Elon Musk, Kamala Harris, Isaac Herzog: Takeaways from the DealBook Summit 2023
Vice President Kamala Harris, President Isaac Herzog of Israel, Elon Musk and other leaders in business and politics discussed everything from artificial intelligence, economic tensions between the United States and China, and Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel during the annual DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday.
The event, organized by The New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, has been taking place since 2011.
Here are the takeaways:
Elon Musk, the owner of He apologized for the post but accused the companies of “blackmail” and said the public would blame them if the platform disappeared due to lost revenue. His blunt directive added to the challenges faced by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was in the audience. She is tasked with luring advertisers back to the platform after many were shocked by Musk’s erratic messaging.
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Deputy Director Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s economic record as polls show the President trailing Donald J. Trump in battleground states ahead of the 2024 election. Ms. Harris said President Biden has done more to tackle inflation “than most advanced economies,” but that more work was needed to convince voters.
Isaac Herzog Israel’s president said Wednesday that discussions about extending a ceasefire with Hamas continue as the country tries to bring more hostages home. Mr Herzog said Israel is “doing everything we can to increase and improve humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” with local health officials saying at least 13,000 people have been killed during the Israeli military response. “But we have to do our job and get Hamas out of there,” he said.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has not run for re-election next year after being removed from office last month. But he said that if he were to step back from electoral politics, he would like to focus on artificial intelligence. Mr. McCarthy said he would support Mr. Trump for president and questioned President Biden’s ability to govern at his age.
Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, said it will take a decade for AI companies to reach so-called artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the state in which a computer can approach tasks the way a human brain does. Mr Huang also said his company was not concerned about competition in the sector.
Jamie DimonCEO of JPMorgan Chase said the bank is following Texas’ 2021 efforts to limit the state’s activities with financial companies that embrace environmental, social and governance policies. Texas passed two laws in 2021 that limit the state’s work with banks that regulators determine limit their work in the energy and firearms industries.
Tsai IngwenTaiwan’s president said she does not expect an imminent invasion from China because of the mainland’s economic problems. Ms. Tsai also said she was not concerned that plans by the United States to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry could pose a threat to Taiwan’s chip sector.
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, defended unpopular decisions made to reduce the colossal debt they inherited from Warner Media. Those decisions included canceling the release of the “Batgirl” movie and letting go of executives and personalities at CNN. “When we took over the company, we said there are no sacred cows,” Mr Zaslav said.
Bob Iger Disney CEO denied the company’s media assets were up for sale after publicly speculating about a possible downsizing of the company’s portfolio. Mr. Iger said he “didn’t want to be accused of being an old media executive” who was afraid to make bold decisions.
Lina Khan, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, elaborated on her antitrust enforcement philosophy. Agencies, she said, need to ask themselves: “Is it better to be wrong about acting, or is it better to be wrong about not acting?” Following the government’s long-term hands-off approach, Ms Khan said people were realizing that a “bias in favor of inaction” was coming at a “huge cost to our entire economy”.
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, said he was working to finalize a deal with its Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf before the end of the year. Mr Monahan took a leave of absence a week after a tentative deal was reached and said on Wednesday he was struggling with mental health issues at the time.
Shonda Rhimes the creator of shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Bridgerton” described her transition from network TV to streaming giant Netflix, saying the latter has given her more creative freedom and resources. When asked about the recent writers’ strike, she said the labor action “wasn’t complicated at all,” adding, “I consider myself a writer first and foremost.”