GameStop's eBay Bid, AI and the Midterms, and Senate Prediction Market Ban

In this episode of Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway dissect a series of high-stakes developments across tech, politics, and culture. They open with a scathing critique of GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s $55.5 billion unsolicited bid to acquire eBay, calling it a reckless, mathematically unsound meme stock stunt that backfired, sending GameStop’s stock down 11%. The hosts lambaste Cohen’s lack of fiduciary responsibility and the board’s failure to act as stewards of shareholder value. They then pivot to the Supreme Court’s temporary block of the abortion pill mifepristone’s mail delivery, framing it as a politically driven attack on reproductive rights that disproportionately harms low-income women. The conversation turns to AI’s growing influence in the 2026 midterms, where pro-AI super PACs backed by tech billionaires like Andreessen Horowitz and Chris Larsen are flooding the political landscape. Galloway warns that AI’s brand has cratered among the public—77% of Americans see it as a threat to humanity—while wealthy elites benefit. He argues that data centers, not AI itself, will become the battleground for public sentiment. The hosts also examine the Senate’s unanimous ban on prediction markets for its members, calling it a necessary step to prevent insider betting. On Apple, they speculate that the company’s abandonment of its net cash neutral policy signals a major AI acquisition, possibly Perplexity, to secure internal AI competence. Finally, they reflect on the human cost of tech and politics, celebrating Senator Ben Sasse’s poignant 60 Minutes interview and lamenting the erosion of trust in tech leaders like Musk and Bezos. The episode closes with a call for democratic accountability and a return to human-centered storytelling in media.