The Eric Schmidt Stanford talk keeps getting censored on Youtube. It is a very important talk with a lot of insights for the future of AI. People need to see the whole thing.
Former Google CEO tells AI startups to steal content and hire lawyers

Eric Schmidt, Google’s one-time CEO and executive chairman, gave a recent talk at Stanford, which was filmed and posted online. During the talk, he said a few things that he later regretted; the video was… pic.twitter.com/h6taa39zkO— bozwy🕊️ (@bozwy) August 17, 2024
Early in the talk, Eric Talks about the dominance of the Python programming language but how he likes Mojo more.
He talked about how Sam Altman of OpenAI says over $300 billion will be needed for the next generation AI data centers.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
He talks very candidly and comes across as a likable straight shooter
Eric Schmidt,”…So watching the Russians use tanks to destroy apartment buildings with little old ladies and kids just drove me crazy.
So I decided to work on a company with your friend Sebastian Thrun as a former faculty member here and a whole bunch of Stanford people…”
Oh what a fine person he is but…when the leadership of western Ukraine, put in place by a coup, shelled randomly the eastern Ukraine for seven years. Why that didn’t bother him at all. Those people were of no use to him. But the ones in power now, only they matter, they are useful. No one else does. Don’t be gas-lighted by these ruthless, evil people, blatantly lying to us that they do good. These are some of the sort of people that are pushing AI. What could go wrong?
Eric Schmidt’s idea’s to combat misinformation/disinformation in the public is frightening and violates the First Amendment. Yes AI changes to audio, video, and documents must be labeled but after that people are free to believe anything they want even if it’s wrong as long as it’s not inciting a direct crime or a crime in itself(hate speech is not a crime in the US). What is most important is that information is not restricted. To combat false information requires radical honesty by the government. A government should be one of the most trusted sources of information but that requires being extremely truthful, admitting what they don’t know, acknowledging gaps in information, admitting when they are wrong, and if a secret for national security must be held explaining why it is important. Just because technology gives us more information than any one human can handle doesn’t mean we need to restrict it(this has always been true printing press, radio, TV, internet…).
On the NextBigFuture we read about technologies and scientific theories that may not be fully accepted or proven but that can give us incites to expand human knowledge and understanding of the Universe and humanity.
Why is it getting censored on Youtube?
I assume it’s because Google owns Youtube, and the video shows their former CEO urging people to go out and steal content.
Even though he’s the “former” CEO, people would rationally look at that and have suspicions about Google’s business model…
The main reason [most everyone agrees] on why it is being pulled. Eric says Google employees are lazy and soft. They only come in one day a week to work in the office. They care more about lifestyle than winning. So startups are working harder. The stealing content and music etc… is a pretty standard practice in silicon valley. It is the move fast and break things slogan of Facebook/Meta. Let the lawyers clean up the mess afterward. So telling people to “steal” is actually not controversial for tech companies.
Move fast and break things was common knowledge of the approach to building quickly.
Move fast and break things (motto), internal motto used by Facebook until 2014, as coined by Mark Zuckerberg
Move Fast and Break Things (book), 2017 book by Jonathan Taplin subtitled How Facebook, Google and Amazon Have Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Move_fast_and_break_things
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Platforms#History
It’s not lazy to prioritise your own life over the profit of others, it’s called not being a sucker.
> Brynjolfsson: ”I asked Sundar [about Google losing the initiative]. He didn’t really give me a very sharp answer.
> Schmidt: Google decided that work life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning. The reason startups work is because the people work like hell. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is if you go found a company and compete against the other startups — like [we did] in the early days of Google — you’re not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week.”