There’s a New Fat Cat in Town
We’re massively enthusiastic about and have a vested interest in AI here at Moberg Analytics. It helps us code, distill documents, create copy, understand FDA regulations – which seem more complex than AI itself – and loads of other tasks. A few of us have paid for upgraded service levels so that we can “talk to it.” Even the old dogs of the company are learning this new trick. We all sense the enormity of the shift it is bringing and the speed at which it’s bringing it.
I’m old enough to have been around for the birth of “programmer” as a college major and then as a pretty decent job title. I now see the best programmers have transformed themselves into half coder, half model wrangler. They understand how to select, deploy, tune, and prompt to get the most out of a model. They can build and coordinate agents to work with the model to perform complex tasks. Comparing the productivity of 25-year old me, grinding out mainframe Assembler all day to the productivity of the developers at our company is amazing. And humbling.
As we plan for and approach the next generation of Moberg Analytics, AI will figure largely in the picture, particularly generative AI. We will continue to use it behind the scenes as above, but will also be rolling out AI-enhanced products. Some NSM readers are already advising us as we design and build this next generation.
One of the most exciting things about AI is seeing how it’s already being used in some of the institutions we work with. We recently held one-on-one talks with clinicians around the country to learn what impact AI is having so far, and to have them share their vision of AI will bring to their practices. The variety of responses was fascinating. On one end of the spectrum we heard about IT departments creating roadblocks, policy, and processes. On the other end we heard about forward-thinking institutions fostering AI implementation by creating internal competitive grants to incubate and bring innovative ideas to fruition. Every person we spoke with saw promise. Every one of them was excited. It was inspiring and increased our excitement around AI.
If you’ve read recent editions of the NSM you may have noticed that we’re not shy about expressing political opinions. We’re not quite in Stephen Colbert or South Park (!) territory, but we don’t hold much back. So it was with great interest and anticipation that we clicked and scrolled our way through the Trump Administration’s “AI Action Plan” intro and full text.
We could have predicted the winners of the plan; the same AI mega-players (and mega-donors) who bent the knee and flanked President Trump at his inauguration: Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple), Sundar Pichai (Google), Sam Altman (OpenAI), and last, but certainly not least, Elon Musk, the DOGE-meister himself, already sadly and messily broken up with the boss.
Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia) was a no-show for the inauguration, but then launched a masterclass in lobbying that should be studied for decades to come. He brought Trump around from wanting to break Nvidia up and clamp down on exports to giving Nvidia free rein on exports around the world. Trump also gave Huang a front row seat and a nice little pat on the head in this week’s AI announcement. Meanwhile Nvidia’s market cap has rocketed from $2.3T to $4.2T (yep, that’s TRILLION) since a very bleak April that featured DeepSeek, tariffs, and more export restrictions.
So we have a new breed of fat cat. Big AI Tech takes its place in the long line of cats after railroad, coal, auto, finance, and defence. They will be the big winners, along with defense contractors, energy, and construction companies as “Build, Baby, Build” becomes the dance partner of “Drill, Baby, Drill” at the Trump Administration Ball.
I guess I’m marginally happier they’re there, rather than in Trump’s crosshairs. We have friends and colleagues whose institutions are in those crosshairs. It is a singularly uncomfortable place to be. It can also be expensive. Just ask Disney/ABC, Meta, Paramount/CBS, a dozen or so big law firms and two prestigious universities about what appears to be the new “cost of doing business” since January 20th.
The losers? Anyone or anything without the word “big” in their name. Anyone concerned about guardrails on AI. Anyone concerned about the environmental impact of AI. Anyone concerned about AI’s impact on privacy and individual rights.
Also in the crosshairs is any state that wants to do a little more to address these concerns. The plan specifically states:
“Federal funding and procurement should be withheld from states that adopt overly restrictive or ideologically motivated AI governance frameworks.”
No surprise that California is atop the list of states that are already out of “compliance.” New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington also have laws on the books that could jeopardize federal funding. We’ve already seen this administration use funding as a thumbscrew on universities and states based on ideology. This will be no different.
The particular problem with the above directive is that it can – and probably will – be interpreted in a way that it is in direct opposition to the practice of building good AI. AI scientists and practitioners make a Herculean effort to remove bias and ensure equity in models. Trump’s executive order Preventing “Woke” AI in the Federal Government redefines these terms as “the suppression or distortion of factual information.” We’ve already seen aggressive and uninformed policy kill good research. AI researchers, and practitioners will be required to stand firm for their science.
Trepidation aside, we at Moberg Analytics are generally and perpetually optimistic. I think this is because we spend all day trying to figure out how to solve problems. The people we work with devote their lives to working on the hardest problem in medicine, treating brain injury. Problem solvers are by definition optimistic. They believe, right up until the very end, that problems are solvable.
The big, beautiful AI plan will no doubt create opportunity. We’re optimistic that its rising tide will lift our little boat. We only hope it does so without capsizing the other things we care deeply about: unbiased science, clean air and water, human rights, democracy, and yes, true diversity, equity, and inclusion, in our AI and in our society.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the AI Action Plan, brain injury, bareboat cruising, the Phillies, or pretty much any old thing. Drop us a line.
