We saw a real important framing around health care and Republicans’ willingness to let the Obamacare tax credits expire. Now, I think Democrats could have stayed stronger and actually gotten a solution there, but elections have consequences, and it is extremely important that we take back the majority in November.
I want to end with a quick game that we like to play, if you'll indulge me.
Sure!
It's called Control, Alt, Delete. What piece of tech would you love to control? What would you love to alt, so alter or change? And what would you delete? What would you vanquish from the Earth if given the opportunity?
[Laughs] OK. Control, like I am in control of it?
You are God, and you're in control.
Oh, wow. That's a scary thought. I would like to control every platform you use for coding, which is now mostly AI, to do vulnerability testing and cybersecurity checks at the point that it happens. I think we have so many cybersecurity holes, and this is only a bigger problem with AI.
We could have a much more secure internet; it would just mean slowing down basically everything. But if you were to automate that process and build it secure in the first place, that would be the thing that I would do.
I’m picturing you in front of like five computer monitors with like eight arms, controlling all of it.
I think I would need a few more than eight. But again, to be clear, it's not me doing the checks, because it’s setting it up as a default. We're gonna do actual penetration testing. We're gonna do, actually, at-the-point memory testing. We’re going to do all the things you're supposed to do when writing good code. Maybe AI will get there, but it is also introducing its own vulnerabilities.
OK, alt. What are we changing?
We're gonna alt social media.
Please.
The original vision was about following your friends, and it is now just algorithms feeding us whatever will capture our eyeballs. We should go back to that original vision where you were defaulted into just following your friends.
Are you pro-chronological feed?
Yes. I hate that term because it can still be an algorithm on what's most important to show. It doesn't have to literally be chronological. That's why I hate the term. Like, if I haven't logged on for a week and my friend got married, please show me that first, that's important.
You only wanna see the content of the people you chose, correct?
Correct.
Seems very reasonable.
In fact, I carry the bill to do that in the state legislature in New York. I also carry a bill that is law in Utah, and should be national, that would allow you to take your data out of any social media platform and move it into another one—to require interoperability so that the platforms have to compete over you.
I didn't realize that was a thing in Utah.