take one job they'll take five of those jobs... we've got Molly downstairs analyst for my investment fund... Molly enabled by AI, she's probably taken out five jobs.

Scott Galloway: I would say that the enduring skill is storytelling... and then to communicate that story in a compelling way... The skill that is the biggest threat that people are young people are losing especially young men... is the ability to endure rejection... The secret to my success is rejection. I ran for sophomore, junior, and senior class president of my high school. I lost all three times... and based on my track record, I decided to run for student body president where I went on to lose. Never bothered me.

Stephen Bartlett: ...some of the game in life and success is what I now call selling yourself long and most of us go through our lives selling ourselves short. Scott Galloway: I think pricing is a signal... increase the pricing 30 or 50% more because pricing is a signal... If you're going to err, err to the upside because the market will bring you back on its own.

Scott Galloway: The closest thing we have to religion is technology... The idolatry of innovators has absolutely gone crazy. And the new Jesus Christ, if you will, are these tech CEOs... They are not concerned with our emotional well-being... they will make incremental decisions that justify the harming and self harm of teen girls... The journey from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader gets shorter and shorter, but they all follow the same path.

Scott Galloway: I think there's a nihilist vein running through big tech where a lot of them have go bags... They fly to New Zealand to Auckland and they have a bunker built out... My point is, they are no longer invested in the well-being of America. They've totally dissociated from the investments required to make America a better place because they're sequestered from it.

Scott Galloway: I would describe the war as being operational excellence and strategic incompetence... And all the enemy needs to do whether it's the Vietcong or the Taliban or the IRGC, all they need to do is survive and they win... We're now in the definition of a quagmire. If we leave, we look weak.

Scott Galloway: I think China is beginning to engage in what I'll call AI dumping... If I were Xi, I would just dump cheap AI into the US market. And the moment large corporations start announcing they're not engaging these multi-million dollar site licenses with Anthropic or OpenAI... I think the US market crashes because 40% of the S&P now is directly or tangentially related to this giant bet America is making on AI.

Scott Galloway: How do you get rich? The only answer I have is slowly and that is figure out a way to make sure that money every month is invested in low-cost index funds... Diversify like crazy, and then to let time take over.

Scott Galloway: I saw everything as a transaction that I wanted to be on the right side of. And what I figured out is that finding your purpose is finding that thing that you can never get a real positive return on... Having kids for me has given me my purpose. Hands down the most rewarding thing I will ever do.

Scott Galloway: My mother dying and you can never tell your parents how much you love them too much. Forgive them... I think the recedes for love is grief. I don't I see it I used to see it as a problem... Now I see it as a not a bug but as a feature. The recedes for love are grief and anxiety.