Barack Obama Reflects on Political Violence, Democracy, AI Disruption, and America's Inflection Point in Erie, Pennsylvania

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hello, Erie. Yeah. All right. Have a seat. Have a seat. Wow. Let's get started here. Eerie, >> welcome to Erie, Pennsylvania. >> It is good to be back in Erie. I uh I was telling Steve that whenever I come up here, you forget how beautiful it is up here. It is uh flying over and all the you got the lake and the tributaries and rivers and It's It's nice up here. Now, I I have to say as a Hawaii kid I coming here in the summer uh may be a little different than the winter, but I'm sure it has its own beauty that I simply will not partake. >> They they call it lake effect. You know that from Chicago. Hey, before we start the playlist just these are all your songs that they were listening to. You know what? I I have to say uh uh I recognized that uh you know some of these tunes were mine. Uh forgive me if there were some explicit lyrics in a few of them. I would have I would have tailored it a little more carefully. Uh but um yeah, people people have been skeptical that I I make my own playlists. They're all like, "Oh, that's just your staff." I said, "No, no, check out my phone. It's on there. That's what I'm working out, too." Um I do get recommendations sometimes from Malia and Sasha, >> and they're both doing well. >> They are doing fantastic. They are They are doing great. They uh they are now 27 and 24. Yeah, that's right. Time has passed people. Just just want just want you to know. So, Mr. President, we have a lot of serious things to talk about, but let's just talk about you for a moment. You are writing part two of your memoirs. You are working on your library, the foundation, trying to figure out where to put that third Emmy. Congratulations. >> Well, you know, >> you look great. How are you spending your time? There's no typical day. You're in Erie, but but give us a sense of what life's been like. Well, uh, since I left office, I have spent, uh, over eight years now, uh, trying to dig myself out of a hole with Michelle. And, uh, that's been challenging, but, I feel like I'm making progress. I'm I'm almost I'm almost breaking even at the moment. Uh, there there isn't a typical day, as you mentioned. I I a lot of my energy is around the foundation uh which our focus is how do we develop the next generation of leaders not just here in the United States but around the world. Um and so we have a a range of programs. Some of them are focused on very young people. Some are focused on people who I consider young but are in their 30s. Uh and uh some are in government. You know, we have legislators, members of parliament, uh chiefs of staff for presidents, but we also have doctors who are setting up clinics in subsaharan Africa. We have human rights activists uh in countries where human rights unfortunately aren't being observed. Uh we have people who are working on climate change. We have entrepreneurs who are trying to increase economic opportunity in places that don't have it. And so we spent a lot of time um trying to help connect these amazing young leaders all around the country and all around the world so that they don't feel like they're alone so that they have u you know resources and mentors and training so that they can uh maximize their impact and make the world better and and so I spend a lot of time on that. We've got a the presidential library was slightly delayed because it broke ground right as COVID happened which uh you know you remember that was a drag. Uh but it's going to be opening next year and um we are thrilled with that and and so that'll be sort of the epicenter of a lot of lot of the work that we do. Uh I am writing hopefully only >> part two >> part two only hopefully only until uh until the end of this year. I am a slow writer. I I write the stuff myself. Um, and that's a bad habit I got into as opposed to hiring somebody to write it for me. But um uh you know it's interesting obviously looking backwards uh at sort of the journey I was on as president and then trying to connect that to some of the events and uh challenges that America and the world face today. Well, speaking of the events of the world, you are in Pennsylvania, as you know, earlier this year, the uh the governor's mansion, the subject of an arson attack, the tragedy in Minnesota back in June, the horrific murder in Utah of a conservative activist. Are we at an inflection point in our country? Where are we today? Well, I we are certainly at an inflection point not just around political violence but there are a host of larger trends that we you know have to be concerned about. Um I think it is important for us at the outset uh to acknowledge that political violence is not new. It has happened at certain periods in our history. Um, but it is something that it is anathema to what what it means to be a democratic country and regardless of what regardless of where you are on the political spectrum. Um, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy. what happened as you mentioned to the state legislators in Minnesota that that that is horrific. It is a tragedy and and there are no ifs ands or buts about it. U that the the central premise of our of our democratic system is is that we have to be able to disagree and have sometimes really contentious debates uh without resort to violence. And um and when when it happens to some uh buddy, even if you think