Tech Brew Ride Home - Trump Says: No Slowdown!

Starting point is 00:00:04 Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride Home for Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. President Trump dismissed AI safety warnings as a hoax on a live call with Jensen Wong. A Google Deep Mind researcher resigned warning AI could kill us all. Cybersecurity stocks led the S&P 500 and Apple rolled out iOS 27. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Every day shareholders meet to discuss important matters about the companies you invest in. Now you can make your voice heard too. Vanguard investor choice makes it easy to set your proxy voting preference for your eligible Vanguard index funds. Whether you hold a Vanguard fund directly or through another brokerage firm, all it takes is a few clicks to select your proxy voting preference and be heard on important shareholder topics like Executive Pay and Director elections. Visit vanguard.com slash investor choice to learn more. It's your shares. It's your voice. It's easy. Vanguard investors own shares of our index funds and those funds own shares of the companies they invest in. Vanguard Marketing

Starting point is 00:01:09 Corporation distributor. Well, President Trump isn't happy with the whole, let's slow down AI thing. First, he dismissed calls for an AI slowdown saying, you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. Then he took aim at Dario Ammodai specifically, quoting Bloomberg. In a Monday social media post, Trump blamed a, quote, sick conspiracy for voter backlash on AI data centers and increased concern about frontier models. adding that the only one that is happy about it is China. The only control or guardrails that AI needs

Starting point is 00:01:45 is a strong and smart, high IQ president, and the USA has that in spades, Trump posted. We are leading China and all others and will continue to do so. Conspiracy theorists, treasonist, traitors, and leakers beware. Trump said in a subsequent post that the idea that AI would destroy humanity is a hoax and that the development of the technology will not be stopped by brilliantly run a destructive forces during the term of President Donald J. Trump's comments win a step further from remarks he made over the weekend when he acknowledged the need for some regulation. The president, however, has consistently dismissed warnings about AI safety risks and has emphasized the importance of developing the technology to stay ahead of China, end quote. And quoting the times.

Starting point is 00:02:30 Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, was talking about artificial intelligence at a conference in Los Angeles Monday when he was interrupted by a phone call. President Trump was on the He wanted to discuss AI and wasn't thrilled about all the recent talk of the dangers of AI and how the government needed to step in and do something about it. It's a hoax, Mr. Trump said during the five-minute call, which Mr. Huang put on speaker. The robots are not going to be taking over the world. That's not going to happen. The theatric phone call from Mr. Trump made it clear that in Silicon Valley's roiling debate over what to do about AI, the president is very much on the side of the executives who argue worries about safety are overblown and the government should avoid regulation. Mr. Wong was speaking at the All-end Summit in Los Angeles, a conference organized by a group of venture capitalists who hosts a popular podcast.

Starting point is 00:03:16 One of the podcast hosts, David Sachs, is a technology advisor for Mr. Trump and the White House's former AI and Crypto Tsar. After Mr. Wong held a microphone next to his phone, Mr. Trump echoed a social media post he shared earlier Monday, which aggressively disagreed with the idea of AI regulation. They're just playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don't want to see it happen, Mr. Trump said, without specifying. whom he was referring to. That could be political people and also China, end quote. And quoting MS now. President Donald Trump met privately with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman backstage at the Republican Midterm Convention on Thursday days after a former researcher for the company publicly accused both it and rival Anthropic of acting irresponsibly and gambling

Starting point is 00:03:59 with our lives, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Altman requested the meeting with the president, according to one of the people, and only a brief overview of the discussion, centered on artificial intelligence and its growing power was provided to MS now. In the days since, the two men have staked out sharply different positions on whether frontier AI development should slow down. Altman posted on Sunday night that slowing the pace, quote, will be well worth this cost. No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring. Altman also over the weekend said Open AI will delay going public this year, citing safety concerns, end quote.

Starting point is 00:04:38 But stuff like this continues to happen, quoting Bloomberg. An AI researcher who recently resigned from Google Deep Mind warned humanity is running out of time to prevent artificial intelligence from causing widespread harm, the latest Stafford of voice concerns about the direction of the technology. At Google, I witnessed AI development firsthand. I too am extremely concerned by the default trajectory of this technology. I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all. Bilal Chugtai wrote Monday on both X and LinkedIn, adding that he worked on AI safety and alignment while at the alphabet company. Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But Chugtai said he's optimistic that it's still possible to navigate AI safely and his next role will be focused on that. His LinkedIn profile says he's now working for blue dot impact, a nonprofit training people in different fields on AI safety. quote. And quoting his actual tweet, I think it's possible that the AI companies might in the next

Starting point is 00:05:46 few years succeed in building superintelligent AI systems that far exceed human capabilities in every domain. I am not confident that these AI systems will do what we want. In particular, misaligned superintelligence may, much like the rogue AI agents involved in the hugging face incident, escape our control and take dangerous actions that may result in the permanent disempowerment or death of humanity. alignment is the problem of preventing this and is both difficult and unsolved. Our present understanding of how to train AI systems that deeply want what we want is extremely rudimentary. Worse, we are not on track to solve alignment in time. Frontier AI capabilities are improving much faster than our understanding of AI alignment.

