From SB 243 to ChatGPT: Why it's ‘not cool' to be cautious about AI

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Silicon Valley’s rule? It’s not cool to be cautious. As OpenAI removes guardrails and VCs criticize companies like Anthropic for supporting AI safety regulations, it’s becoming clearer who the industry thinks should shape AI development. On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Max Zeff discuss how the line between innovation and responsibility is getting blurrier, plus what happens when pranks go from digital to physical. Listen to the full episode to hear about: The real-world DDoS attack that blocked Waymo service for a day near a dead-end San Francisco street Goldman Sachs acquiring Industry Ventures for up to $965 million, signaling Wall Street's growing interest in the secondary venture market FleetWorks' $17 million Series A to modernize trucking with AI Why advocating for AI safety has become "uncool" in Silicon Valley from Anthropic facing backlash to California's SB 243 regulation of AI companion chatbots and the success of companies like Character.AI Which startups are using an SEC workaround to file for IPOs during the shutdown Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a paid ad by Fidelity Private Shares.
0:03.2	A messy or missing cap table might not just slow you down.
0:05.8	It could cost you your next fundraising round.
0:08.3	Hello and welcome back to Equity TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:14.1	I am Kirsten Koresek, transportation editor at TechCrunch.
0:17.3	And I'm joined by Senior AI Reporter Max Zeph and weekend editor Anthony Ha.
0:23.2	And I have an important question for Max, which is, were you part of this? I say DDoS attack.
0:32.1	You say DDoS, but either way, were you part of this distributed denial of service attack over the summer
0:39.1	involving Waymo Robotoxies in San Francisco?
0:43.1	Yeah, so I was not involved in this DDoS, as I say, attack on Waymo.
0:48.9	I guess that means I'm not a true San Francisco if I haven't DDoS to a Waymo.
0:57.6	But for those who don't know, there's a Riley Walls,
0:59.7	who's kind of an infamous, like,
1:01.3	prankster, builder.
1:02.9	Tech prankster, I guess.
1:04.3	Tech prankster.
1:06.6	Yeah, he's kind of known for these kind of funny,
1:08.6	but really, honestly, interesting stunts.
1:16.6	He called 50 Waymos to one block and it was a dead end street.
1:19.4	And the idea was to basically get them all stuck.
1:28.4	And then he says that this happened over the summer and that people could not call Waymos to that area for basically like the next day.
1:33.6	So, yeah, I guess technically he did DDoS a bunch of Waymos. Yeah, it's funny to hear about a DDoS attack.
	...

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