AI’s Power Problem, Have We Passed Peak Social Media? and How to Save Democracy

Scott Galloway answers listener questions on AI’s growing strain on the U. S. power grid, why we may have reached peak social media, and how economic boycotts can serve as a check on political power. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [email protected], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Northwest Registered Agent. Your business identity is everything that makes your business legitimate and professional. With Northwest Registered Agent, you don't just form a business, you start a complete foundation built for privacy, credibility, and growth. That includes registered agent service, a business address, operating agreement, domain, website, professional email, phone number, and built-in privacy. In other words, your home address, personal email, and phone number stay private. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree.

• 0:48Speaker 01

  Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing in wearable. So your vitals app, now with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Hear the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later required. Based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy, August 2026. Visit apple.com/aplewatchseries12.

• 1:19Speaker 02

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior-like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:49Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Office Hours of Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofprofitimedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofprofitimedia.com. Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we may feature it in our next episode. First question.

• 2:13Scott Galloway?

  Our first question comes from Reddit. Thank you, Mr. Uppercut, asks, "Hi, Scott. A lot of people theorize about eventual UBI when AI takes all the jobs. But why are we not getting an energy subsidy right now? Data centers across the country are using so much power, the demand is pushing prices up for everyone. Sam Altman recently said OpenAI will need 250 gigawatts to power their data centers. Why aren't these multi-billion dollar companies being forced to subsidize everyone else's rising electricity bills? What can be done to lessen the stranglehold AI has on this facet of our lives?" Okay, this is becoming an increasingly interesting topic. AI models are incredibly energy hungry. In 2023, US data centers consumed about 4.4% of total US power. The Department of Energy predicts that could double by 2028, reaching 7% to 12% of national demand.

• 2:58Scott Galloway?

  Meanwhile, companies are racing to build hyperscale campuses, often in states with cheap land, weak regulation, and fragile grids. This rapid growth is driven by AI, cloud services, and more compute-intensive workloads. But the pressure is very real, and data centers are very much behind the increasing prices on the supply side. Data published this month by the Labor Department showed that electricity prices rose 5.6% over the past year. More broadly, consumer prices increased 2.7%. Research from North Carolina State and Carnegie Mellon indicates that data center expansion could drive up average electricity bills by 8% nationwide by 2030. And here's the thing, as we're debating about how we can make big tech pay for the power it uses, the government is canceling the cheapest, fastest way to generate more of it.

• 3:43Scott Galloway?

  Nevada had the lowest increase in electricity prices in the entire nation despite rising demand, thanks largely to a massive amount of solar it's built. And what do you know, we're cutting subsidies to solar. Meanwhile, Trump administration just canceled the Esmeralda 7 project, a 6.2 gigawatt solar and battery farm in Nevada. It would have powered nearly 2 million homes, but it was scrapped as part of a wider rollback on renewables. The bottom line is, if you think of... Electricity is a public good. That means we're going to need big government. I'm a huge fan of infrastructure investments. And that is the Eurostar here, which can get you to downtown Paris in two and a half hours. It makes no economic sense from a shareholder perspective, but it makes sense from a stakeholder perspective

• 4:26Scott Galloway?

  as it increases fluidity and mobility and such that we can do more business with France or the UK can do more business with France and vice versa. And it's a huge unlock for people to see their families, spend money, encourages economic activity. I think it's insane we don't have a high rail speed system up and down the west and east coast of America. All roads lead to the same fucking place. And that is corporations who are paying their lowest tax rates since 1939 need an alternative minimum tax. It's not even their tax rates. It's the fact that there's so many loopholes around being able to, you know, now they can directly expense CapEx in their first year. The middle class is an accident and the only way you continue to support it is with a redistribution of income.

• 5:08Scott Galloway?

  I don't think you can say to power company or to AI, you need to pay for an upgrade in the electric grid. What I think you can say is that corporations need to have an alternative minimum tax of, say, 30 or 40%. So that's that we have the capital to upgrade the grid. What you can also do is as states compete for these large data storage or these large data centers, part of that might include, all right, you have to make some investments in the grid. Because just this uptick in costs or this uptick in demand is likely going to hit middle-class households pretty hard. So just as I'm thinking the type of regulation, just as I'm thinking when they build condos in New York

• 5:52Scott Galloway?

  that are going to go to mega millionaires, they demand that they build a park or sometimes they demand that a certain percentage of the units go to low-income or artist housing to try and keep the city diverse. I think something along those lines. But then again, the states are competing against each other. I think all roads lead to the same place. And that is we need a more progressive tax structure on the wealthiest Americans and corporations. So we have the capital to make the kind of upgrades to our grid. That will meet the additional demand and also investment or redistribution from corporations and the wealthy to the middle class. And one efficient way for that redistribution is an investment in infrastructure.