they're quote unquote on the other side of the argument, that's a threat to all of us and we have to be clear and forthright in condemning it. Um, now that doesn't mean that we can't have a debate about the ideas that people who were victims of political violence were promoting. Uh and so I've noticed that there's been some confusion I think around this lately that uh and and frankly coming from the White House and some of the other uh positions of authority that suggest even before we had determined who the perpetrator of this evil act was, uh that somehow how we're going to identify an enemy. We're going to suggest that somehow that enemy was at fault and we are then going to use that as a rationale for trying to silence discussion around who we are as a country and what direction we should go. And that's a mistake as well. And and so um look, I obviously I I didn't know Charlie Kirk. I was generally aware of of of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong. But that does but that doesn't negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family. He's a young man with two small children and a wife who obviously and and a huge number of friends and supporters who cared about him. And so we have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock. We can also at the same time say that um I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake. That's not that's not me politicizing the issue. It's it's it's it's making an observation about who are we as a country. I can say that I disagree with the suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power. I can I can I can say that I uh disagree that Martin Luther King was awful. I can disagree with some of the broader uh suggestions of uh that liberals and Democrats are promoting uh a conspiracy to displace whites and replace them. um by ushering in illegal immigrants. Th those are all topics that we have to be able to discuss honestly uh and forthrightly. While we still insist that in that process of debate uh we respect other people's right to say things that we profoundly disagree with. That's that's how we should approach this. Now, the the last point I'll make on this or building on a point I made earlier. I I've been very impressed with uh Governor Cox in in Utah and how he's approached some of these issues. I suspect Governor Cox and I disagree on a whole bunch of stuff. He is a Republican, self-p profofessed conservative Republican, but in his response to this tragedy as well as uh his history of how he engages with people who are political adversaries. uh he has shown I think that it is possible for us to disagree while abiding by a basic code of how we should engage in public debate. I think your own governor here, Josh Shapiro, has done the same thing. When I was president in the aftermath of tragedies, when Dylan Roof went into a black church and based in on his own words, shot uh a group of folks who were engaged in Bible study and who had invited him uh and and according to him he it was for racist reasons. As president of the United States, my response was not who plan who who may have influenced this troubled young man to engage in that kind of violence and now let me go after my political opponents and use that George Bush again I don't agree with him on a lot of stuff but he is a good gracious man and one of the I thought most commendable things that he did after 911 the most uh horrific thing to happen to the United States uh during the course of my lifetime in in my memory in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy made a point we are going to go after the people who perpetrated this. He but he explicitly went out of his way to say we are not at war against Islam and systematically and repeatedly talked about how we can't use this as a way to divide and target fellow Americans. And so and so when I hear uh not just our current president but his aids who have a history of calling political opponents vermin enemies who need to be targeted. that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and and something that we're going to have to grapple with. all of us, whether we're Democrats, Republicans, independents, uh we we have to recognize that on both sides, undoubtedly there are people who are extremists and who say things that are contrary to what I believe are America's core values. But I will say that those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasn't embracing them. I wasn't empowering them. I wasn't putting the weight of the United States government behind extremist views. And that is when when we when we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we've got a problem. And and so the in your original question is, are we at an inflection point? We're we're at an inflection point in the sense that we we always have to fight for our democracy and we have to fight for those values that have made this country the envy of the world and and I often say democracy is not self-executing. It depends on us as citizens regardless of our political affiliations to stand up for certain core values uh because otherwise uh we may not have them. Wow. A lot there to unpack. But Mr. President, let me follow up on on one point. I recall being in the briefing room after Sandy Hook, one of the most horrific tragedies of your presidency. I mean, you spoke not only as the president of the United States, but you also spoke as a dad. It was a horrible situation. Isn't the job description of a president to, among other