THE VALLEY CURRENT®️ COMPUTERLAW GROUP LLP

Hosted by Computer Law Group

Business Technology

Website RSS feed

Episodes

100

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

About the show

Computerlaw Group LLP (www.computerlaw.com) provides strategic, knowledgeable, and effective business and intellectual property protection, licensing and litigation services to Internet, e-commerce, computer software, hardware and other high-tech businesses, teams and industry professionals throughout California, nationally and around the world. CLG produces THE VALLEY CURRENT as a way to keep its worldwide clients, co-counsels, colleagues, and friends aware of developments in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 28, 202649 min

The Valley Current®: Is There an AI Bubble That Will Eventually Burst?

A trillion-dollar AI buildout is underway, but what happens if the promised returns never arrive? The Valley Current® host Jack Russo looks past the hype to the debt, leases, private credit, and off-balance-sheet commitments financing the AI arms race. From hyperscale data centers and rapidly depreciating GPUs to heavily leveraged neoclouds facing refinancing walls, Jack examines where the real financial fault lines may be forming. He also explores how companies like Meta are using equity, dilution, and novel share structures to shift risk while preserving corporate control, raising difficult questions for boards, shareholders, and counsel. History shows that speculative bubbles can finance world-changing infrastructure even while destroying fortunes. But if AI spending outruns AI revenue, the next battle may not be over the technology itself... it may be over who gets stuck with the losses. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 27, 20261 hr 7 min

The Valley Current®: Is the Delegation of Work to Others — Including Machines — Inevitable?

For thousands of years, humans have looked for ways to hand work off to someone or something else. Now, that instinct is accelerating into the age of AI. The Valley Current® host Jack Russo traces the unsettling history of labor delegation from ancient ideas about "living tools" to corporations restructuring today in anticipation of autonomous AI agents. As companies like American Express prepare their workforces for AI and affordable robots such as Pollen Robotics' Microduck hint at a future of ubiquitous machines, Jack asks a harder question: what legal framework will govern this new workforce? Treating increasingly autonomous machines as simple property may not answer who owns their output or who is liable when they make mistakes. Perhaps inevitability is the wrong question. The real fight is over who owns the work, who bears the risk, and who writes the rules. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 26, 202638 min

The Valley Current®: Are We Entering an Entirely New Age of Cyber Security Challenges?

A 14-year-old software flaw nearly brought parts of the internet to a standstill. What happens when AI can find and weaponize vulnerabilities faster than companies can patch them? The Valley Current® host Jack Russo examines the PHP2Shell emergency and how frontier AI is collapsing the traditional timeline between discovery, disclosure, and attack. Jack explores why decades of technical debt and underfunded open-source infrastructure created the perfect target, and why the consequences now reach far beyond the IT department. From cyber insurance and breach reporting to board oversight, vendor risk, and potential liability, yesterday's security practices may no longer be enough. If attackers can move at machine speed, can businesses, lawyers, and regulators possibly keep up, or has cybersecurity entered a fundamentally different era? Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 21, 202652 min

The Valley Current®: Is Anthropic Now The Role Model for 21st Century AI-First Knowledge Factories?

AI is not just changing how companies work. It is changing who does the work, who gets hired, and who remains accountable when machines produce more than humans can realistically review. In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo examines Anthropic as a possible blueprint for the AI-first knowledge factory, where agent productivity is soaring while junior technical hiring is shrinking. Jack explores three competing corporate strategies: augment and redeploy workers, restructure aggressively for efficiency, or prepare for a future where human labor becomes increasingly optional. But enormous productivity gains bring equally large governance problems, from employment law and equity compensation to professional liability and the disappearing pipeline for future senior talent. Anthropic may offer the clearest model yet, but copying it means confronting a difficult reality: humans still carry the judgment, responsibility, and legal risk. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 20, 202644 min

The Valley Current®: Is the Tesla/SpaceX Merger Inevitable?