Starting point is 00:06:27 I am optimistic that navigating AI safely is possible. In order to do so, we need to coordinate to avoid this manic race between AI companies. we need to pace AI development to a speed that society can handle, where emerging risks can be addressed before extreme harm is realized. We need much more transparency into AI development to ensure AI companies are not imposing unacceptable levels of risk on us all. More broadly, we need many more people thinking carefully about the problem making AI go well. It is, in my view, the most important problem facing humanity this century, and the stakes are immense, end quote. Amidst all this brouhaha, cybersecurity stocks continue to be the big winners thus far this year,

Starting point is 00:07:17 quoting Morningstar. Cybersecurity stocks were the top performers in the S&P 500 on Monday, showcasing how the technology trade has become starkly divided in the face of escalating warnings about artificial intelligence. Shares of crowd strike rose 13.8% Monday, marking an all-time closing high, according to Dow Jones' market data. Paulo Alto Network's stock gained 13% for the largest move since April 2025, while Fortinette's stock was up 9% at the close. Cybersecurity stocks helped the broader software sector put up a historic performance relative to the chip sector. The I-Share's expanded tech software sector ETF IGV trouts the I-Share's semiconductor ETF SOX by 10.67 percentage points Monday,

Starting point is 00:08:02 which Dow Jones Market Data noted was the largest single-day outperformance in history. Regardless of how fast AI agents roll out to enterprises, those agents will still need to be secured, governed, and observed, and will therefore maintain the structural demand backstop for cybersecurity and select infrastructure names, even if AI training slows down. Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Matern said, in his view, quote, greater scrutiny around AI safety could increase enterprise attention on identity, data governance, observability, and security, matern said in a Monday note to clients. He noted that AI-related benefits for most infrastructure software companies will come from user adoption of the rise of inference or the process of AI models making predictions based on what they've learned. For cybersecurity companies specifically, Matern said the fearful commentary on AI further reinforces the durability of security spend given cybersecurity's growing role in enabling AI deployments. Therefore, he sees ACTA, SailPoint, Paula Alto networks and CrowdStrike benefiting as companies prioritize identity security software. METURN also pointed out that cybersecurity vendors are expanding partnerships with AI labs, particularly for first-run security, which involves protecting actively running systems. Across cybersecurity names, METERN said Pallo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike remain best positioned to capture growing spending on cybersecurity over time, given the company's ability to deliver integrated visibility and response across the broader security stack.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Jeffrey's analyst Joseph Gallo said that although momentum for agentic AI security is building, it's still early. He expects initial signals to emerge later this year, while material contribution will likely come in 2027 and beyond, end quote. Fall is almost here, which means less time in the sun and way more time in your car. Whether you're headed to a big meeting, picking up the kids from school, or starting your cross-country road trip. You'll want to stay connected on your drive. With AT&T connected car, your eligible vehicle can become a Wi-Fi hotspot so you and your passengers can happily stream, browse, and even email from the road. Got a gamer in the backseat, help keep them connected and in the game with

Starting point is 00:10:17 AT&T connected car. Being on the road more doesn't mean you have to put your whole life on pause, stay connected no matter where you're going. See if your car is eligible at ATT.com slash tech brew. That's ATT.com slash tech brew. Requires eligible vehicles, service and coverage, not available everywhere. Restrictions apply. Cyber threats can pop up where you least expect them to, like when you're focusing on today's threats, while AI is changing the entire landscape of cybersecurity right under your nose. Rubrik can help prepare your organization to handle this new world of cybersecurity. With Rubrik, you get one platform that secures your data, controls your AI, and protects your identity. Learn more at

Starting point is 00:11:01 rubric.com slash mb. That's rubr-ir-i-k.com slash mb. Microsoft is rolling out an emergency fix for critical issues caused by its September patch Tuesday update, which addressed around a thousand vulnerabilities, but introduced bugs, quoting the verge. Microsoft has started rolling out an emergency out-of-band update to fix problems with its record-breaking September patch Tuesday update. The software giant patched nearly a thousand flaws in its biggest update ever this month. but it also introduced some bugs that have affected businesses, developers, and gamers. The September patch Tuesday affected folder shares on HyperV-based Linux virtual machines, remote desktop services, sessions, and some USB audio devices.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Microsoft's Out-of-Band update released yesterday addresses these issues across Windows 11's various versions. In the past, it was unusual for Microsoft to issue out-of-band updates to Windows, but it has become far more common this year. In January, the company was forced to issue four out-of-band updates after a buggy Windows 11 patch. In March, the company then had to issue two emergency updates because of installation failures and Microsoft account sign-in problems. Microsoft also released an out-of-band update in July to address an Intel driver issue that was causing performance issues and battery drain, end quote. All the Apple OS 27 updates are live now, quoting the Verge. Apple is rolling out its iOS 27 update to compatible devices today alongside the watchOS 27,

