Episode summary
USC's Jeffrey Cole and Harlan Lebo on Google, AI, and Disruptive Innovation | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 18 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Jeffrey Cole, Harlan Lebo
Summary
Jeffrey Cole and Harlan Lebo argue that AI is the third major disruption of the last 25 years, following the public internet and COVID-19, and that the pace of change is only accelerating. Cole says this may be the slowest disruption people will ever experience, while Lebo warns that AI is already raising unchecked issues around data centers, environmental costs, and safety concerns. Both frame disruption as a constant force that can remake industries, not just individual companies.
They use Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft to show how quickly dominant firms can rise and fall. Cole argues that no company should assume it will last 25 or 50 years, and points to Google’s long preparation for being disrupted, even though it still was not ready for ChatGPT in October 2022. They also discuss how Meta has pivoted aggressively, but Cole says its control structure and consumer harms could make it vulnerable.
The conversation widens to Rochester, Xerox, Kodak, containerization, and energy and critical minerals, underscoring that disruption can revive old industries while wiping out others. The central lesson is that denial is fatal: companies and executives should assume disruption is coming, plan for it, and treat it as a standing business risk.
Key takeaways
- Cole says AI is the third major disruption in 25 years and may be the most important disruption of all time.
- Lebo says AI is “running wild” and brings major unresolved issues around environmental impact and control.
- Cole argues that no major company, including Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft, should assume it will survive another 25 years unchanged.
- Lebo says Kodak and Xerox failed because they ignored disruption even after controlling 80% of their global markets.
- Both guests say the biggest enemy of adaptation is denial, not technology itself.
Notable quotes
“AI moving from science fiction to reality is one of the three disruptions that we've experienced in the last 25 years”
“this is the slowest disruption is ever going to be for the rest of our lives”
“AI is running running wild and and has been”
“the biggest enemy to succeeding disruption is denial”
How the episode opens
All right, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about innovation because the capital of American innovation should be in Rochester, New York, but it's not. Scientists, Carol, have been talking about AI since the 1960s, but it was only a few years ago that we really saw its potential.
That's right. Containerization completely changing the global economy. Those are just a few of the themes that are highlighted in a new book.
It's disruptors at the Gate. When visionaries, trailblazers, and two guys in a garage turn the world upside down. We've got the authors with us.
Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC Anenburg, and Harlon Lebo, senior fellow and historian at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Anenburg. Jeffrey joins us here in the Bloomberg interactive broker studio. Haron joins us out there in California.
Guys, uh the timing of this book is perfect. We've spent we spend almost every day talking about AI. We do.
We are in the midst of a major disruption though. I mean, you you guys highlight this literally on the first page of the book, you write that AI moving from science fiction to reality is one of the three disruptions that we've experienced in the last 25 years. Jeffrey, I I want to start with you because this is unfolding as we speak.
In the context of other disruptions that we've seen in the modern economic era, how disruptive is AI?
Well, first, it's the third major disruption in 25 years. And this level of disruption usually occurs about every 150 years. the pace has accelerated, but for everybody who's listening, this is the slowest disruption is ever going to be for the rest of our lives.
So, we should get used to it.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai disruption
- digital technology
- consumer behavior shifts
- innovation outsiders
- dominant company disruption
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GOOGL
- GOOG
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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