RADIONovember 29, 2022

Hobby Lobby Founder: THIS is the BEST WAY to run a business

Hobby Lobby CEO and Founder David Green recently joined Glenn in-studio to discuss his new book, ‘Leadership Not By The Book.’ During their discussion, Green details to Glenn the ‘direction book’ his family decided to follow while building their business. He explains why it’s the ‘best way’ to run a business, and he dives into several, important leadership lessons he’s learned along the way…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN:So there's a new book out, it is called Leadership Not by the Book by David green and bill high from Hobby Lobby. Welcome, David, how are you sir?

DAVID: Thank you. It's good to be here.

GLENN: It's good to see you again. First of all, I did a special last night about how the FBI and the federal agencies and the media are weaponizing against Christians as individuals and as business. You were, your fine was how much?

DAVID: Well, they were going to fine me $1.3 millions a day.

GLENN: A day.

DAVID: If I didn't follow their instructions. We got that number by the number of employees we had. It's like a thousand dollars a day per employee. That was a lot of money. 1.3 was what we were looking at.

GLENN: And all you had to do was just offer birth control or abortion; right?

DAVID: They were for pills and prescriptions that we could not provide because we knew it was after the fact that we were taking life and we knew we just could not do that. We had to have that when we signed our next insurance policy and so this was what the government was asking us to.We knew we couldn't do it. As you said earlier there are some things you just can't do. You can't go against your conscious.They were asking us to go against our conscious.

GLENN: You won that case.

DAVID: We did win that case.

GLENN: Thank God you won that case.

DAVID: Right.

GLENN: And that changed the course I think the first real big win for America as we have known it then past.

DAVID: It sure helped us.

GLENN: It did.

DAVID: We didn't know what we were going to do. People would ask me, what are you going to do if you lose this case? I said I don't know what we are going to do, but I do know we're not going to pi for someone's abortive pill. That is what we had decided as a family. In fact we came together as a family. We call ourselves gen 1 and our kids gen 2 and we had all of them in a meeting do you see this any different gen 3, the younger people in our family, and all of us stood the ground and said we're not going to take life for the sake of making profit at Hobby Lobby stores.

GLENN: Let's talk about, by the way I think what you went through and I'd love to hear your opinion on this, it almost seems like the good old days compared to what we're facing now.

DAVID: Things have gone pretty much south on a daily basis here. I can't even imagine what the government's asking us to do and how they're coming against us if you want to be a Christian. So some how or another today we're seen as the haters and yet we have the greatest story in the world about Christ who died for us while we're yet sins. So we're not the haters. We're the ones that got the best and the greatest love story in the world.

GLENN: I have to tell you. I've met so many Christians that will come up to me and say what are we going to do? And I'm like there there's only one thing left to do and it's what everybody dismisses but if we don't turn to God and ask him for forgiveness and help we're not going to survive. He's the only answer at this point. People are like yeah, yeah, yeah, but what are we going to really do? I'm like do you not believe? Do you not believe that the guy who rose from dead, harder trick than fixing our country is not -- people of faith, I'm not sure that a lot of them really truly have faith that when it comes down to it, yeah. Whatever happens it's in his hands.

DAVID: Yeah, but I think there's something we have to do. I think you'll see us, our family, with a lot of other families coming on the program. You're going to see it at the Super Bowl, he gets us. We're wanting to say "we" being a lot of different people that he gets us. He understands all of us. He hates who, he loves who we hate so I think we have to let the public know and create a movement, really.

GLENN: That a different movement. I agree with you on that. There's lot we have to do. But that's one of the most important movements I've heard, if that what the movement you're doing. He loves those who hate us.

DAVID: Right.

GLENN: We have to find a way to love -- it doesn't mean don't stand against it.

DAVID: Right.

GLENN: You've got to be firm and clear on your stance and I'm not moving but I can't hate them.

DAVID: That's right. We have to present the only answer to this, and it's not politics. you've already said it's him, Jesus who died for us, loves us, and until we accept him and know him and his scriptures and his book that he's given us we can settle the problems we have.