things, be a uniter in chief? >> Well, I think so. Um, I sa Sandy Hook. Sandy Hook was I I've said before was probably the the worst day of my presidency. Um it was it was two days after these beautiful six-year-old kids were shot and killed that I was with their families. Um, and it was wrenching. Um, it's the only time I saw the member of my detail cry while they were standing guard um during my speech. But but my view was that um part of the the role of the presidency is to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together. And we we live in a big complicated rockus diverse nation. I've said before, I believe it is what makes us exceptional. There's never been an experiment like this where you have people from every corner of the globe show up on in one place and say based on these ideals we hold these truths to be self-evident. All men are created equal. that based on that and a constitution and a bill of rights and a democracy that we can somehow figure out how to get along and maintain our private beliefs and pray to God in our own ways and retain aspects of the cultures that we bring from wherever it is that we're coming from and yet still decide that uh we are all Americans who can salute that flag and believe in a certain creed and defend this country and and try to make it better for each successive generation. and and that I'm not alone in that belief. As I said, I think George W. Bush believed that. I I I believe that um people who I ran against, I know John McCain believed it. I know Mitt Romney believed it. So, this what what I'm describing is not a a a Democratic value or Republican value. It is an American value. And um I think at at moments like this when um tensions are high um then part of the job as of the president is is to pull people together. Now now that does not mean ignoring very real differences. uh serious deep divisions. Those will always have and and we can talk some about some of those and why it is that I think um the country right now is going through sort of a political crisis of the sort that we haven't seen before. >> Well, you talked about Governor >> at least recently in post World War II. Well, let's let's dig down into that because Governor Cox called social media a cancer in our society. >> Agree. Is that part of the problem? >> All right. I I I got to be careful about getting too professorial here. So So bear with me. Um, and and if there are some actual history professors here, I know I'm painting with broad brush here, but but here's my take on where we are. Um, everybody in this auditorium more or less grew up in a postw World War II era in which The United States and the world had just come through a succession of world altering crises. You had had World War I and the Great Depression and World War II and 60 million people had been killed and the Holocaust and because of the the extraordinary sacrifices of the greatest generation, people stepped back and they said we we have to do something different. We we have to rebuild our institutions to prevent and avoid that kind of madness again. And so we strengthened uh the social welfare state so that we reduced income inequality and we put in place regulations so that the stock market wasn't just a Ponzi scheme. And we uh recognized having witnessed uh the consequences of a blood and soil nationalism in places like Germany and the consequences of of targeting people on the basis of race or religion, consequences of the of the Holocaust. We we we said we have to we have to dig deeper here and and and recognize that um those words all men are created equal. That that that that's not just a moral sentiment. It's also a practical way of thinking about how we organize the world so that we don't find ourselves descending into uh that kind of war again. And so then we pass civil rights laws. And once we do that, people start saying, "Well, by the way, Rosie the Riveter, who was helping us up out in that war effort, why is it that that she can't have a seat at the table?" And so women disel participants and and and so and and and And and so what we saw 50s, 60s,7s, terrible things happened during this period. We had Vietnam and we had assassinations and we had um riots and you know terrible tragedies happened all around the world. We kept on overall seeing standards of living rise and we saw America become more inclusive and basic principles of equality and justice and human rights became uh the benchmark for the world. And and so I think all of us, Democrats and Republicans and folks in between, we had disagreements, but we we agreed on the basics, sort of the we we agreed on rule of law and we agreed on independent judiciaries and we agreed on, you know, a particularly after Watergate, hey, let's have some oversight in terms of how the federal government and the executive branch operate. And we agreed that here in America, the military is not going to be uh involved in domestic politics because that's dangerous. And we said that and we said that the Justice Department has to be scrupulously non-political so that people trust the FBI and they trust um and and and and they trust the Justice Department. And then we put in inspector generals to make sure that uh we rooted out corruption and we protected whistleblowers and we and and and we we held up free speech as an example for the world. This is what happens when you the marketplace of ideas can actually operate and we don't go around punishing people for what they think and what