their efforts aren’t buying the political capital they’d hoped for.
Trump did get elected by “AI money” and they all celebrated on stage with him, you know.
Midterms? Yeah, when you are an indisputably shitty President who has broken every campaign promise and is openly deranged, you will likely lose the midterms no matter how much you try to pump Republicans. Diminishing returns.
Usually the “winning” party only holds power for a couple terms, then, after their incompetence has disgusted yet another generation of voters, they lose, only to be replaced by the other party that will repeat the process.
bOtH sIdEs, YeS, oH My
I vote in every election, and you should too. Because it’s funny
Capitalism is incompatible with democracy.
Which billionaires aren’t flooding money into politics to influence elections? They were doing it long before all the AI drama.
Give us each $100,000 and I’ll consider it.
I thought someone did the math and said if all US billionaires were slaughtered and the money divided amongst US population, we’d all get like $400k+.
IF the billionaires are really worth their money.
Unluckily the billionaires are only theoretically worth their money since it depends on the value of their shares in the companies, shares value that is only supposed.I always wondered if it would’ve been cheaper in Iraq and Afghanistan to just pay everyone to hand over their weapons and leave.
Expect bipartisan legislation to increase the anonymity of PAC money before the year is over.
By backfiring you mean they have nearly total control then yes. Those losers, it has totally backfired on them and now they are richer and more powerful than ever!
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Futurism articles are just written by AI tbh…
Low bar journalism and reporting.
I don’t think they plan on voters being an insurmountable problem.
That’s the unsettling part. When billionaires spend fortunes shaping elections, it’s reasonable to ask whether they see voters as citizens to persuade or obstacles to manage. Democracy becomes a lot less inconvenient when you can fund the candidates, influence the platforms hosting the debate, and lobby the people writing the rules. All perfectly legal, of course.
I can only hope this is true. Most voters aren’t paying a bit of attention to where the money comes from.
They’re using AI. They think it’s wonderful, they’ve barely heard about the controversy around data centers, and think “data centers are where the internet it, yOU lIkE thE inTErNeT, Don’T yoU?”
The Top 10 AI Uses in 2025 (none of which it does very well):
- Therapy and companionship
- Organizing my life
- Finding purpose
- Enhanced learning
- Summarizing content
- Generating ideas
- Generating code (for professionals)
- Improving code (for professionals)
- Creativity
- Visual art and design
My thoughts exactly. I know two folks who are going all in with AI and haven’t even considered any controversy. Feels like they live on another planet. Hell, one of the guys was even showing off his pervert glasses and when I called them pervert glasses he laughed and said he hadn’t heard that before.
I really hope those folks are in the minority.
Dang. Their online filter bubble must be strong. Likely the kind of person who also doesn’t care about surveillance capitalism because “it’ll recommend good things to buy.”
Quite right! When they email me for advice it’s often AI generated, too. I always come across as the insane person telling them not to trust AI (why even ask me for advice if you’re just going to vibe coded your site anyway…)
You’d be surprised. Data centers seem like a big issue. My boomer parents hate data centers, as do a lot of rural voters who have them nearby or proposals nearby. But to your point, I also see a lot of people who are aware of problems around ai/data centers/billionaires still using ai.
The problems with data centers are not the data centers, it’s missing regulation about where and how to build data centers.
It’s a very American problem.
Its the scale. You cant build GW datacenters without messing with everyone nearby.
We’re having similar problems in Aus https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-21/west-footscray-data-centre-delays-nextdc-value-asx-vic/107291744
So, you also cannot discern the difference in traditional DCs and AI DCs? I feel like you know and I’m missing something.
Scale. Older data centers fit in the “light industrial” zoned parts of town and required some minor grid upgrades to the local electrical distribution.
Planned data centers require as much power as an entire rural state and are the size of a small town and get buit too fast to wait for any new power generation to be added to the grid.
Turns out telling people your technology will replace their jobs, devour their electricity, and possibly end civilization isn’t the winning sales pitch billionaires imagined. Imagine spending hundreds of millions buying political influence, only to discover voters don’t enjoy being treated like obsolete hardware.
telling people your technology will replace their jobs, devour their electricity, and possibly end civilization isn’t the winning sales pitch billionaires imagined.
“but what you guys aren’t getting is the fact that it’ll make me a lot more money.”
AI is still not viable business. All that fear mongering is to create an alternative revenue sources.
“look, I created a monster that can destroy us all. Please give me money to contain and tame it. We can’t destroy it because our enemies are creating their own monsters.”
Everyone who goes into politics wants money. Musk gives them money. Profit!
Musk should consider skipping the middle man and paying citizens directly for their votes. Proportional to his wealth. Like the taxes we used to charge the wealthy.
I’m sick of all the shiny shoes and the posturing. I need a serious person with substance.
Turns out that taking hubris to far, thinking that the public will suck it all up just because they always did does have its turning point.