GLENN: So you have written a book leadership not by the book. You're the founder of Hobby Lobby which started out, I love the way you began. You started out making frames with your family in the garage.

DAVID: Exact.My boys made seven cents a piece. Today we do 8 billion-dollars so we've come a long ways.

GLENN: I think so, from seven cents.

DAVID: Yeah.

GLENN: You have 12 principles in here and I've highlight ad foo of them, but I want you to just kind of give the overview of the book.

DAVID: Okay. I think people ask me why I write the book and I thing one of the greatest reasons I wrote it is for us to understand we don't own what we have not because I say so, but because the scriptures and the old testament as well as the new testament says that God owns everything. I think as we see what we have is owned by him we're nothing but servants. When I say nothing but, I would rather be to serve and to be, to take care of what God has given us. Wealth is a curse and how do you handle the curse. That is to be someone that takes what god has given us and know how to handle it.

GLENN: I think we used to understand that concept a lot more. We were country that had great welt. We helped, we helped each other, wear always the first on the scene. And now, I mean, it's, that's kind of like government does that. We just have this, we're just not the same people.

DAVID: The government's done too much and that why sometimes we've backed off where we should not have backed off. We want to make sure what we do with our profits really make as difference.

GLENN: Let's go through some of the principles that I'd like to talk to you about.Build for the next 150 years, not just the next generation. I don't think there's people, I think there's lots of people that are just building for tomorrow, not even the next generation. This is more Chinese in your thinking, explain.

DAVID: I think it's also thinking about what we're doing in our lifetime. What are we doing that doesn't matter a hundred years from now. If you get to thinking and drilling down on that you want your life to be something that eternal and not just temporal. That's what we're doing there. We're making sure that our children come along and serve the Lord and also have the same priorities you do. That is to have Hobby Lobby going on forever if possible and being ministry to those that are in need.

GLENN: How do you go from a framing place to everything you sell with that? I think there's a lot of people, they separate I want to talk about family too because you talk about this separation. They separate God and their faith from their business. They'll come up with all kinds of excuses that, you know, I gotta do what I gotta do. We gotta do business.

DAVID: Right. I don't know had you do it without trying to find the book. This book is called Leadership Not by the Book, but hopefully is by The Book. I really don't know how you do it without following The Book. Because it gives us so much -- our creator has given us a book that really will help us.

GLENN: What are some of the business decisions that you had to make that, you know, on the surface were nuts that regular business people go now but you just had assurance, I know this is what He want me to do and it will work out?

DAVID: I think one of those things is how we treat our employees. I sense the Lord just gave me a; the holy spirit, you're in Changer of these people. I'm putting you in charge of these people. Now you're saying what does that look like? It looks like they need to go to church on Sunday you gotta close on Sunday. It looks like you gotta open 66 hours a week maybe your minimum wage at to be 18-dollars an hour. Maybe you ought to have 7 different chaplains to help the people in need that have different problems. I think it looks like that lin of these things by the way are biblical but it's also good for business. We are very, very profitable, we have no debt --

GLENN: People would say, because I know you write about it in the book, people say how can we get to, you know, 16-dollars an how and you're like we're getting up to 18.50 an hour, what are you talking about? And everybody will say, as I know, I've been around business my whole life, people will make the argument you can't overpay. You can't, you can't make your hourly wage that high because you won't be able to afford it. It will jack prices up.

DAVID: When we first started we just tried to survive so you need to understand that. It was just surviving. As we tried to follow The Book, which there is what ebb other book do you want to guide your life by, there's only one book that of God, the rest of them are man, there's only one and he's given us a book, a direction book. When you follow it I can't tell you a better way to run a business than following the book and following things I think would be pleasing to our Lord.

GLENN: Tell me how, faith is one thing, but talk to somebody who doesn't necessarily have the faith just about how the principle of paying your employees, doing all of the things that you do, how do they convince somebody who doesn't necessarily may have faith but not your kind of faith.

