Kara Swisher
Showing 1–5 of 5 interviews.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Trends Shaping Technology, Business and Society
Kara Swisher, Adrian Aoun, Belinda Johnson, Oscar Salazar, Hans Tung, Devin Wenig
Industry leaders including Devin Wenig, Belinda Johnson, and Oscar Salazar convened to address the profound societal disruptions caused by artificial intelligence, automation, and platform economics, predicting significant job displacement while highlighting human-centric countermeasures like the Airbnb community's creation of 730,000 roles. The panel critiqued Silicon Valley's lack of accountability and outdated regulatory frameworks, arguing that self-regulation and government partnerships are essential to manage political polarization and the growing anxiety among the economically insecure middle class. To mitigate these challenges, speakers advocated for universal basic income experiments, robot taxes, and urgent K-12 STEM education reforms to bridge the gap between technological efficiency and the preservation of human connection and creative design.
- Milken Institute56 min
Digital Reality: How Interconnectedness Is Reshaping Our Lives
Kara Swisher, Michael Ferro, Bobby Kotick, Marne Levine, Evan Sharp
Leading technology and media executives, including Michael Ferrer, Bobby Kotick, Marnie Levine, and Evan Sharp, convened to challenge the narrative that digital platforms erode community by demonstrating how AI and data foster new forms of global connection. The panelists detailed distinct strategic pivots where Merrick Ventures leverages trusted journalism, Pinterest shifts toward decision-making search tools, Instagram integrates immersive business storefronts, and Activision Blizzard utilizes gaming to build global belonging. Ultimately, the group concluded that while automation poses risks to traditional employment, the convergence of visual data, machine learning, and new economic models offers significant potential for entrepreneurial growth and educational advancement if societal infrastructure adapts accordingly.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Monetizing Mobile: Transforming Behavior into Bottom-Line Results
Kara Swisher, Andrew Appel, Carolyn Everson, Jenny Lee, Spencer Rascoff, Sam Yagan
Mobile adoption has reshaped global commerce, with revenue now comprising 82% of major platforms while traditional incumbents struggle against daily disruptors in an economy where users focus on just four apps. China's advanced market distinguishes itself through diverse monetization waves like virtual tipping and mobile real estate, contrasting with the U.S. walled gardens by leveraging open ecosystems and context-aware, location-based services. Experts predict the future will rely on breaking data silos to connect social and physical retail, driven by the dominance of mobile video, the commercial maturation of augmented reality, and voice-activated assistants.
- Milken Institute48 min
A Conversation With Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz discusses the unexpected broad resonance of his book *The Hard Thing About Hard Things* while detailing the dramatic $2.8 billion valuation of Slack, which emerged from a $18 million failure at TinySpec. He analyzes modern market dynamics, arguing that Silicon Valley avoids bubbles due to lower capital requirements and cloud infrastructure, while noting that regulatory gaps in private markets pose significant risks to liquidity and valuation. Additionally, Horowitz outlines a non-quota hiring strategy that eliminated unconscious bias to achieve 53% female representation and debunks the notion of a ride-sharing monopoly by highlighting driver saturation and the imminent disruption of self-driving technology.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Building the Apps Economy
Kara Swisher, John Malloy, Diane, Mike Mandel, Ray Sharma
A 2012 analysis reveals that the U.S. app economy generated over 81 billion downloads and 500,000 jobs, a growth rate far exceeding traditional software sectors and driven primarily by enterprise adoption. The industry is rapidly shifting from simple downloads to complex "freemium" monetization models and location-based services, despite significant regulatory challenges regarding privacy and sector-specific oversight. Looking forward, market consolidation and emerging technologies like augmented reality are expected to transform mobile computing into wearable interfaces, fundamentally altering how value is measured and delivered across healthcare, transportation, and retail.