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SL Sam Liccardo On On with Kara Swisher

“I don't think we know how to regulate AI safety. And we don't, in part because of the nature of the technology, this is not deterministic software code. This is probabilistic. Nobody knows exactly what comes out of these models… The expertise is nowhere near Washington. It really is in the labs.”

On with Kara Swisher · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

“I don't think we know how to regulate AI safety. And we don't, in part because of the nature of the technology, this is not deterministic software code. This is probabilistic. Nobody knows exactly what comes out of these models… The expertise is nowhere near Washington. It really is in the labs.” — Sam Liccardo, On with Kara Swisher

Context

Kara Swisher asked Liccardo what changed between his op-ed arguing AI needs a referee rather than a regulator and his later push for a vote on AI safeguards. He explains why he thinks traditional regulation doesn't fit AI.

Transcript

On with Kara Swisher Around 22:50 into the episode
Kara Swisher

…So, Sam, you wrote a Washington Post op-ed back in May where you argued that AI doesn't need a regulator, it needs a referee. But in September, you helped lead the call for more than 100 Democrats demanding a vote on AI safeguard legislation. So, can you illuminate on that? What changed for you?

Speaker 3

Yeah, let

Speaker 1

me explain where I was going. The reality is, I don't think we know how to regulate AI, AI safety. And we don't, in part because of the nature of the technology, this is not deterministic software code. This is probabilistic. Nobody knows exactly what comes out of these models. So it makes it very different as we think about regulating. But part of the challenge, too, is that the expertise is nowhere near Washington. It really is in the labs. And we have heard plenty of cries for more AI safety regulation. We have to engage the leading thinkers. Who are overwhelmingly in places like Greg's district in my district? They're not in Washington, D.C., to actually enable us to create much safer AI. And ultimately, I believe it's going to require us to engage the industry proactively with obviously the right liability rules and so forth to…

Speaker 3

We'll be back in a

Kara Swisher

minute.

Speaker 3

I'm Kara Swisher, and I like people who say the quiet part out loud. In fact, I love it. That's Tiger Sisters, a new podcast that recently joined the Vox Media Podcast Network. Cherie Brooke Liu and Jean Liu are real sisters who built their careers at LinkedIn and Goldman Sachs. On their weekly…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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