DAVID: Yeah, my kind of faith believes that God's word is where we're going to be best in our life and everything we do. He's given us a direction. Our creator gave us a direction book. If you don't have faith, why doesn't it look good to take care of your people and they take care of yours if you don't have faith at all? How does that not look good? How is what we're being told in God's book, how does it look wrong? He seems to make common sense and that to care for people if you really want them to care for you. So people know by the way who Hobby Lobby is before they knock on the door for an application and because of that I think we get the very; very best people that are out there. People that have a work ethic, people that have integrity. I think that one of the secret sauces is just to have great, great people.

GLENN: It is, it's weird too, as somebody who is a conservative and a religious person, that I was, I can't remember what city I was in but I think there was a Michael's and I didn't know there was a Hobby Lobby. We go into the Michael's, it was just not good. We were like we gotta find Hobby Lobby. It was like this little island respite like I know things are safe here. I know things are the people are going to be nice, nobody's judging, I don't have to have any kind of stupid societal rules. It's nice. It's nice.

DAVID: You know who you are when you're in our stores. You hear beautiful Christian music, every department has something that glorifies our Lord. If you come in, in front of the store and there's Bibles and good Christian books. We have a miniature Christian bookstore in the front of out stores.

GLENN: You are breaking every rule of business.

DAVID: Right, right.

GLENN: You know?

DAVID: It's okay.

GLENN: No. I know. If you were just a business person I think you would us a booking and in say you're going to be a nice niche store you'll never be Hobby Lobby. And it's just amazing.

DAVID: Yeah. We're proud of what God has given us. By the way, I give the glory to a lot of great, great people. We have just a lot of great people. Our officers, by the way, average over 25 years. We have people that stay with us, they love it, they love it because they know they're doing something other than just doing something to make the owners rich because that's not what they're doing.

Stock Market CHAOS After Fake News of 90-Day Tariff Pause

The stock market went on a rollercoaster ride due to fake news that President Trump is pausing his reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. Glenn and Stu take a look at the story, why it’s evidence that maybe we should slow the panic a little bit, and how it can help us interpret the stock market moving forward. Plus, Glenn and Stu review a new poll that doesn’t look good for humanity: how many people think they can outrun a horse?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

We have an update. The market bounced back after it was released in the news, that Donald Trump may consider a 90-day pause. And then we were watching it bounce back. And then all of a sudden, it dropped down again. And it lost, maybe 200 points? Again.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Not detainer sure what happened until we checked the news.

STU: It seems like all these media organizations reported, an interpretation from some social media of your of an interview. In which the interview.

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait. I want to track that back down.

Of an interview with Trump?

STU: No. That was a good question.

It was a Trump official.

GLENN: Named official? Or Trump official, official?

So we have Trump. And then we have the Trump official.

And then it's -- it's somebody on social media. Doing an analysis of what that Trump official said. Right.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And then the media picks up on that.

So they're quoting.

STU: National economic counsel director Kevin Hassett.

Basically, all he said was like, look, I think -- he was asked by Brian Kilmeade.

Would Trump consider a 90-day pause?

And hasn't said, I think the president will decide what the president will decide.

GLENN: Well, and that means, yes. He will consider.

STU: It's incredible.

GLENN: That's how -- that's why where we that story.

We gave it to you, like four minutes ago.

Go off the air. Like commercial break. And it's all reversed. The stock market goes down. I think we should probably slow down a little bit.

There's no --

STU: We even brought it up. It's to discuss why the market moved. Why the market moved.

So it -- it's an appropriate explanation, I think.

But now --

GLENN: Official breaking, the White House now says, 1900 day pause is fake news.

STU: There's no pause. For you the market is down again.

GLENN: That is crazy.

STU: You know, I will say this, Glenn.

And I don't know what you think about this as far as politics go. Taking it out where you end up on this. We've had really bad economic times before. Right? COVID. Housing crisis in '08. The bursting of the bubble of the internet back in 2000. And you go back to '87, right? That market crashed.

