Can the AI Industry Regulate Itself? Stripe Wants PayPal, China Catches Up, NY Bans Datacenters
The All In podcast discusses DeepMind's AI self-regulatory proposal modeled on FINRA, Stripe and Block's joint bid for PayPal at $53B, Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI for alleged IP theft, and New York's moratorium on hyperscale data centers—arguing the latter is driven by foreign influence campaigns and regulatory capture by Anthropic.
Summary
The episode opens with DeepMind CEO Demis Hasabis proposing a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for AI modeled after FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The proposal would have frontier labs submit models 30 days before release for assessment on cybersecurity, national security, and biological threats, with federal oversight but industry funding and operation. Saks outlines five conditions for supporting this: broad industry representation including startups and open source, review only of frontier models, focus on catastrophic risks only, voluntary initial implementation, and that it serves as a substitute for new regulatory agencies rather than an addition. The hosts agree this is preferable to an "FAA for AI" approach that would take 5-9 years for approval, but worry it's Anthropic's opening bid for more regulation.
The conversation shifts to Stripe and private equity firm Advent's joint offer to acquire PayPal for $53B (with Block also participating and contributing $17B in equity). The hosts analyze this as a potential play to create a competitor to Visa and MasterCard by combining Stripe's merchant infrastructure, PayPal's 439 million consumer accounts, and Block's point-of-sale and Cash App ecosystem. They discuss how this represents a broader trend of AI-native operators buying mature, underutilized digital-native businesses and revitalizing them with modern operational practices and AI.
Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI alleges that OpenAI stole trade secrets, including hiring former Apple VP of iPhone Design Tang Tan as chief hardware officer and encouraging Apple employees to bring actual parts to interviews. The hosts note Apple's unusual litigiousness and Sacks emphasizes the simple rule: employees can bring what's in their head to new jobs, but nothing physical or digital.
The episode dedicates substantial time to New York Governor Kathy Hochul's moratorium on hyperscale data centers. The hosts systematically debunk her claims: data centers don't significantly increase utility costs if they produce their own power, they're efficient land use, noise pollution is manageable, and water consumption is recycled in modern facilities. Sacks emphasizes that natural gas is clean-burning and data centers generate substantial tax revenue and jobs. More importantly, the hosts argue the moratorium is driven by foreign influence campaigns—citing OpenAI's findings that China is behind influence operations targeting AI debates, and noting parallels to Russian disinformation campaigns against GMOs in the 2010s. They contend Anthropic's funding of groups like Public First that oppose data center construction represents regulatory capture and self-sabotage, since Anthropic's revenue growth is constrained by compute availability.
The conversation covers token pricing disparities: Fable charges $56 per million input tokens while Grok costs $1.50, Chinese models cost 50 cents, and open models like Llama are under $1. Sacks warns this pricing gap threatens US competitiveness. The hosts discuss distributed energy solutions like solar companies offering data center blocks and Elon's behind-the-meter turbine approach to bypass clean air permitting.
Freberg covers a breakthrough in aging research from Calico and Revel Pharma: scientists used AlphaFold to design an enzyme that breaks down advanced glycation end products (CML) in the extracellular matrix. Testing on elderly human skin samples eliminated 55% of CML, reversing skin age to that of 31-year-olds. This exemplifies AI's profound positive applications through directed evolution and protein design.
About this episode
<p>(0:00) Bestie intros!</p> <p>(1:32) New AI regulatory proposal: DeepMind's Demis Hassabis proposes FINRA-type body</p> <p>(20:01) Stripe, Block, and Advent offer $53B to acquire PayPal</p> <p>(37:51) Apple sues OpenAI, alleging stolen trade secrets</p> <p>(42:49) Grok Build data leak, AI data privacy, Tokenmaxxing update, Mira Murati's new model</p> <p>(59:53) NY bans datacenters, becoming first state to enact a moratorium</p> <p>(1:22:57) Science Corner: New data on reversing aging!</p> <p>Adopt Ronnie the Dog:</p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/Da0pGahBwaW">https://www.instagram.com/reels/Da0pGahBwaW</a></p> <p>Apply for All-In Summit 2026:</p> <p><a href="https://allin.com/events">https://allin.com/events</a></p> <p>Follow the besties:</p> <p><a href="https://x.com/chamath">https://x.com/chamath</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/Jason">https://x.com/Jason</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks">https://x.com/DavidSacks</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/friedberg">https://x.com/friedberg</a></p> <p>Follow on X:</p> <p><a href="https://x.com/theallinpod">https://x.com/theallinpod</a></p> <p>Follow on Instagram:</p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod">https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod</a></p> <p>Follow on TikTok:</p> <p><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod">https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod</a></p> <p>Follow on LinkedIn:</p> <p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod">https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod</a></p> <p>Intro Music Credit:</p> <p><a href="https://rb.gy/tppkzl">https://rb.gy/tppkzl</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/yung_spielburg">https://x.com/yung_spielburg</a></p> <p>Intro Video Credit:</p> <p><a href="https://x.com/TheZachEffect">https://x.com/TheZachEffect</a></p> <p>Referenced in the show:</p> <p><a href="https://x.com/chamath/status/2077502408528212144">https://x.com/chamath/status/2077502408528212144</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/demishassabis/status/2076957440109625718">https://x.com/demishassabis/status/2076957440109625718</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/satyanadella/status/2076323181154230284">https://x.com/satyanadella/status/2076323181154230284</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055443440105">https://x.com/Jason/status/2076231055443440105</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/SquawkCNBC/status/2077741908391031246">https://x.com/SquawkCNBC/status/2077741908391031246</a></p> <p><a