Back in the fall of 2023, Jon Stewart surprisingly walked away from his lucrative Apple TV+ deal and his burgeoning new series The Problem with Jon Stewart. While Stewart would only say that he felt “hamstrung” by Apple, the two parties reportedly battled over the comedian’s plans to tackle AI. Stewart is not having that same problem after making his triumphant return to The Daily Show.
During Monday night’s episode, Stewart devoted his opening segment to roasting the tech industries’ massive investment in artificial intelligence and/or machine learning. The comedian paid particular attention to the way some tech CEOs danced around the topic of how AI will displace jobs because, as Stewart noted, the unspoken promise that AI will increase productivity without having a “people tax” as one tech CEO said. Stewart accurately joked that he’s talking about employees.
Later in the show, Stewart welcomed FTC chairperson Lina Khan and made an announcement. “I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it,” Stewart informed Khan. “They literally said, ‘Please don’t talk to her.'”
Stewart also revealed that Apple was against most of the material in the opening segment. Via Endgadget:
“They wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI,” he told Khan. “Like, what is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?”
“I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies,” Khan replied.
Below is a segment like the one AI that Apple allegedly didn’t want Stewart to run:
And here’s his full interview with FTC chair Lina Khan:
(Via Endgadget)