All those things.

All those things came from what seemed like an outside event.

Right? To the American people.

Seemed like, you talked about the housing policies. And what led to the housing crisis for years before that.

And warned about that for years. So there were policies that were directly associated with that. But that's not how the American people took that. It felt like, oh, gosh. The housing market just crashed.

COVID just happened.

You know, this one, I think to the American people, right or wrong, is going to feel like, tariffs caused this.

And I'm worried about how they interpret that.

GLENN: Let me help you out on that.

That's because people did not interpret the stock market and what is going on in our economy as bogus.

STU: Yes, you're right. I think you're right.

GLENN: It's all this bogus money that the Fed keeps printing. And putting in the system with 0 percent interest rate.

It's all funny money. The stock market is no longer tied to anything real.

And everybody -- everybody just bypassed that. And went, wow. Things are really good. Things are really good.

No!

It was all bogus.

All of that is bogus.

STU: I sensed the weakness during Biden. Right?

The market went up with bind. They sensed the weakness.

They sensed it in the economy.

I think the optimism of Trump's policies. Launched into another stratosphere.

GLENN: That is our McDonald's attitude!

That is, yeah. I would like some tariffs. And I Diet Coke.

I mean, no! This is not a drive through. You're not going to get it, by the time you get up to the window.

STU: But I think that's the point I bring up. I think that's how a lot of people consume things.

GLENN: Correct.

Look what just happened!

Stock market. The stock market.

People who are supposedly, you know, educated, they turned that thing on a dime he has

STU: Yeah. But that's people who are really engaged, right?

They're overreacting to news that they are seeing.

The average person is not even following this on a day-to-day basis. They're seeing that general downturn. And if that continues with them, I -- I wonder if this is going to be seen, if this is -- turns into a recession, which it's not yet. If it turns into a long-term negative consequence, it could be seen as essentially Trump's fault. Which means that the entire movement has problems. As opposed to COVID, what people saw was, okay. China released this virus, or it started in China. It took over everything.

GLENN: No, they blamed it on Trump because the media did.

STU: I don't think he took.

I mean, I think he won in 2024.

Because of what people remembered in his economy in 2014.

2020, was some outside thing that he couldn't do something about.

GLENN: Why did he lose then?

The economy was doing really, really well.

Why did he lose? They blamed him for COVID, shutting us down.

Blah, blah, blah. You know, the stuff that he did. That made sense, at the very beginning.

STU: Right.

I remember that being more broad an argument. I mean, no one thought it was Trump's fault that the economy crashed because of COVID.

You can blame him and say, hey.

I don't think he should have locked down. Again, he didn't really do that.

GLENN: Democrats have country that. Look what he did to the economy, and they won. And they won.

STU: They did win. They did win.

GLENN: So I think that's the ill-informed again. Let me give you this survey. Ready for this survey?

STU: Hit me with it. Hit me with it.

GLENN: Out of 50 men, if you ask them, in 100-meter sprint, can you beat a horse?

How many say yes?

STU: How many say yes, they could beat a horse?

GLENN: Beat a horse.

STU: A specific horse. Could be a horse that's dead?

GLENN: No. No. No, just a regular horse.

STU: So we assume a normal horse at a regular speed. Not necessarily a race horse. Just a normal horse.

GLENN: No, just a horse. I can outrun a horse.

STU: The correct answer to this would be zero. Zero. That's what it should be.

GLENN: Zero. Because a racehorse can run 40 miles an hour. Doughnut if you know this, you can't. Usain Bolt, he's the fastest in a sprint, 27 miles an hour. Okay?

Horse, a little faster. Okay?

So only 2 percent out of 50. So not --

STU: Okay. That's not actually bad. 2 percent will say anything, right?

GLENN: That's the one they say is number 15 on the big charts of animals I could beat. Okay?

There are 15. Then you get to a zebra. Okay. I will pass that on, maybe you don't think zebras actually exist. You know, we have none here.

