Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know… and stick around for Alphabet president Ruth Porat’s bull case for A.I. 

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Meanwhile, on the pods…

And now, a little more on Porat’s A.I. outlook…

WALL STREET

In a private appearance last week at the Economic Club of New York, Ruth Porat, the president of Alphabet/Google, took the stage with IBM C.E.O. Arvind Krishna to make the bull case for massive A.I. investments—and swat away the technology’s myriad critics. The timing was pointed. Commencement speakers have been practically booed offstage for merely raising the subject, and, as economist Gene Sperling recently noted, “A.I. enthusiasts” have been operating under the delusion that working families will embrace the upside narrative despite fearing for their jobs and their children’s futures.

Of course, no one booed Porat at the Economic Club. As Bill reports, she argued that A.I. could add roughly $4 trillion to U.S. G.D.P., and suggested that electricity prices have actually been slower to rise in states with data centers. As for the fate of white-collar workers, she said the doom-and-gloom forecasts “are not anchored in history and labor economics.” But Porat also framed the stakes as moral, not just economic—and called the public’s fear the real threat. “The anxiety around A.I. will slow us down as a country,” she said. “People need to see what that upside magic is.”

Click here to read Bill’s full story.

WASHINGTON

The Maryland congressman who led Trump’s second impeachment reveals his 2027 playbook if Democrats retake the House—including investigations into Kash Patel and Jared Kushner. As for impeachment, he says, “Everything is on the table.”

MEDIA

Six months post-Comcast spinoff, Versant C.E.O. Mark Lazarus is working to turn the company’s portfolio of declining cable assets into a legit growth business. He’s got cash, and some time, but what’s the plan?

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ART

This season, in London, Sotheby’s has most of the high-value, historical works—everything from Freud and Klimt to Monet and Rothko. Meanwhile, Christie’s is leaning into what’s hot: Rashid Johnson, Kaws, Richard Prince, Yoshitomo Nara, and more.

ART

The Korean-born furniture designer transcends sticky definitional debates about art and design to create some of the most memorable furniture you’ve ever seen.

SPORTS

NBC Sports’s Nicole Auerbach rejoins The Varsity to gab with John about all the latest chaos in college sports, from a bizarre twist in the Big Ten–SEC rivalry to the ongoing legal drama surrounding Brendan Sorsby and an unexpected political threat in Washington.

MEDIA

Jon Kelly and Peter reunite to work through the CNN–CBS News pro forma possibilities as the era of belt-tightening beckons at WarnerMount. Then the duo trade some final observations about Fox’s acquisition of Roku.

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