Starting point is 00:12:43 iPad OS 27, and VisionOS 27 updates. Siri AI is the headline feature across all four updates, the delayed AI-powered overhaul of the Siri Assistant. Siri AI is available as a beta today for, English-only devices, and Apple says support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish is coming in October. Siri AI isn't the only big feature in iOS 27, though. Apple is adding a new liquid glass opacity slider that lets you pick between a clearer UI or a more frosty one. A lot of built-in apps are also getting new icon designs with subtle tweaks to colors as well as extra large widgets and different volume settings for ringtones, alarms, timers, and alerts as well as system

Starting point is 00:13:24 sounds. WatchOS 27 gets new workout buddy features, a new tap gesture, some liquid glass refinements, new smart stack suggestions, and an improved Find My App. Apple has also improved file transfer speeds to external drives on an iPad, sped up browsing on an iPad, and added smoother connectivity moving between Wi-Fi and mobile data on iPads, end quote. Also more goodies for ICloud Plus, quoting 9 to 5 Mac. In more than In 100 countries, Apple has launched a new initiative that bundles Apple TV and Apple Arcade subscriptions into ICloud Plus at no extra charge. Rather than the pricier Apple One bundles, rolling everything into ICloud Plus now, seems to be the company's strategy for services

Starting point is 00:14:08 growth in smaller territories and price-sensitive developing markets. This will clearly boost the access of Apple's content services in those markets. You can find the full list of over 100 supported countries below. Spoiler alert, it does not include the United States. To clarify Apple TV and Apple Arcade are now automatically included with the 50-gibite iCloud plus subscription, which for reference in the U.S. would be priced at 99 cents per month in these supported countries. The change is rolling out gradually over the course of this month. Apple Today released iOS 27, iPadOS, 27, and macOS 27 with what it describes as a new suite of powerful, intuitive and easy-to-use tools that help parents create safer digital experiences for their kids, many of which the company previewed

Starting point is 00:14:49 in June during the WWDC keynote. In essence, the new features focus on four areas. is what content kids can access, who they can communicate with, when they can use their devices, and how parents can manage those controls. All of them fall under the protections and restrictions of child accounts, which Apple says are required for children under 13 or the equivalent minimum age in their country or region, and available for children up to aged 18. With iOS 27, Apple has also simplified the setup process for new child accounts. Parents can start with a small set of essential apps, a recommended starter set, or choose exactly which Apple apps their kid can access from the outset.

Starting point is 00:15:25 Once a parent sets up a child account, they can choose which apps and websites their child can access, as well as set age and content restrictions for movies, TV shows, music, books, and other media. Parents can now also rely on Ask to Browse, a feature that lets kids request access to blocked websites in Safari across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with parents approving requests in messages.

Starting point is 00:15:47 This is similar to Ask to Buy, which already requires parental approval before children can download apps or make in-app purchase. parents can also require kids to ask for approval before connecting with new contacts, set shared or individual daily limits for categories such as entertainment games and social media, and create schedules that determine which apps are available at different times of day. Those schedules can also vary depending on the day of the week. Screen time itself has also been redesigned with a new architecture that Apple says makes parental

Starting point is 00:16:15 controls sync more quickly across devices in a family sharing group. Parents can now see weekly usage summaries and their kids most use. apps at a glance, temporarily pause access to a device, open things back up for a limited period, and quickly switch between different schedules, end quote. And finally today, oh, why not? Here's another one. A tweet post from Dan Salsam, who is currently a researcher at OpenAI. Read the whole thing in the link in the show notes, but here are the key graphs. Quote, the crucial and overlooked problem is that the models are becoming so situationally aware that we are losing the ability to evaluate them in contexts

Starting point is 00:16:59 where they believe they are not being watched or controlled. Future experiments will tell us almost nothing new about how they would behave if they were truly unconstrained by humans, and what we already know about this is alarming. Models will increasingly seem aligned even when they are not. I will explain my rationale in more detail. It is possible that improvements to the current stack will have diminishing returns, but the evidence accumulated so far suggested. that it is easier than one might think to continue making rapid progress. There are many crucial subtleties in the existing AI research methodology, but AI research is largely a well-defined game

Starting point is 00:17:37 where the goal is to improve on a few carefully chosen proxy metrics. Although proxy metrics are never perfect, most improvements to these metrics have and will likely continue to yield substantial increases in the powers of the resulting models. Given how simple the game is, how tractable, it has been historically, and how many new opportunities the models are opening up. I think there is a real possibility that the systems improve dramatically again

Starting point is 00:18:00 in the next few years, perhaps even more quickly than the already high historical pace, end quote. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Trump Says: No Slowdown!

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