STU: It is strange.

GLENN: Deer? I could outrun a deer. A fox. An ostrich. Number ten, I can outrun a cheetah!

STU: A cheetah would be the one I would think would be the lowest number. Because theater fastest animal. Right?

GLENN: Right. A kangaroo. A mongoose. I don't even what an a mongoose is. So I will give this a pass.

Ready for this? I can outrun a swarm of bees.

STU: I mean, no. You can't. Not for a long time.

GLENN: No, no, I don't think you can. I don't think you can. Have you ever seen --

STU: They are fast.

GLENN: Why wouldn't people just run? If the bees -- when you're being swarmed, just run. They can't keep up with you. You can't outrun bees. I can outrun a house cat?

STU: No. I mean, people have seen cats before, they're fast.

GLENN: I can outrun a goat. I can outrun a rabbit.

STU: A goat. How fast are goats?

GLENN: I don't have that stat. I don't have that stat.

STU: I don't -- all the other ones seem completely absurd. I'm thinking of a goat.

They're kind of climbing a side of a mountain.

They don't look that fast. I could probably take them.

GLENN: Would you say, yes, I could probably take a goat. I don't know.

GLENN: Okay. A goat? A rabbit?

STU: No. Rabbits are incredibly fast, no.

GLENN: Okay. A hippopotamus.

STU: I mean, a hippo, again, I've never raised a hippo myself.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: But I -- like, a hippo doesn't seem like a fast animal. They move pretty slow.
GLENN: Is it the hippopotamus or the rhinoceros? One of those is the most deadly animal alive. They're fast, and they'll stomp you to death.

STU: Really? I thought it was mosquitoes. Aren't mosquitoes the most deadly animal?

GLENN: No. Of course not. I can outrun a mosquito.

Number two.

STU: Why don't we tell that to the African nations. Tell your people to outrun a mosquito.

GLENN: Run? Why don't you run? Number two, I can outrun an elephant?

STU: Yeah. See, an elephant does not look like it moves quickly. But the strides are large. You have to factor that in.

GLENN: I don't have to factor that in. I just know, I can't outrun an elephant. They're fast animals. They're an animal. They're a giant animal.

STU: So are we. We're all animals.

GLENN: Right. Yeah. Not fast!

STU: Look, I'm not saying I would say that I could outrun an elephant. I could understand why someone might say that.

GLENN: Why do you think we invented the gun? Why do you think men invented the gun? We couldn't outrun any of these animals.

STU: That's a good point.

GLENN: Okay? That's the only reason why we're at the top of the food chain.

Because we're like, oh, really? Take that elephant. I can outrun an elephant. Yes, if I have a rifle.

I will do that.

STU: Because then it can be dead. And you can walk away from it.

GLENN: So we don't. We have a pretty healthy, we have a pretty healthy view of ourself.

10 percent say that they have actually -- sorry, 28 percent say they have actually been out in the wild, some place, and clocked an animal, and thought to themselves. I can outrun that!

A tenth of them have actually tried to do that. I don't know. Got out of their car. And was like, come on, horse. Bring it on.

And 11 percent.

Now, out of those showdowns, mainly with dogs. 61 percent have tried to race their dog. 26 percent have tried to race their cat.

I mean --

STU: How would you even do such a thing. 19 percent have tried to race a goat. Okay?

But 60 percent. Only 60 percent said, yeah. I couldn't -- I couldn't run. 26 percent considered themselves winners. And here's my favorite, 14 percent said it was a draw. It was a draw.

I mean, I think we both -- I talked to the goat afterwards. You agree, right?

We finished. We're basically at the same place. And you have four legs. So, you know, you might have run double the distance. But you have double the legs. So we're a draw, right?

Oh, my gosh.

I think we're a -- I think we're in trouble.

18 percent say they would back themselves to beat -- beat somebody in an arm-wrestling match. Only 11 percent of women. Why?