• 6:37Scott Galloway?

  And how do you pay for it with a progressive tax structure that just enforces the tax code, $750 billion tax gap, meaning that you don't have to raise taxes, you just need to collect the taxes that are owed by the wealthiest 1% who weaponize the tax code, are very sophisticated tax attorneys such that they can delay, obfuscate, or just evade paying taxes. Not a hopeful message, not a hopeful message, but anyways, a thoughtful question. Appreciate you submitting your query. Power up. Question number two.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  I recently read an article in the Financial Times entitled, Have We Passed Heat Social Media? This tied into the trends I've been seeing with fewer friends on fewer platforms. Facebook has long been my favorite platform, but of late, the algorithm seems to only want me to see lame videos and content from groups and pages that I don't follow, on top of the ads, of course, with increasingly rare posts from actual friends. I still have an excessive need for my friends and family to enjoy my obviously exceptional photography and excessively handsome and impressive boys. But whether from AI or influencer slop, the social media companies seem hell-bent on turning the product into anti-social media, only encouraging us to engage in content from folks we don't know or who may not even exist at all.

• 7:52Speaker 03

  I can't make sense of that as a sustainable business model, can you? Thanks for your insight.

• 7:57Scott Galloway?

  Thanks for the question. So data from the FTE article shows that time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and has been in a steady decline since. At the end of 2024, users age 16 and older spent an average of 2 hours and 20 minutes a day on social platforms, down by almost 10% since 2022. Surprisingly, the decline is most pronounced among teens and 20-year-olds. The decline can be attributed to the evolution of social media from a place to connect and share with friends and family to one of doom scrolling through hours of content. Posted by strangers and increasingly AI. It's now kind of arguably, you would argue that it's anti-social media. And the number of people who report using social platforms to stay in touch with friends, express themselves or meet new people has fallen by more than 25% since 2014.

• 8:42Scott Galloway?

  In some, it's not connecting us, it's disconnecting us. More and more users have been reporting opening up these apps to fill spare time, making a shift from mindful social engagement to mindless browsing. Meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI have released new AI-generated social content platforms in what we've called the great sloppification, if you will. So, look, how do these companies continue to grow their revenues? They use AI to do a better job of targeting. I mean, I'm sure you have a couple of those moments where you just get chills down your spine, where I'm talking on the phone about going to Paris and the next thing I know, I get served an ad for a hotel in Paris. It's like, okay, someone's listening. It's just their targeting has become so strong that they're just, they can just deliver to advertisers the right person, the right moment and the right product, if you will, and their CPMs or the prices they can charge have gone up.

• 9:27Scott Galloway?

  I haven't been on Facebook in 15 years, so that's not, I'm just not that, I'm just not that familiar with it, but I wouldn't worry about them. I think young people are actually smarter than we give them credit for, and a lot of teens are deciding it's unhealthy for them. I think my colleague Jonathan Haidt is having an impact. And schools are banning phones in schools. So I think, just as it took 20 years to figure out opiates and then kind of 30 years to figure out cigarettes, it feels like it's taken us about 20 years to figure out sort of the phone and social media and recognize that the more kids are on social media, the worse they feel about themselves and the more likely they are to engage in self-harm. I'm addicted to social media. I go on it a lot.

• 10:10Scott Galloway?

  I'm probably on it, I don't know, probably like two hours a day. I'd like to think a lot of it's for learning. I like to get the clips of interesting news stories and interesting views from economists and who you follow and who you curate. But this business model of keeping you glued to your phone is working really well. Forty percent of the S and P by market capitalization is from firms that either enrage you to engage you or sequester you from your friends and family and other media. So if you think about social media algorithms, they purposely put some negative comments in there, elevate content that will both inspire you, Great Danes playing with babies, which is what I like, but also content showing ice that just enrages me, but I can't help,

• 10:55Scott Galloway?

  but I can't look away. So they know how to keep you glued to your phone and AI, quite frankly, you know those prompts at the end, would you like bullet points or would you like me? My son's applying to college, so I'm curious about all these different schools and I'll say, would you like me to compare this university versus this one? Or what it, what is the likelihood that someone applying from the UK would get into these schools? And they're just genius and they test a million times a second. What would be an offer for an additional prompt that would keep this person engaged? Now, are they enraging you on AI as they do on YouTube or with, with Meta or other, or X? No, but what they're doing is making it almost impossible to look away from the screen.