Tesla and SpaceX already share engineering talent, technology, customers, and a CEO. Is a formal merger simply the next step? In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo examines why Wall Street is increasingly treating a SpaceX acquisition of Tesla as a matter of timing rather than possibility. Barclays has even sketched out an all-stock structure that could leave Elon Musk with majority voting control of the combined company. Jack digs into the legal advantages of Tesla's move to Texas, the shareholder-vote hurdles that could complicate any deal, and why 2026 offers attractive market timing while 2027 may provide stronger legal protection. Even the SpaceX-powered Roadster offers another glimpse of just how intertwined these companies have become. The merger may look increasingly inevitable, but getting there could be the hard part. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 20, 202654 min

The Valley Current®: Has Trump Flip-Flopped Again on Ukraine?

Three weeks after signing one of the toughest sanctions packages against Russia in years, President Trump opened a path for millions of barrels of Russian diesel to enter the United States. What changed? In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo examines how soaring fuel prices and midterm pressure collided with Washington's strategy in Ukraine, giving Moscow valuable logistical relief while raising questions about the credibility of U.S. sanctions. Jack also digs into Senator Thom Tillis's warning about "courage outsourcing" in Congress and uses game theory to show how political self-preservation at home can weaken American leverage abroad. From Russian refineries to the Roman Republic, the deeper issue is whether unpredictable policy is strategic flexibility or a sign that the institutions meant to provide consistency are losing their grip. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 16, 202646 min

The Valley Current®: AI Doomers v Boomers - Part II

The AI race is getting faster, more expensive, and harder to stop. In the final installment of the AI Doomers v Boomers newsletter, The Valley Current® host Jack Russo returns to the clash between insiders warning that frontier AI is advancing beyond our ability to control it and the companies, investors, and governments pouring hundreds of billions into pushing it forward. Jack explores why even executives who acknowledge serious safety risks may feel trapped in a race they cannot afford to leave, how autonomous AI is already reshaping cybersecurity and warfare, and whether Wall Street's massive AI commitments are creating new financial vulnerabilities. As public concern rises alongside spending, regulation, and legal exposure, the divide is becoming harder to ignore: the doomers may be winning the cultural argument, but the boomers still have their hands on the money and the machinery. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 15, 20261 hr 0 min

The Valley Current®: Can Employers Bind Job Applicants to Arbitration Before the Interview?

You may be giving up your day in court before anyone even reads your résumé. In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo examines the growing use of mandatory arbitration agreements embedded directly into online job applications. Jack looks at how companies are using click-wrap contracts to move potential disputes out of public court, why clear notice and affirmative consent matter, and how California courts still test these agreements for unconscionability even as federal law strongly favors arbitration. He also explores a major exception under the Ending Forced Arbitration Act, where a sexual harassment claim can potentially pull an entire case back into court. For employers, applicants, and their lawyers, one small checkbox can carry surprisingly large consequences. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 14, 202651 min

The Valley Current®: Who Gets To Look?

Who really has the power to demand answers when the person in charge says no? In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo explores a striking contrast between corporate governance and government oversight. Corporate directors have powerful legal tools to inspect company records, investigate critical risks, and even force a resistant CEO to comply. In California, those rights can be nearly absolute, while Delaware requires directors to show a purpose tied to their duties. But when members of Congress seek access to an overseas military base during an active conflict, the rules become far murkier. With no federal law explicitly guaranteeing that access, congressional oversight collides with presidential authority, military security, and the commander-in-chief power. Jack examines an uncomfortable legal paradox: sometimes the boardroom has clearer rules for accountability than the government itself. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

October 13, 202654 min

The Valley Current®: Is a Significant Recession Inevitable as a Result of AI Replacing Middle Management?

AI may not trigger an economic collapse, but it is already changing who gets hired, who moves up, and who captures the gains. In this episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo examines how banks and other major employers are using agentic AI to automate work once handled by junior professionals, advisors, and middle managers. The result may be less a sudden wave of layoffs than a quieter squeeze: fewer entry-level jobs, shrinking management ranks, and a widening divide between asset owners and wage earners. Jack also explores a longer-term problem for law, accounting, and other regulated professions: if AI removes the bottom rungs of the career ladder, where will tomorrow's experienced leaders come from? A recession is far from inevitable, but the labor market may already be undergoing a much deeper restructuring. Jack Russo MBA/JD/LLM NITA Master Trial Advocate Certified Appellate Specialist

Is this your show?

Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.

Claim this listing

More Business podcasts

This Week in Privacy

Privacy Guides

Technology

The Bottom Line

Alexander Spencer

BusinessInterviews guests