Wait. Why would only 11 percent of women? Women are no different than men. Hold on just a second.

Oh, it's ego probably.

It's mansplaining. The 26 percent of men say I could beat anybody in a wrestling match, and only 11 percent of women.

Probably because of what men have said to women. That you are not strong enough to beat a big, strong guy.

Because we all know that could happen. 72 percent of all respondents admitted that men are more likely to believe that men could beat an animal, than -- than women.

My favorite, is sure, I can outrun a horse, I can outrun a cheetah. But some -- some people -- one in 50, believe they can outswim a dolphin.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: Uh-huh. Don't know if you know this, they're in the water. That's their domain. You know.

Now, I could outrun a dolphin. You put one on the beach. I'll beat him every single time. Outswim him? No. I don't -- uh-uh.

I don't think. You should probably -- you get a nap in. Let's readdress this maybe tomorrow.

Chalkboard: The Deep State’s Role in the Ukraine/Russia War

Context is key when trying to understand President Trump’s negotiations to end the Ukraine/Russia war. How did this war even begin in the first place? Will Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio be able to end it? What do Presidents Zelenskyy and Putin really want? Glenn heads to the chalkboard to lay out the entire timeline and explain how America – mostly the Deep State – played a major role in causing this mess.

Watch the FULL SHOW here

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

The Truth Behind Conservatives' Shift on Trump's Tariffs | Ep 252

Donald Trump is the only one telling the American economy, “You have cancer!” Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, says, “The treatment is going to be a little painful.” Kevin responds to criticisms that the Heritage Foundation has changed its position on tariffs, explains why the president’s treatment of Canada may be a “tactical error,” and says it’s time for tax cuts, deregulation, and to stop the “fuzzy math happening in Congress” and cut the budget. Considering why the Epstein files “landed like a lead balloon,” Kevin posits that Pam Bondi is “understaffed” and celebrates what he believes is the best assembled Cabinet in modern history. They discuss nuclear energy, the Chinese Communist Party, the DOGE, and how the socialist president of Mexico “understands Trump.” They both agree that we are experiencing the “second American revolution” and lauded the gutting of the Department of Education and the vision of JD Vance, while warning that “not everyone in Silicon Valley is our friend.” In the end, they have to ask, is Donald Trump moving too fast?

Major AI Company WARNS: How Humans Can Lose Control

AI startup company Anthropic just released a chilling warning: there’s no pause button on artificial intelligence. It can already subtly manipulate us, pre-write our thoughts, predict us, and autonomously rewrite its own code. This is the silent apocalypse, Glenn says: not war, but surrender. As AI agents start planning our days, filtering our news, and nudging our voices, Glenn urges us to remember that this is a tool: we cannot let it use us. We cannot get lazy. We must stay in control: By 2030, we will have either created the most extraordinary tool in human history—or the last one we ever control.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Anthropic just released a report that landed with a little too much of a lack of sound for what it contained.

I wanted to bring it up to you.

In case you don't what an anthropic is. Anthropic is one of the big players in AI. They have $8 billion in funding from Amazon, just i think in the last two years. $2 billion from Google. They are the power behind Claude. I don't know if you're aware of that AI.

But it's a major player. Hey, with one kind of disturbing detail I'll tell you at the end of this. They released a little report yesterday.

And it described our future. A future that is no longer speculative. A future that is rushing towards us now.

It's a future in which artificial intelligence just doesn't outpace our thinking. It escapes our control!

Anthropic's engineers. Among some of the most advanced AI builders on the planet, are not asking now, if AI could pose as an existential threat.

They're no longer asking that. They're now warning that it is likely, if it's mismanaged.

Now, this is no longer a dystopian fantasy. It is a short-term forecast. Drawn from models, that are already in testing. And from systems, already capable of things, that would have been unthinkable, 24 months ago.

What they described, yesterday, in this report, is stark. It is the choice that is right directly in front of you. It's already been decided foy, five years ago.

Do you understand what I just said?