they say. But there was broad agreement on those issues and for a host of reasons. Globalization that disrupts our economy increases inequality and for a lot of working people in America and also in Europe and some other places where they had seen steady rise. suddenly their standards of living aren't going up quite as quick and people start feeling like they're losing ground and they get frustrated and you start um seeing changing demographics because you know I I used to talk about the fact that when I first got to the Senate people forget this when I because I'm not that old I mean older but you know um when I got to the United States Senate. I was the only African-American in the Senate. And there was one Latino, two actually, two. Two came in with me. Mel Martinez, a Republican, and uh Ken Salazar, a Democrat. There were still not a lot of women, so that like the the Senate gym for men was this had a swimming pool and all these facilities. And then I think the women were like a modified closet for the handful of women senators. So, so the point is is that we've gone bipartisanship worked pretty well in Washington when everybody looked the same and it was harder to do when people started um seeing that hey, you know, those those folks are now here too. Um so so changes in the economy, changes in demographics and then changes in technology and media and and this brings us to the question of social media. Part of that postw World War II consensus was a certain way of understanding facts and the difference between uh facts and opinions and journalistic standards that said you had to check twice. You know, you have to have two sources. And um and and there were flaws with quote unquote mainstream media, but Walter Kronhite got it right most of the time. And and there were some voices that were left out, but but we we all had kind of a basic shared vision of how do you discover the truth? And and what's what what began, by the way, not just with social media, but what began with talk radio and a certain uh news station that u shall remain nameless. Um >> you're among friends. >> Yeah. What what what what happened was is that how we got information changed and it was turbocharged by social media. And suddenly you have a big chunk of the country who the reality they're receiving every day is entirely different than the reality I'm receiving. And and so that combination of forces I think created huge political tensions and and it also got the government stuck because of the filibuster, because of gerrymandering. It made it very difficult to move forward and get stuff done in a divided country in which each side has completely different views of what's true and what's false. And and so we are we've been in the midst of that. That was true during my presidency. It it predates me. We saw that dating back to Bill Clinton's presidency. Um, but and and I I warned you I was going to get kind of wonky here. Um, but despite those tensions through through the 80s and the 90s and and and 2000s, despite all that, the one thing that both parties still held to were certain principles of democracy, right? So there were fierce battles between Gingrich and Clinton and fierce battles between Democrats and Republicans during the Bush era and Lord knows there were some fierce battles during my presidency. Really? Yes. I was surprised, but because I I feel like I'm a pretty nice, sensible guy. Um but but there but look there there were profound disagreements on a whole bunch of issues. But you know what what more or less held during this period was the sense of we still don't politicize the military. We still don't politicize the Justice Department. We still abide by the results of elections. We we still respect judicial rulings. So, so the the the rules of the game held and I think what distinguishes us at this moment is a decision um that's been building for a while uh but a but a decision in the this White House and within the party that controls both the White House and Congress that that we're okay with just breaking the rules, just breaking the system in certain ways. So, let's take something like the National Guard in Washington DC right now. You have National Guard folks deployed um who are setting up checkpoints uh and they're working with ICE and you have uh ICE agents who are uh checking people's IDs and stopping traffic. Um that's not something that we've seen before in a non-emergency situation. In Los Angeles, these ICE agents in terms of who are we going to stop? recently were engaging in practices that involved stopping people of who were Latino and deciding well that justifies you being stopped and checked in some cases by somebody who who's masked and does not feel obliged to identify themselves. You then have a Supreme Court that said that was okay, although they didn't write a written opinion. Used something called the shadow docket to say, "Well, for now, we think that's okay." So under current Supreme Court law, it is permissible for ICE agents to stop his uh people who look foreign, meaning they're Latino or some other ethnic group. Uh although I think Justice Kavanaaugh clarified in a in a small concurrence, well, it's not just race or ethnicity, it's also that they have low-income jobs. No, no, I I I'm not making this up. I look it up. I mean, this was just a couple of weeks ago. So what you what you're seeing I think is uh the sense that through executive power um many of the guard rails and norms that I thought I had to