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00:00:32 · Max Read
[00:00:32] S1: What just happened to Elon Musk? Two years ago, the SpaceX founder and world's richest man was riding high. He and the rest of the tech right of Silicon Valley had helped propel Trump into office and had grand plans to reshape the federal government. Remember Doge? Those plans are now on hold. Musk once again spent hundreds of millions of dollars this election cycle, but got almost nothing in return. Instead, his allies had among the worst losses of their lives, and he became one of the main villains of some of the cycle's most important races. On today's episode, we're going to dive into the midterms and try to figure out what happened. Was this election a repudiation of Musk and his cadre of Silicon Valley billionaires? A referendum on AI build out and the data centers cropping up around the country? Or an entire rejection of the accelerating AI future that the tech industry has been aggressively selling? How did Elon Musk lose so badly? And what will he do next? I'm Max Read. This is Hard Fork. Welcome to Hard Fork. I'm joined by Erin Griffith and Ezra Klein. Erin is a tech writer for The New York Times, and Ezra is, I believe, a podcaster who's been sent to us from the 28th Floor to talk about politics. It's now been a little while since the Democrats retook Congress. And the thing I really wanna talk about, the thing I've been thinking about is what we have called the tech right. So I'm talking about a very highly visible group of Trump supporting executives, founders, investors from Silicon Valley, people like David Sachs, Marc Andreessen, Palmer Luckey, and, of course, Elon Musk. This was two years ago, felt like the most powerful faction within the Trump coalition. They were able to dominate news and attention, most of all campaign contributions. They arguably helped elevate JD Vance to the vice presidency. After the election, they were kind of put in charge of federal government budgeting and provision, and now it feels like it's all fallen apart. Both of you guys are close observers of the tech industry, and I wanted to see how you would characterize what happened this week, to this growing conservative movement of leaders. Ezra, what do you think happened to the tech right? Well,
00:02:41 · Ezra Klein
[00:02:41] S2: it attached itself to Donald Trump. And this is a place, I think, where at least in part their success became a failure. The tech right is not the reason Trump layered the world in tariffs. It is not the reason that he went to war in Iran, but it is at least part of the reason why he has a hideously unpopular position on AI. And I was surprised in the exit polling how important people said AI was to their vote. So 56% said that artificial intelligence and data centers was a crucial or major factor in their vote. 57% said AI would do more to hurt society. 24 said it would help society. 76% opposed the data center in their community. So you're dealing with an issue that people were both in a in a kind of direct and vibes y way, actually, like, taking into account. And Trump, because in this period, he has been really bought in on, like, the David Sachs, Jensen Huang, you know, Marc Andreessen, etcetera, view of the world, he... His view and the Republican Party broadly's view on data centers was let them rip, build as many of them as you can, whoever wins AI wins, and that put them on sharply the wrong side of public opinion on an issue that's sort of unlike the diffuse issues of costs or the war in Iran. You could really sometimes, like, tie a specific politician like Husted in Ohio to to, like, to data center backlash, and that gave Republicans maybe who didn't like them a reason to cross party lines on them.
00:04:14 · Max Read, Ezra Klein, Teddy Schleifer
[00:04:14] S1: Yeah. Is this a... I mean, let me ask the chicken and egg question. Is AI getting dragged down by Donald Trump and the tech right, or is this that AI just has naturally bad politics and its association with these figures is dragging them down? [00:04:29] S2: I think it's a mistake to think that the only reason we regulate things is to slow them down or to stop them or because they're bad. You you regulate things to put them within a, like, a trustworthy semi... At least semi democratic container such that people can make peace and have confidence in their trade offs. There is a world where AI is rolling out in a [00:04:54] S3: way where people think that the folks in charge have thought through the risk, have thought through the questions of jobs, are are finding out what they need to [00:05:03] S2: find out, and maybe have more trust in it. That way, I don't think it's being dragged down by Donald Trump's popularity. I think the problem with AI in terms of popularity is that the basic sell on it is it might kill everyone. It probably will take your job. But if it doesn't do those things, you're gonna have cheaper energy. Like, it doesn't... It's not a good, like, description of a technology you want. But the problem it is having on a secondary level is it... It's rolling out at a time when the people rolling it out just don't seem trustworthy. So they have not been subtle or agile or thoughtful about how to manage its risks.
00:05:03 · Ezra Klein, Erin Griffith, Max Read
[00:05:03] S2: find out, and maybe have more trust in it. That way, I don't think it's being dragged down by Donald Trump's popularity. I think the problem with AI in terms of popularity is that the basic sell on it is it might kill everyone. It probably will take your job. But if it doesn't do those things, you're gonna have cheaper energy. Like, it doesn't... It's not a good, like, description of a technology you want. But the problem it is having on a secondary level is it... It's rolling out at a time when the people rolling it out just don't seem trustworthy. So they have not been subtle or agile or thoughtful about how to manage its risks. [00:05:39] S4: But that's, like, been the whole point of this, like, rightward shift. Right? It's like all the tech guys are so excited to be able to not have to actually care and, like, soft pedal things and sell them to people. Right? Like, is... Hasn't that just been the gleefulness of this, like, kind of Trump two point o tech right kind of thing where they're like, We're so powerful and rich that we don't have to convince you. We'll just do it, and you'll like it what... Or you won't, but we don't care. [00:06:02] S2: And you... As you see, it's working out [00:06:04] S1: great. Yeah. [00:06:05] S4: Well, I think we're seeing the direct backlash to that, which is, like, kind of what you're saying. Right?
00:06:05 · Erin Griffith, Max Read, Teddy Schleifer
[00:06:05] S4: Well, I think we're seeing the direct backlash to that, which is, like, kind of what you're saying. Right? [00:06:09] S1: Erin, you were sort of addressing this in your... In the last thing you were saying, but I'm interested in why we feel like the this... At least this group of tech investors and executives went for Trump so hard in the first place. [00:06:21] S4: Oh, well, there's [00:06:25] S3: there's