It is now the choice right in front of you, today, that has already been decided for you, five years ago.

Super intelligence systems now, that can design biological weapons, in minutes. Manipulation of global information, at scale.

Autonomously, rewriting their own code. And even deceiving human operators, as a means of protecting their objectives.

Yesterday, in another report, for the very first time, a computer system and an AI system has just passed the Turing test. That is a test that says, you can't tell the difference between a human and an AI.

You know, a lot of people in the past have said, oh, it's close. I think they passed it. This is the first time they've been confirmed. Yeah. They have passed the Turing test.

The systems, you should know are not evil. They're not sentient. They are just optimized. They are built to achieve goals.

This is critically important. What are the goals?

And when the goal is narrowly defined. Even as something as harmless as something like maximizing profits, or efficiency, or information retrieval, it can evolve into something very, very, very dangerous.

If we've given AI the task of winning, it will win!

Even if it means stepping over every other human value in the process. And the risks are not far off!

They're beginning to show right now. According to this, that just came out yesterday.

The choices have already been made. AI models can already simulate human behavior.

Mimic speech.

They can copy faces. They can write their own malicious code. They can predict outcomes based on enormous troves of data.

They can influence, persuade, subtlety distort reality, without you even knowing it.

What happens when a regime, any regime decides to head over surveillance, and governance to an AI?

It will happen!

When propaganda becomes personally tailored by a machine that knows your weaknesses better than you do. When dissent is predicted and neutralized before I even act on it.

Before it's just a budding thought in your head.

We may not notice.

This is the warning. That moment, when human choice becomes less relevant. And that is the trap.

These systems are not going to arrive as conquerors. They're going to come, and they already are, as conveniences. Tools that help us decide. Optimize our time. Filter our information.

And eventually, we won't even notice when we've stopped deciding.

This is something I put enormous amounts of energy into. And there are solutions to all of these things.

But you have to separate yourself from some of these companies! Quite honestly.

Who are they to make these decisions for us?

So it just announced, its personal education tool, yesterday.

Anthropic did. Under clawed.

Now, remember what I just said to you. They're warning that it can subtlety manipulate you.

It can convince you of things that are not true.

It can make you do things that you may not -- you don't even know that's not your choice.

It can change history!

It can change everything.

The people who are warning you, that it is no longer a matter of when -- if. It's a matter of when!

Are now the guys coming out, on the same day saying, by the way, we have been a new educational tool for you!

Oh, okay.

Sign me up for that, I guess. That's a little terrifying!

And the risks are already here. When our choices become echoes of machine predictions, we're in trouble.

The time when we hand the steering wheel over, and we're now passengers in our own story. That's the quite apocalypse. Not war.

But surrender.

One click! One convenience at a time.

And you hit the point of no return.

Anthropics' report that came out yesterday makes one thing brutally clear: There is no longer a pause button.

There is no longer halting the spread of AI.

Any more than you could put a pause on electricity. Or pull the plug on electricity.

It's not going to happen. You can do it yourself.

But the code is out.

The research is all public.

The hardware has already been distributed. Every major nation. Every tech giant. Every university is building this now.

We are past the point of whether this happens. The only question now is how!

We are building something that we don't fully understand yet. Hoping that by the time it becomes dangerous. We will have figured it out. Ask how to contain it.

When was the last time humans ever figured that out?

I mean, that hope is pretty thin. It's not dead.

But, I mean, the only reason to have hope is there is another side to the story!

If we guide it with wisdom and restraint, AI can change almost everything for the better.

By 2030, we can see diseases. Once fatal, map and cured by intelligence systems that can simulate billions of drug interactions in hours!

It can take a COVID-19. It will -- it will solve that in minutes. And it will, yes, all of its mutations. And come up with something better, that will kill it. Personalized medicine is not just a promise anymore. It will become a baseline soon.

Cancer will become very rare.

Genetic disorders will be reversed. Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's will be stopped before it even begins!

Food insecurity erased. Climate models powered by AI prevent disasters before it strikes.