abide by as president of the United States that George Bush thought he had to abide by as president of the United States. um that suddenly those no longer apply and and that makes this a dangerous moment. That's why citizens have to pay attention. That's why those who are in positions of power need to stand up on behalf of these norms and these rules. Um, so all right, >> I should catch my breath. I'm sure I once a senator, always a senator. You just filibuster. You talk too long. >> So, a very quick followup because I recall George W. Bush reflecting on his presidency and getting advice from his predecessors. Has Donald Trump called you? >> Jeez, I didn't think it was that funny. >> No, no, I No. Uh, no, he is not. Um, look, I I I I want to say this. that these tensions in America are longstanding. Um, there's always been a debate in America about how to define we the people. There's always been a view that and and I I mentioned earlier blood and soil nationalism recently. Um, you've heard from people like the vice president of the United States currently ma making the argument that the idea that America is just a creed is wrong. America's also the people who've been here and their traditions and and and essentially the argument has has is not a new one. I mean there's an argument that was made from the start which is there's certain people who aren't part of we the people that we have a a cast system in this country and for a long time that was explicit and it was legal and it said you know people black people aren't part of we the people are sort of half kind of part of the we the people. And through great struggle and mobilization and sacrifice and and and and people standing up with moral clarity and through a civil war, we changed that. Um and and what what's happening right now is is that that that consensus that we thought we had gone through that in fact we the people applies to everybody. I think that's being challenged directly. Um and and that's a dangerous um set of ideas that this idea that that somehow we can go back to a a system in which just some of us count or some of us count more than others. Uh >> they >> they do. >> But quiet. >> Well, now here here's the thing we have to do. >> Would you like to come up and take the mic? I I'm not making light of this. Right. Uh I but here's the I I'm happy to talk about this if it's if it's a part of the question, but again some rules around how we talk. >> Well, yes, there are disasters and catastrophes everywhere. Sir, I >> please please >> sir, I'm not the president of the United States currently. So there's no point in shouting at me. The I I there's no point in shouting at me about it. I I'm not in charge of foreign policy currency. >> Well, there you go. But now now now listen by the way what's happen I I think we're going to have some time to talk about overseas um and I'm happy to address that as well he because these things are actually connected I'll just go ahead and talk about it now Um, part of what you see in the Middle East is the consequences of a mindset that some people are worth more than others. That that that we're we're each part of a tribe and that it's a zero- sum game and and that, you know, my tribe is better than your tribe. That mindset at some point if you look at history results in conflict. Terrible things are done on behalf of that idea. And so those who carried out October 7th had something in their minds that said, "These families, these women and children that we are going to slaughter in cold blood are less than us. We are justified in perpetrating that kind of brutality. and those who are now saying we're going to withhold food and medicine and shelter from millions of people as a consequence of those awful events. that also is dehumanizing the people in Gaza who are suffering right now. Now, I'm not I'm not I want to be clear. I'm not drawing equivalences. This is because this is part of the how our debates get bogged down. What I'm saying is is that when we don't see people as people, bad things happen. When we dehumanize people, bad things happen. And America at our best stands for the idea that everybody counts and is everybody's equal under the law and has an inherent dignity and respect and and that idea when we that idea when we lose that idea here the whole world gets dimmer. And we're seeing it right now. Autocrats feel like, oh, we've got a license now because America, they're they seem to be okay with it. In fact, they're kind of doing some of same things we're doing. and and and and and one of the things that struck me when I you know people sometimes would ask me what surprised you about being president. Um and I said, "Well, I I I knew we were going to be paying for our groceries, but I didn't realize like like we had to pay for like toilet paper and stuff." And so we got to kind of budget this thing, make sure, you know, basic household goods are taken care of. Um, still a good deal, you know, free rent. Um, plane, right? >> You missed a plane. >> The helicopter is even was even better than the plane. Um, but the thing that I that surprised me about the the the work of the presidency is just how much the United States under writes the global system. Like when when when when there's a tsunami and and people are in desperate need of aid, the United States is who they call. It's not Moscow. It's not Beijing. When there's a global economic crisis or a pandemic, it's the United States that is expected to help mobilize resources