The AI industry is pouring millions into US elections

ausbah

how long before “AI agents have voting rights too” becomes real

guywithahat

I mean many of these companies are doing tens of billions in revenue each, meanwhile their home state is becoming increasingly hostile to their presence. That said this article shares no numbers so I have no idea what the scope or scale of their impact is.

ChrisArchitect

Tech Influence Watch site: https://influence.citationneeded.news/ ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632474 ) (Blog post: https://www.citationneeded.news/tech-influence-watch/ )

testing22321

What major industry in the US hasn’t been doing that for decades? At this point it’s a perfectly common cost of doing business there. Pay money to get favourable laws passed. But it’s not bribery. No no no.

jlarocco

"Voting with your Wallet" - the American way.

rizsyed1

This is interesting. I wonder how this might affect laws and regulations.

AvAn12

If businesspeople want to get involved in politics, they should have the courage to run for office like anybody else. Lurking on the sidelines and waiving money around is really lame and laughable.

doodlebugging

Probably a sign that it is past time to tightly regulate all AI-aligned companies and their products to set up guard rails to prevent this level of corruption. I am a person who lives in a state where it is totally legal for lobbyists to walk the floor of the state legislature handing out envelopes of cash to any representative who will line up behind their proposed legislation. Bribery buys state laws here and it buys pretty much anything else that those with deep pockets desire. One day people in this state will wake up and burn it all down by electing representatives who serve the people, not the corporate entities that desire a low drag place to do business. There are active anti-AI and data center groups now in the state. Once they get enough traction this bullshit will end. Anyone at any of these AI companies that attempts to influence elections should be held accountable and should suffer the harshest consequences including confiscation of all personal assets. Multi-generational enforced poverty should be their reward. Just my two cents.

savanaly

Millions? Makes me think of https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in...

pydry

So they want a bailout when the inevitable happens.

tiahura

So about the same amount as the spend on a single row in a datacenter?

otikik

If it's for sale, someone will buy

mindcrash

First it was Search (mostly Google), then Social (mostly Facebook) now AI turning the global internet into their own unregulated playground due to pay to play on US soil. All of which together will make algorithmic bias, data harvesting, and hyper-realistic misinformation flourish. I really wonder when US citizens had enough. Third time is the proverbial charm?

hackingonempty

We aren't even getting a kiss.

1vuio0pswjnm7

The almond industry is profitable But what about the "AI industry"