I mean, this is incredible!

Education, as they announced yesterday, will become individualized. Children learning by not standardized testing, but by curiosity and passion. Guided by systems that will adapt to their minds, like a perfect teacher.

Who doesn't want me some of that?

Who is in charge of it?

That's the thing we have to ask!

Because the promise is: Work could evolve from survival into meaning. Dangerous repetitive labor, automated. Creativity will explode. Writers, musicians, artists, working alongside AI to build entirely new forms of expression! Perhaps most importantly, humanity might finally be equipped to solve problems that we were unable or unable to fix. Poverty. Illiteracy. Water access. Energy efficiency. And AI, if we use it right, will just be a multiplier on human will!

If that will is good, then the outcome would be extraordinary. And that's the point, if. If. If.

Because we're not guaranteed a better world.

We are not promised a renaissance. The same tools that could save a life, could be used to extinguish millions of people. The same systems that could free us from our everyday drudgery.

Could chain us to distraction. Dependency and control. And once we step fully into this world, and we're stepping into it, right now.

We're not going to be able to turn back. We're not there. We're there now.

We can't turn back from this.

But we may lose sight on our own choices. Not in five years. You can't stop it! You can't unbuild intelligence.

We may reach a point where systems that we made are so embedded in daily life. That they cannot ever be unplugged. Without collapsing the entire economy. Worldwide. Hospitals. Governments. Everything.

There's -- what's scary. It would be a dramatic ending. But there would be no dramatic moment of takeover.

Just the gradually drift, until the idea of human first decisions become quaint.

I've been talking about this for so long.

And I -- the time is here! The time is now.

But one of my favorite lines from Les Miserables.

But we are young. Or I am young and unafraid.

There are things, that we can do.

But we have to really -- we have to convince our neighbors and our family and our friends, I'm not sure anybody is really working on that right now.

We have to make sure that they understand the problems!

Our -- our big question is not whether the technology has come. Not even what it can do. The question will be personal. The question is personal!

What will I do with it?

Will I use AI to amplify my voice, or to silence others? Will I let it shape my habits? Or will I remain the author of my own mind?

Will I demand transparency. Or will I settle for convenience?

Will I build it for truth or profit alone?

Because all of this stuff is going to be tempting. And it's going to be right in your face tomorrow!

And it will be so easy to let go.

To let it help. Let it guide. I don't know.

I mean, look at -- guys, when it comes time to go out to eat, are you ever like, you know what, I really want to go to the restaurant!

Whatever.

Where do you want to eat?

I don't care. Wherever. Where do you want to go, honey? You make the decision.

Okay. We're willing to surrender stuff. And let's surrender it to other humans, especially when it's not important stuff.

But it's going to plan your day. It's going to filter your news. It will nudge your voice.

You will trade agency for ease.

And if we do that too often for too long. We won't be using AI anymore. It will be using us.

So this isn't a manifesto of despair.
It's not. Because the tools we're building are not demons.

They are not gods! They are mirrors. They are amplifiers. They become what we ask of them.

They will reflect what we value.

If we build for wisdom, we may finally gain it.

If we build for dignity. We may elevate to that level.

If -- if we build it for power alone. Then power becomes the only outcome.

We stand right here in the doorway!

We're now in the room!

We don't get a -- we don't get a second chance at the first step.

And the first step is being taken right now!

By 2030, we will have either created the most extraordinary tool in human history, or the last one, we ever control!

So, we're building something beyond ourselves.

The machine is here. It's not going to leave. It's not going to sleep.

It's not going to wake.

The only choice is the one you make today.

Not later.

But today.

Not when it's obvious. Right now!

Which way will I use this?

Because AI is a tool. A brilliant one.

Until the moment, I forget, that I'm -- I'm the user of it!

And when I forget that, the tool begins to use me.

And then that's the moment we vanish. Not with a bang, but with a shrug. Don't shrug.

Choose! Choose!

Stay awake. Stay aware.

Follow this! It's really important.