Eurasia Group games out political risk. And when it comes to tech, Vice Chair Gerald Butts sees a lot of them. A former adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Butts joins POLITICO Tech to talk about the global competition around AI and tech tensions between the U.S. and Canada.

Nvidia has rapidly become one of the world’s most valuable companies, propelled by the global rush to develop artificial intelligence. But the company’s success was not actually all that sudden — and it’s not guaranteed to last. On POLITICO Tech, market analyst Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis joins host Steven Overly to break down Nvidia’s humble start and the potential challenges ahead, from competition to regulation.

Los Angeles will soon ban cell phones and social media in schools, becoming the latest school district to crack down on tech in the classroom. California at large could be next. On POLITICO Tech, Stanford professor and former schoolteacher Antero Garcia joins host Steven Overly to explain why he thinks such bans are bad policy — and bound to fail.

Children’s advocates often compare social media to cigarettes, arguing platforms like YouTube and TikTok are addictive and harmful. That’s led to an increasing number of states passing laws aimed at curtailing their influence on young users. On Thursday, New York became the latest. But signing the law doesn’t actually make it a done deal. POLITICO tech reporter Rebecca Kern joins host Steven Overly to break down the latest.

Artificial intelligence consumes a lot of energy. Exactly how much is hard to say, because AI companies keep much of that information hidden – a practice that some policymakers and activists are trying to change. On today's episode of Politico Tech, Steven Overly called up Jesse Dodge to better understand the energy and climate cost behind generative AI. Dodge is a senior research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle, who not only develops large language models, he also studies their electricity usage and CO2 emissions.

Elon Musk sparked much debate with a post on X saying the U.S. “should eliminate electronic voting machines.” But is that even possible? Pamela Smith, the president and CEO of election integrity nonprofit Verified Voting, says it isn’t. Technology now permeates our elections far more than people realize, she says — though paper still matters, too. Smith joins POLITICO Tech to explain.

A small but growing number of tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and crypto enthusiasts are throwing their 2024 support behind former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden. And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a progressive who represents a swath of Silicon Valley, warns Democrats shouldn’t take the liberal stronghold for granted. On POLITICO Tech, Khanna tells host Steven Overly why the Democratic defectors have him worried and how Biden should borrow from former President Barack Obama’s pro-tech playbook.

Steve Ballmer has made his fortune as the former CEO of Microsoft and owner of the LA Clippers. But his nonprofit USAFacts is trying to make government data more consumable, a mission driven by the belief that numbers are the antidote to political disinformation and partisan policymaking. On POLITICO Tech, Ballmer talks with host Steven Overly about his latest effort to convince politicians to follow the facts, as well as artificial intelligence, the election and why he's not donating to campaigns.

POLITICO Tech went to Toronto for the U.S.-Canada Summit, hosted by BMO Financial Group and Eurasia Group. Host Steven Overly moderated a discussion on how the neighbors are competing and cooperating when it comes to artificial intelligence, with Cohere COO Martin Kon, OpenAI vice president of government affairs Anna Makanju, IBM chief privacy and trust officer Christina Montgomery and Radical Ventures co-founder and managing partner Jordan Jacobs. On the show today, key takeaways from that conversation.

Host Steven Overly is in Canada this week for The US-Canada Summit, hosted by BMO Financial Group and Eurasia Group — and it got him thinking about another Canadian who's been on the podcast before: Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio. Bengio has been dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI,” although he’s not exactly thrilled about the title. Still, Bengio devoted most of his professional life to making AI smarter. But now, he wants to prevent AI from destroying humanity. On POLITICO Tech, Bengio tells host Steven Overly about his professional pivot and what policy changes he’s pushing for around the world.

After the EU elections over the weekend, the continent’s politics seems to be shifting. So what does that mean for tech? Host Steven Overly talked with Politico EU tech reporter Clothilde Goujard to break down the results and decode what to watch for next.

Former President Donald Trump is in his second week on TikTok, and already soaring past President Joe Biden in both followers and views. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's having more influence. Or that other Republicans will rush to join TikTok, a platform many have called a national security threat. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly called up Republican digital strategist Eric Wilson to make sense of it all.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says climate tech is all opportunity, no hype. That’s why she wants to pour $1 billion into the sector over the next decade, along with as much federal money as she can get from President Joe Biden’s climate legislation. On POLITICO Tech, Healey joins host Steven Overly after speaking at The ClimaTech Conference this week to defend her bet on climate tech and explain why she fears former President Donald Trump could undermine it all.