• 11:39Scott Galloway?

  Such as you're sequestering from your friends and family and real world relationships and also synthetic relationships, which is quite frankly, my biggest concern right now that young people, especially young men who are more neurologically sensitive are engaging in these low friction, low effort relationships with character AIs and starting basically to rush home and get advice from their AI friend or maybe get their AI girlfriend to take off her clothes and slowly but surely not engaging in the messy, difficult prospect of what is a real world relationship and engaging in those real world relationships,

• 12:23Scott Galloway?

  specifically the friction and difficulty of them, trains you to be a more competent, skilled human being. And develop real victory and AI will just keep telling you you're amazing and being encouraging and empathetic, but don't cry for me, Argentina. These companies are still sequestering you from more and more media. They have regulatory capture. They show up, they give the president a rub and tug or an engraved trophy from Tim Cook. I can't, what's the point of having all the fucking money if you gotta go bend a knee in the White House, but they're all doing it. And then, so Trump tariffs everyone but the big tech companies. So that's a transfer of value from the companies trying to fit. Imagine how you're trying to plan your business if your Caterpillar are forward right now. So are you going to go to work for them and invest them?

• 13:08Scott Galloway?

  No, just invest in Meta. And then the most recent AI legislation basically says to the AI companies that they can molest the IP of any company in the world and not have to pay them a licensing fee. So these companies, don't worry about them. They are doing exceptionally well economically. Appreciate the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

• 13:35Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Built. Most of us work hard to earn our keep, but usually there's no one around to hand you a cookie when you successfully pay your monthly housing bill. No one except Built, that is. Built has expanded from their original rental rewards program and they have a lot more going on for members now. For example, members can earn points on mortgage payments too. Every housing payment gets you points that get you a lot more than baked goods, such as flights with top travel partners including United and Hyatt, Lyft rides, amazon.com purchases, and much, much more. Here's another benefit of Built membership. You also get access to what they call a neighborhood concierge. You can make restaurant reservations, book fitness classes, and find new local spots, all while rewarding you at more than 45,000 merchant partners. It's simple. Being a renter and now owning

• 14:18Scott Galloway?

  a home feels a lot better with Built. You can download the Built app and join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com/provg. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com/provg. Use our link so they know we sent you.

• 14:35Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Vanta. As AI adoption grows, so does your company's security risks and requirements. New frameworks, audits, and vendors keep piling on, but your team isn't getting any bigger. Most compliance tools promise automation, but you're really stuck doing all the work by hand, chasing screenshots, validating controls, and playing catch-up when audit season comes around again. Vanta works differently. The Regentic Trust platform is built to scale with you, not slow you down. With over 1,400 automated tests across 400-plus integrations, Vanta collects evidence and monitors your controls year-round, cutting your audit prep by 82%. Plus, you can access the Vanta agent everywhere you work, whether your team is in Vanta every day or living in tools including Claude or Cursor. Want proof?

• 15:20Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Ryder, and Harvey save time and resources while scaling fast with Vanta. Learn more at vanta.com/profg and get $1,000 off. That's spelled V-A-N-T-A dot com slash profg for $1,000 off.

• 15:42Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Vanta. As AI adoption grows, so does your company's security risks and requirements. New frameworks, audits, and vendors keep piling on, but your team isn't getting any bigger. Most compliance tools promise automation, but you're really stuck doing all the work by hand, chasing screenshots, validating controls, and playing catch-up when audit season comes around again. Vanta works differently. The Regentic Trust platform is built to scale with you, not slow you down. With over 1,400 automated tests across 400-plus integrations, Vanta collects evidence and monitors your controls year-round, cutting your audit prep by 82%. Plus, you can access the Vanta agent everywhere you work, whether your team is in Vanta every day or living in tools including Claude or Cursor. Want proof?

• 16:27Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Ryder, and Harvey save time and resources while scaling fast with Vanta. Learn more at vanta.com/profg and get $1,000 off. That's spelled V-A-N-T-A dot com slash profg for $1,000 off.

• 16:51Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back onto our final question, which comes from Reddit user iso PH DJD, I think. And they ask, "The boycott of Disney+ showed voting with your wallet can work and work faster in the era of Trump. With Trump claiming that the US is under attack from an internal insurrection, should organizations, including the Olympics, FIFA, and other high-profile events publicly call into question the viability of hosting these events in the US if Trump's claims are true? This would hurt Trump's pride and cut into his grift of these events. Do you think this and similar efforts by businesses and community would help preserve our democracy?"

• 17:27Scott Galloway?