and come up with a cure. I and and so uh when we decide, well, that's not our business. That's for suckers to help the rest of the world. Well, then other countries start thinking, "All right, well, we might as well let's call Putin or let's call she." Um, and they may not be able to help us as much as the Americans can, but at least they seem to be paying attention. Um, >> let me put a couple of other issues on the table. You're the Walkman generation, right? You had a Walkman growing up, didn't you? You know, I'm actually I think I'm embarrassingly I think I maybe I was too old for a Walkman. I think uh I kind of skipped the Walkman thing. >> Well, here's why I ask. >> But but you clearly were. I can picture you with your Sony >> jamming to your tunes. What were you listening to on your Walkman? >> Fess up, Steve. >> I'll I'll tell you backstage. Uh in the interest of time though, AI is the whole new frontier. A lot of potential but a lot of downside. What are your concerns? What are the possibilities from your standpoint? >> I I I've been spending a lot of time uh thinking about this, talking to people who are developing it. Um, I I people forget those gadgets that you carry around in your pockets and your purses. This the the smartphone. I mean, I was two years into my presidency before that thing was even really sold. It It's just not that. It's only been around for 15 years now. Um so so the transformation that's taken place technologically I I sort of tracked right I I was the first digital president effectively um AI based on what I've seen heard um is going to be more disruptive than social media or the internet and it's going to happen faster. And um you know I I talked to somebody who works for one of the large frontier companies that are developing this um who's a thoughtful person and brings you know real human values to it. Not all of the people who are developing it seem to be as focused as as he is on it. And I asked him, well, what do you think this is going to be like? What what's the analogy? And he said, you know, I sat with a group of our engineers to discuss what this technology could mean. And the best analogy we came up with was this is likely to be like electricity. really >> now that's that's a pretty heavy thing. Electricity the difference is electricity kind of developed and was introduced into our lives over the course of several generations and this is coming over the next few years. It's already here actually. Um so let me describe very quickly what what I think will what I think we can say with some certainty and um this is going to be a big technology and it's going to be a disruptive technology. It has enormous potential to um to jumpstart discovery and innovation at speeds and at levels that we have not seen before and that could improve everybody's lives enormously. you know if the the most powerful models of AI uh artificial general intelligence gets developed let's say over the next 5 to 10 years um it is possible because the definition of that is that it can do some things that humans can't do. We could get a cure for cancer. We could get nuclear fusion. We could come up with zero emission carbon mechanisms that would slow the warming of the planet and be good for everybody. So, it has this enormous potential for good. Here are the downsides. There is the sort of science fiction risk that we'll all be bowing to our robot masters. Um, there is a nonzero chance that that happens. By the way, I I I don't think it's likely, but people who develop it, I think we should, you know, make sure we know how to turn off the switch. If >> good idea, >> if hell gets out of line, you know, go go goes haywire. Um, for those of you who are younger, that's a reference to a Stanley Kubric movie, uh, 2001 Space Odyssey. Worth checking out. Um, the the more likely risk is that these tools get weaponized. So, let's say a rogue state or a terrorist group gets a hold of AI and says, "Develop a new strain of smallpox that we can release, you know, in in a major city. um or find a way to insinuate yourself into the critical infrastructure of a target and bring down air traffic control. Those are serious risks that I our national security teams need to be paying attention to. The thing that is certainly going to happen, although we don't know exactly how and how it plays out, but we should be having a democratic conversation about right now. This will be economically disruptive. We are in Erie, Pennsylvania, an amazing community that went through wrenching change when the manufacturing base of this region and much of the Midwest, including Chicago, where I first started organizing around communities that have been devastated when the steel plants left. We we know what that feels like when it comes to bluecollar work. uh AI can potentially do similar disruptions to white collar work and you're already starting to see some evidence that it's happening because college grads who typically um have not been as subject to volatility of the business cycle. um you're starting to see new college grads have tougher times finding employment or getting re-employed if they leave a job even though the overall economy on the surface looks healthy. So, we have to prepare ourselves and our kids for a a a situation in which potentially a lot of existing jobs that we know of are going to be done by AI and they're going to be done really efficiently. Look, radiology if if you are there are some doctors probably in the audience that's