OpenAI Trial "Soap Opera," ChatGPT's Stock Picks, and Remembering Ted Turner

What It Covers

Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway cover four main topics: Ted Turner's death and CNN's legacy, the OpenAI vs. Musk trial testimony revealing corporate dysfunction, ChatGPT's limitations as a stock-picking tool, and media company earnings from Warner Bros., Paramount, and Disney, with Scott predicting crowdfunded corporate acquisitions as an emerging trend.

Key Questions Answered

• •AI Stock Picking Reality: Roughly 30% of retail investors already use AI for portfolio decisions, but institutional players like Ken Griffin deploy thousands of PhD-level analysts weaponized with AI. Individual investors using $20/month Claude subscriptions cannot compete. The actionable takeaway: use AI to explore investment logic and learn option strategies, but execute capital through low-cost index ETFs like Vanguard rather than acting on AI-generated picks.
• •Retail vs. Institutional AI Gap: Retail participation in US equities has risen to nearly 20% of average daily trading volume, up from low single digits pre-COVID, typically a contrarian sell signal. Every trade placed by a retail investor likely has a faster, better-resourced institutional counterpart on the other side. Recognizing this asymmetry should redirect individual investors toward passive index strategies rather than active AI-assisted stock selection.
• •Media Earnings Benchmark: Disney posted revenue of $25.2 billion with streaming operating income jumping 88% and margins breaking double digits at nearly 11%. Paramount Plus revenue grew 17% year-over-year, adding 700,000 subscribers to reach 79.6 million total. Warner Bros. reported a $2.9 billion net loss, largely tied to a Paramount termination fee. Linear TV revenue continues declining across all three companies, with domestic pay TV subscribers down 10% at Warner.
• •OpenAI Trial Legal Framework: The Musk vs. OpenAI trial generates extensive media coverage about internal personalities and management style, but the legally relevant question is narrow: contract law governs whether Musk retains any claim after voluntarily relinquishing ownership and governance rights. Evidence of interpersonal conflict, manipulation, or competing visions for AI safety carries no legal weight. Prediction markets dropped Musk's win probability from 52% to 38% during the trial period.
• •Crowdfunded Acquisitions as Emerging Trend: A 32-year-old TikToker crowdfunded $132 million in nonbinding pledges from over 133,000 people averaging $1,000 each to attempt buying bankrupt Spirit Airlines. AI-generated legal documents combined with PayPal-style payment infrastructure now make it feasible for charismatic social media creators to aggregate retail capital at scale. Within 12 to 36 months, expect a small company acquisition to successfully close through this crowdfunding-plus-AI-compliance model.
• •European Tech Capital Formation Gap: US GDP per capita and productivity have outpaced Europe by 20-30% since 1995, with most of that gap attributable to tech capital formation. Anthropic alone, founded five years ago, would rank among Europe's five most valuable companies if based there. European seed-stage investing benefits from 30% tax credits in the UK, but Series B and C rounds of $100 million-plus for scaling AI companies essentially do not exist in European markets.