CEO warns against investing in the 'AI hype'

Gary Vaynerchuk discusses the state of AI market in a FOX Business exclusive

VaynerMedia CEO and VaynerX Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk signaled that artificial intelligence (AI) is "one of the biggest technologies in the history of mankind" — but explained why he’s not jumping to invest in the tech space.

"I've seen Web1, I've seen Web2, I've seen Web3. I'm looking at AI startups every day as an investor. I just think there's a million of them right now, and they're all valued very expensive because we're in AI hype," Vaynerchuk said Wednesday in an exclusive FOX Business interview on "The Claman Countdown."

"So I'm just trying to be a little bit thoughtful because I tend not to like to lose money when I invest, and so I'm letting it settle a little bit, see who are the good operators. I'd rather pay a little higher valuation and see traction," he continued. "But look, this is one of the biggest technologies in the history of mankind. Every single person watching this who right now hates AI, they will all use it."

The early investor of stock giants like Facebook, Twitter, Snap and Tumblr admitted to using AI more than putting money into it, expanding on the learning curve and fluid regulations around the technology.

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On Wednesday, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta announced it would require advertisers to disclose when AI is used to alter or create political ads, Reuters reported.

AI stock market value

VaynerMedia CEO and VaynerX Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk is letting the AI sector "settle a little bit" before investing, the business leader said Wednesday in an exclusive interview on "The Claman Countdown." (iStock)

The world’s second-largest digital platform for advertisements clarified that the disclosure rule will target ads portraying real people doing or saying something they factually did not, as well as digital production of a person who does not exist.

Reacting to the news, Vaynerchuk said humans are "incredibly passionate on not being accountable."

"If you want to talk about fake, 99% of politicians that go on any platform are talking about things they don't actually execute on anyway, and business owners and parents and humans," the VaynerMedia CEO noted. "I think this policy is bigger than this election. I think the timing's right. I think people's emotions get high on election. But the reality is, AI is a powerful technology that's coming. And I think this is a pretty smart, strategic move by Meta."

The business leader further argued that generative AI advancements "aren’t ready for anybody anyway," claiming it’s "super early" to have full trust in the technology.

"I think they're just trying to be smart about it. The fact that they're rolling out their product slowly to begin with, and so because they choose to let the earliest users be people who sell soap and hats instead of politics, it's just smart comms," Vaynerchuk said.

Social and traditional media platforms aren’t afraid of potential government regulations around AI, according to Vaynerchuk, but, rather, they’re more concerned about how AI impacts valuation.

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"The Googles and the Metas of the world are not as scared of regulation as people make it out to. They're scared about their [profit and loss]," he explained. "They're scared about the stock price you just mentioned. They welcome if the government wants to get their act together to give them clear regulation, they welcome it."

"The reality is, is that they're worried about getting canceled by CMOs who won't put dollars into their platform," Vaynerchuk added. "They are businesses, and I think they're making business decisions."

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