a specialty that was required enormous training, enormous experience. You're basically reading patterns so that you can uh decipher what's wrong with somebody looking at X-rays and so forth. That's something AI can do really well. Um, and so that's a that's just one aspect of a really highly skilled discipline that is going to u be challenged. Now, they're always going to be people who are really good at using these tools, the very best of the best, and and they're they'll be even more effective because it'll augment the skills that they already have. But there are going to be some folks who sort of the average person in those occupations where they'll be replaced. Um, and so we're going to have to prepare for that. And we're not even having that discussion. And this is going to happen quickly and we should this should rather than some of the debates that we're having like we shouldn't have to debate not militarizing or politicizing our military. We shouldn't be debating that because it shouldn't be happening. we should be debating what are we going to do when some of these economic disruptions take place because we should start preparing for them. The second thing that I think is almost certain to happen um all the challenges that we talked about earlier Steve about social media are going to be turbocharged. If you think it's hard right now to figure out what's true and what's false, it's going to be harder when and it's already almost here, but it's just going to get better and better. It's hard to distinguish not just what what's whether what you're reading is true, but what you're seeing is true. And that also can be weaponized in ways that divides our countries. And so we're going to have to give more thought to how are we going to educate ourselves and educate our children to be able to sort through opinion and fact. Sort true sort through what's true and what's false. And we're going to have to have these conversations in a more democratic way because we have not seen technologies this powerful being developed by essentially five companies plus a handful of companies in China that are going to determine our all of our fates in a lot of ways and our kids' fates and our grandkids fates. and we're not having a public conversation at all about well should there be some guardrails around how that gets developed and so I'm hoping that um in the midst of all this other stuff that that is a topic that our elected officials start paying a lot more attention to. I think that it is possible for us to get the benefits of AI and guard against some of these risks. And I I think the US can still win the competition uh in developing the most powerful models, but still do it in a way that is consistent with democracy and and consistent with public input and public values. Before we get to our final few minutes, lightning round, you have given us you've given us a lot to think about and I just want to on behalf of the citizens of Erie, the Jefferson Educational Society, the sponsors and the people who have traveled far and wide, thank you. Thank you for your insights. Thank you for your voice and thank you for challenging us because we need to be challenged. So with that, we have a little lightning round. I think the next best thing that happened in Chicago with your election was Pope Leo. We have a picture. >> There he is. >> He's also a Socks fan. >> Well, that that's actually me. That's not him. Um uh I am a White Socks fan. That's a tough thing, right? It's been a tough thing for about 15 years now. Um but uh the new pope is not only from Chicago but also a White Sox fan. Now I I'll I'll point out that picture was when I threw out the first pitch. Well, maybe not. What I was going to say is the last time we won a World Series, uh I threw out the first pitch at the uh uh at the conference championship ACLS and and so maybe there was some direct correlation there. Um I'm not sure. It's also when the Blackhawks won repeatedly while I was in office. So, um, I I feel like I've made a contribution, >> but Pope Leo, south side of Chicago, I mean, >> love that guy. >> In all seriousness, I I I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him. What impresses me about him is he is pastoral, right? He devoted his life to directly helping and caring for people in in very difficult uh environments. And uh if if if there's one aspect of uh Christ's teaching that that I feel most deeply about, it is is the notion of caring for the least of these. Um and and uh he reflects that. Um he he he he he practices that doesn't just preach it. >> Photo number two. 21 years ago, Boston and your speech about not a red America, not a blue America, but a red, white, and blue America. How did that come about? >> I uh Well, I >> Nice tie, by the way. Yeah. Look, I I just look so young. I can't I sometimes I'm shocked that anybody voted for me. It's like, look at that baby. Um but um no, I look I had been campaigning. I I wasn't even a a US senator at the time. I was a state legislator. I but I'd been campaigning for the US Senate and I had won the nomination. Um and and I had traveled all across Illinois and Illinois like Pennsylvania to a large degree. It's a it's a microcosm of the country, right? They're big cities, but they're also rural areas and suburbs and you got every kind of group of people. And um and so traveling around the state and just being in conversations with people at VFW halls and, you know, Friday night football games and uh county