Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Monday revealed what led to his and the cancellation of his short-lived show on its streaming TV platform. Stewart said that the tech giant prohibited from discussing
Artificial intelligence or interviewing Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan. on Stewart’s
comedy Central program, which he returned to in February and hosts on Mondays. Stewart and Khan discussed Big Tech monopolies, after the US
Justice Department and more than a dozen states sued
Apple last week in a that accused Apple of illegally monopolizing the
smartphone market. Stewart said he had his own issues with Apple, telling Khan that he wanted to have her on the TV show’s companion podcast and “Apple asked us not do it.” “They literally said ‘please don’t talk to her,’” Stewart said. “Having nothing to do with what you do for a living, I don’t think they cared for you.” Although Khan’s FTC is not involved in the Apple antitrust lawsuit, the regulator has sued a number of tech companies recently, including . Stewart also said that Apple wouldn’t let him talk about AI, which he did in the first act of Monday’s show, when he discussed the “false promise” of the budding technology. “What is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to have these conversations out in the public sphere,” he asked Khan. “I think it just shows the dangers of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies,” she replied. Related Articles Khan also hinted at what tech regulations may be coming down the pike, noting that the FTC and Justice Department are scrutinizing how companies potentially use algorithms for price-fixing. Two weeks ago, the two agencies filed a statement of interest about price fixing in a case against Caesars Entertainment. “The Problem with Jon Stewart” ran for two seasons from 2021 to 2023 on Apple TV+. He told his show staffers that Apple had concerns about the subject matter he had planned for three shows during the upcoming season, in October. Those topics included
China, Israel and AI. Although Apple gave Stewart creative control over the show, he grew increasingly frustrated that the company was pushing back on the show’s guest list and show subjects, he told staff. Stewart returned to “The Daily Show” earlier this year, marking a welcomed arrival for the show that lost much of its its . A rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.