  Okay, so, well, what did Bob Dylan say? "The money doesn't talk, it swears." Look, there are few organizations more corrupt than international athletic bodies, whether it's the IOC or FIFA. You know, they operate in this nether-netherland. They take bribes, and it basically goes to the highest bidder, fine. They're not about sport, they're about making a shit-ton of money. Okay.

• 17:56Scott Galloway?

  And by the way, I think the NCAA is corrupt. Okay, let's pay people in Kansas $400,000 a year to pass regulations and pay the white guy, the white 55-year-old guy, the coach, $3 million a year. But the black 19-year-old, no, no, no, he doesn't get any money on the basketball court because of the purity of the game. They've figured out a way to, again, transfer money from non-whites to whites, but more so from young to old.

• 18:23Scott Galloway?

  So, look, I don't know if that specifically works. What I do buy is the idea of an economic strike. And that is voting with your wallet. And that is, what Trump listens to is the economy. The thing that scared the shit out of Trump and backed him off the tariffs initially was the 10-year spiking. And I wonder if, right now, America's a big bet on AI. And that is, the reason why Trump feels emboldened to send troops into Portland and Chicago is because the S&P is up 14%. And America, who is increasingly just about, America, for the most part, is just, "I want more stuff." That's how I would describe the promise of America. So as long as the markets go up, people think, "Oh, I should be able to buy more stuff."

• 19:07Scott Galloway?

  So whatever Trump is doing, regardless of... Censoring late night talk show hosts or sending masked Secret Service or Secret Police into a county, as long as the net, as long as my stocks are up and my 401k goes up, he must be doing something right. And that is being driven by AI right now. Seventy-five percent of the gains in earnings and seventy-two percent of the increase in the stock market has come from just ten companies. So, the idea of an economic strike that takes the economy down temporarily or scares the shit out of a company is really powerful. Now, you could do, general strikes are harder to pull off. I think if I were going to try and organize a general strike, I'd want to play on the,

• 19:50Scott Galloway?

  or target, if you will, or try and convince the wealthy. The wealthiest ten percent of Americans now account for fifty percent of consumer spending, and the wealthy could take their spending down ten or twenty percent, no problem. It's hard for the middle class to reduce their spending by ten percent because they're starting to cut into things like rent and groceries, but the wealthy, especially in this era, have become such conspicuous consumers, they could take it down by ten or twenty percent. Would they? I don't know. What has been more effective is a specific call to action with a specific outcome. So, organically, Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are pissed off about late, you know, a late night talk show host being canceled.

• 20:30Scott Galloway?

  And then people on the left just don't like anything Trump does, so there's an organic pushback, and people start taking pictures, screenshots of Disney Plus being canceled. That is very actionable, very visible, because typically, it's not the economic strike itself that foments change. Most economic strikes or boycotts result in about a one percent decline in that stock, so almost meaningless. The way they're effective is the media attention, the negative media attention they bring to the individual. So, Bob Iger, basically, who not once but twice spent the knee to Trump, backed down when all of a sudden there was a ton of press around all of these people canceling Disney

• 21:11Scott Galloway?

  Plus and ESPN Plus, and he basically said, "After speaking with Jimmy, yeah, fuck you, Bob. Jesus Christ, you're Neville Chamberlain in a cashmere sweater, minus the dignity." So, an economic strike against the Olympics? No, I don't think that works. When we boycotted Russia, they then boycotted us. I don't think it had any impact on either nation. But a targeted, specific attack, if you will, or boycott that creates media tension and is somewhat organic, I think words I've heard, ideas ranging from Home Depot, which has been accused of cooperating with ICE, to transferring or canceling your AT&T phone contract, who is also supposedly coordinating, I believe, with ICE and going to another

• 21:54Scott Galloway?

  phone carrier. So I don't think what you're proposing works, but I do think the idea of an economic strike has real merit. I'm beginning to believe that is probably the only, or one of the few ways, or one of the most effective ways that consumers could, if you will, check back or create a co-inqual branch of government. I think it needs to be targeted with specific, a specific company, a specific ask. Thanks for the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit,

• 22:36Scott Galloway?

  and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our assistant producer is Laura Janer. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from Prop G Media.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game. That's when my buddy recommended Blinds.com.

• 23:03Speaker 04

  With custom window treatments made to fit your style, space, and budget, customers who shop at Blinds.com experienced overwhelming satisfaction. Side effects may include a fuller, deeper night's sleep and a sudden urge to host the watch party again. Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home. Visit Blinds.com to order your free samples today.

• 23:24Speaker 05

  They're running a cover two defense, but you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go-to restaurants. Or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

• 23:56Speaker 06

  Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger: Fresh for Everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.