href="https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling">https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/15/inside-anthropics-state-by-state-plan-to-ratchet-up-ai-rules-00998415"> https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/15/inside-anthropics-state-by-state-plan-to-ratchet-up-ai-rules-00998415</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/politico/status/2077315780144996633">https://x.com/politico/status/2077315780144996633</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1978145266269077891">https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1978145266269077891</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15"> https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/block-contributing-to-equity-for-paypal-takeover-bid-cnbc-says-thefly-news"> https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/block-contributing-to-equity-for-paypal-takeover-bid-cnbc-says-thefly-news</a></p> <p><a href="https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2026/07/Apple-Inc.-v.-Liu-et-al.pdf"> https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2026/07/Apple-Inc.-v.-Liu-et-al.pdf</a></p> <p><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/apple-lawsuit-threatens-openais-hardware-215438163.html"> https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/apple-lawsuit-threatens-openais-hardware-215438163.html</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/markgurman/status/2076306380583997665">https://x.com/markgurman/status/2076306380583997665</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2216186/elon-musk-bought-a-gas-turbine-company"> https://www.engadget.com/2216186/elon-musk-bought-a-gas-turbine-company</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/Reuters/status/2076957424339050839">https://x.com/Reuters/status/2076957424339050839</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/teddyschleifer/status/2077596563380072694">https://x.com/teddyschleifer/status/2077596563380072694</a></p> <p><a href="https://x.com/teddyschleifer/status/2077606887055306879">https://x.com/teddyschleifer/status/2077606887055306879</a></p> <p><a href="https://openai.com/index/prc-linked-influence-operations-ai-debates"> https://openai.com/index/prc-linked-influence-operations-ai-debates</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/10/openai-china-ai-data-centers-report-00957612"> https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/10/openai-china-ai-data-centers-report-00957612</a></p> <p><a href="https://trends.google.com/explore?q=GMO%2C%2Fm%2F0dkz0z&date=2010-01-01%202026-07-15&geo=US"> https://trends.google.com/explore?q=GMO%2C%2Fm%2F0dkz0z&date=2010-01-01%202026-07-15&geo=US</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75141-2">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75141-2</a></p>
Key Insights
- Sacks argues the SRO model could work if it remains pure and focuses only on frontier models and catastrophic risks, but expresses concern it's Anthropic's opening bid for more stringent FAA-style regulation.
- The hosts identify a pattern where Anthropic simultaneously funds groups opposing data center construction while depending on compute availability for revenue growth, suggesting either regulatory capture strategy or loss of strategic coherence.
- Freberg contends that privacy and data retention policies in AI are fundamentally brittle and can fail in non-obvious ways, citing the Grok data leak as evidence of trapdoors even in well-intentioned systems.
- The hosts argue New York's data center moratorium creates a 5-year infrastructure gap and may be strategically timed to impose terms once Democratic administrations regain power, rather than permanently blocking development.
- Jason and Freberg trace parallels between current anti-data center sentiment and Russian-origin anti-GMO campaigns from the 2010s, suggesting coordinated foreign disinformation rather than organic opposition.
- The hosts contend China's interest in constraining US AI infrastructure through influence campaigns and export controls makes strategic sense for winning the AI race without matching US capabilities.
- Sacks warns that token pricing gaps—with Fable at $56/million versus Grok at $1.50—create unsustainable cost structures that could cause enterprises to miss earnings if token spend continues growing 21x annually.
- The hosts argue venture capital and M&A activity surged post-Trump election because deal executives believed antitrust enforcement would ease, indicating regulatory environment is primary constraint on capital deployment.
- Freberg claims enterprises lack true AI sovereignty and are "paying twice"—once in money and once by feeding proprietary knowledge to frontier models, creating double exposure.
- The hosts state that data centers are models of land and energy efficiency compared to alternatives like golf courses and almond farming, suggesting opposition is ideological rather than rational.
- Sacks argues that creating regulatory infrastructure for AI risks that haven't manifested yet destroys competitive advantage based on panic and science fiction rather than actual harms.
- Freberg highlights that AlphaFold-designed enzyme successfully reversed skin aging by 40 years through directed evolution, exemplifying AI's profound capability for beneficial applications across medicine and longevity.
Topics
Transcript
All right, everybody, welcome back to the world's greatest podcast, the number one podcast, your favorite podcast, the all in podcast. I'm Jason Calacanis, the world's greatest moderator with me, of course. Chamath Palihapiti. The great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchild, Jason was of a hooker. And you saw that from prisoner and a purse snatcher. This is from like a history of France. Some history panel said they let you out. This was the deal in 1719, Sax. If you're a prisoner in Paris, you were offered your freedom on the condition that you marry a prostitute and move to the great state of louisiana what are you saying it's actually taking the deal it explains…
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