Program and guest
Bloomberg Podcasts’ Odd Lots (approximately 52 minutes and 18 seconds), featuring Lindsay Owens, president of Groundwork Collaborative and author of Gouged. This article covers Owens’s entire conversation.
Key points
(The following paraphrases the guest’s original views; timestamp links point to the corresponding positions in the original video.)
- The idea of helping people cancel subscriptions and compare prices is good in itself, but pricing technology has made price comparison difficult in the digital age. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgBmZcSEU8&t=0s）
- The real difficulty is due diligence: users turn to agents precisely because they do not have time to compare prices themselves, and then have to check whether the agent’s output really is the cheapest price. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgBmZcSEU8&t=15s）
- For this reason, Owens advocates imposing fiduciary duties on AI agents, rather than merely talking about the need for new policies for new technology. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgBmZcSEU8&t=36s）
- “Price gouging” is an emotionally charged term: what one person sees as a reasonable profit may be price gouging in another person’s eyes, and relevant regulatory rules draw the boundaries. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgBmZcSEU8&t=1174s）
Background and notes
Subtitles cover the entire video (approximately 52 minutes and 18 seconds); this article covers Owens’s entire conversation.