What do Scarlett Johansson, Bette Midler and Johnny Carson have in common? All three have been at the center of controversies over the impersonation of famous people — and tested the limits of what U.S. will allow. On POLITICO Tech, George Mason University Law School professor Sandra Aistars breaks down the legal precedent on celebrity impersonation, and what that means in an AI world.

Disinformation and conspiracies that run rampant online, and the business models that fund them, have created a world in which people no longer agree on a shared set of facts. That was the impetus behind, “The Death of Truth,” a new book written by NewsGuard co-CEO Steven Brill. On POLITICO Tech, Brill tells host Steven Overly how he thinks the truth can be saved.

India’s election finally came to a close last night. But the long campaign brought out some of the most novel and bizarre examples yet of generative artificial intelligence in politics, from personalized robocalls to deepfakes of deceased politicians. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly talks to Oxford University scholar Amogh Dhar Sharma about India’s unique political culture and whether it offers a lesson for future elections.

European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová has been on the road talking about disinformation and foreign interference ahead of the European Union elections later this week. And that “Democracy Tour” took Jourová to California last week for meetings with tech CEOs about their role in the fight. On today’s POLITICO Tech, Jourová explains what she learned during her Silicon Valley visit and whether she’s feeling confident as voters head to the polls.

Garry Tan, the CEO of startup accelerator YCombinator, has made waves in San Francisco politics, helping to oust the city’s most liberal politicians in favor of more centrist Democrats. Now, the tech-entrepreneur-turned-political-changemaker is turning his attention to Washington. On today's Politico Tech, host Steven Overly talks with Tan about exactly what he wants out of Washington.

Schools across the country are grappling with a new kind of harassment: generative artificial intelligence being used to create sexually explicit images and videos of students and teachers. States have passed a patchwork of laws to deal with the issue, but so far federal lawmakers have yet to act. On POLITICO Tech, reporter Dana Nickel and host Steven Overly break down the uneven legal landscape and discuss the victims who suffer as a result.

Artificial intelligence can do more than shape the future; it could also rewrite the past. AI-generated images and videos are now finding their way into documentary films, and the recently formed Archival Producers Alliance wants to set some ground rules. On POLITICO Tech, archival producers Rachel Antell and Stephanie Jenkins join host Steven Overly to discuss their concerns with AI muddying the historical record.

Congress allocated $39 billion to subsidize microchip manufacturing, part of President Joe Biden pledge to revive a dormant U.S. industry. Then, a backroom deal led to a chunk of that money being funneled into a furtive government program —- one quietly backed by national security agencies and a major technology company. On POLITICO Tech, reporter Christine Mui tells us all about “Secure Enclave.”

Dozens of governments around the globe cut their citizens off from the internet in 2023 — the worst year for such internet shutdowns since digital rights group Access Now began tracking them. It’s a trend that could have major consequences in 2024 as many countries hold elections, and as wars persist in Ukraine and Gaza. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly talks to Access Now Executive Director Brett Solomon about the reasons for these shutdowns and why he thinks they violate a “superhuman right” to internet access.

Colorado is the first state in the nation with major artificial intelligence regulations on the books. Starting in 2026, consumers will be notified when "high-risk” models are used to make important decisions about them. Colorado’s Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez — the guy who pushed the bill through — tells POLITICO Tech host Steven Overly how the law got over the finish line and why there’s still a fight ahead.

President Joe Biden just ramped up tariffs on electric vehicles, solar cells and other products made in China. It marks Biden’s latest move in an ongoing tech and trade war with Beijing, as well as his newest attempt to show voters he’s tougher on China than 2024 challenger Donald Trump. On POLITICO Tech, former White House senior director of international economics, Jen Harris, joins host Steven Overly to break down Biden’s trade approach to China and how she thinks he should be selling it on the campaign trail.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman floated a radical idea recently: What if everyone got to own a piece of artificial intelligence? He called it “universal basic compute.” And while it may never become actual social policy, it reveals how the nation’s most influential tech brains are thinking about the AI future. POLITICO Digital Future Daily author Derek Robertson joins host Steven Overly to discuss.