https://vid.freedif.org/videos/watch/87e2a530-de22-4905-84bb-eca2e40d2bf4 AI is moving from answering questions to taking action, and the bills are arriving faster than anyone budgeted for. An agent that spins up thousands of other agents can turn a $20 task into a $50,000 one, and companies are starting to scale into bankruptcy. The fight now isn't over how smart these systems are. It's over who controls what they do and what they cost. Deirdre Bosa talks with three executives at the center of that shift: » Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, on rogue agents, guardrails and why autonomous systems need a kill switch. » Lin Qiao, co-founder and CEO of Fireworks AI, on inference economics and whether efficiency can keep AI businesses solvent. » Evan Beard, co-founder and CEO of Standard Bots, on the U.S.-China robot gap — 300,000 deployed to our 30,000 — and what it costs to lose the next platform. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 1:00 Is AI's easy-money era over? 4:43 Cisco President Jeetu Patel 21:20 Fireworks AI CEO Lin Qiao 37:59 Standard Bots CEO Evan Beard Anchor and columnist: Deirdre Bosa Produced by: Jasmine Wu Editing by: Michael Hoyt Technical Associate: Sami Savona Senior Director of Video: Jeniece Pettitt Additional Footage: Getty Images » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more. Want to get ahead at work? Then you need to learn how to make effective small talk. In CNBC’s new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors teach you how to use everyday conversation to gain visibility, build meaningful relationships and advance your career. Sign up now: https://cnb.cx/4sGlSkh Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: https://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC on Threads: https://cnb.cx/threads Follow CNBC News on X: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC on WhatsApp: https://cnb.cx/WhatsAppCNBC #CNBC AI's Control Problem: Agents, Costs And Robots Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:54:24 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://vid.freedif.org https://vid.freedif.org/client/assets/images/icons/icon-1500x1500.png https://vid.freedif.org/videos/watch/87e2a530-de22-4905-84bb-eca2e40d2bf4 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://vid.freedif.org/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.