00:00AI has permeated nearly every aspect of society, as we all know, including at the ballot box.
00:05As the U.S. nears a crucial midterm election, a flood of money is already impacting the races.
00:11And it's the focus of this weekend's big take called AI is already reshaping U.S. politics at every level.
00:17One of the writers of that story, Emily Birnbaum, joins us now.
00:20Emily, in the post-Citizens United world, it already takes a ton of money to win these elections.
00:26How are AI and tech factoring in now?
00:28This is the first cycle that AI has entered the political arena, has entered the chat with as much money
00:41as the crypto companies of the last cycle.
00:44So in total, AI companies and AI investors have pledged $275 million towards these midterm elections via super PACs.
00:56So we have a super PAC that's backed by the president of OpenAI and Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
01:02And we have sort of a dueling PAC that is backed by Anthropic.
01:06And each of them are vying to boost candidates that are favorable to their AI regulation agenda.
01:15So this has become a central topic in these serious midterm elections.
01:19We have an illustration of that for those who are watching on television and streaming the show, just looking at
01:24the amount of money that those two super PACs in particular have poured in.
01:27And really a crucible for that has been right where we're sitting, in the New York 12th Congressional District.
01:31We just had a primary here a few days ago.
01:34Walk us through, I guess principally, why this was the place where all of this attention and energy, and yes,
01:40money, was focused.
01:42Why the New York 12th?
01:43Yes.
01:44So New York 12th, crowded primary.
01:46And Alex Borges, who's a state assemblyman, when he first announced his candidacy, it was a long shot bid.
01:54But Alex Borges has long been known to the AI companies because he helped to write one of the country's
02:00first AI safety bills.
02:02And that was a bill they lobbied very hard against, particularly 816Z, which is behind one of the super PACs.
02:08So they announced they were going to spend $10 million to oppose his candidacy.
02:13And that prompted a huge proxy war from AI safety activists and Anthropic and tech employees who want more AI
02:23regulation of the technology they're creating.
02:27So money poured in really quickly.
02:30So the Andreessen-backed PAC ended up spending $8 million against Borges, but the AI safety community rallied behind him.
02:38And ultimately, they spent over $20 million backing Borges.
02:42So this is a really expensive house primary.
02:46Borges did not win the race.
02:47He lost to Michael Asher, who's another well-known New York political operative.
02:53But ultimately, the takeaway is not necessarily that the AI companies won, but rather that if in the races where
03:01they pledged to spend a lot of money, they actually have well-heeled opponents ready to spend in favor of
03:08that candidate.
03:09Before we move on from the New York 12, I will say Michael Asher was backed by Michael Bloomberg, majority
03:14shareholder of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
03:17It's this name.
03:17Well-disclosed on my part.
03:20I want to talk because it's not just about money, though.
03:23We're also now in the era of deepfakes, and these AI-generated ads are kind of becoming more common.
03:29And you point out there's this ad for a Republican Louisiana congressional candidate which has supposed liberals, including someone who
03:37looks like Billie Eilish.
03:38And another ad depicts Texas Democrat James Tallarico singing about transgender children.
03:43These are not real.
03:45But how are these deepfakes impacting the vote?
03:48So deepfakes in particular impact low-information voters and usually older voters.
03:56So a younger voter who understands what AI looks like would have seen the video of James Tallarico and known
04:02this looks like AI, this looks fake.
04:05But there is some evidence coming out that older people not as familiar with the nuances of what AI-generated
04:14ads look like could be fooled by some of these things.
04:17And that could affect votes in some of these competitive primaries.
04:21It's still yet to be seen.
04:23Like, experts in the space kind of caution from, you know, experts in the space say people are more informed
04:32than you might imagine.
04:34So, you know, maybe give people a little credit.
04:36But what's definitely true is Democrats and Republicans both are betting that this technology will help convince at least some
04:46voters.
04:47And even if you know they're fake, I mean, people find them funny and share them.
04:51So it's a new way to kind of get your point across.
04:53Even if people are laughing at it, I feel like it does send some sort of a message.
04:57Yeah.
04:57Okay.
04:58So we've got the amount – all of this money being poured in.
05:00That's one facet of this AI election.
05:02The other is these deepfakes that we were just talking about.
05:05I think the third is just like AI as a policy issue or as a political issue in this campaign.
05:09And I wonder if you could talk about that as well.
05:11So, you know, on the show we've talked about how it's pushed up energy prices and caused a lot of
05:15dissatisfaction and concern in a lot of communities across the country.
05:18Lots of debates about these data centers.
05:19Totally.
05:20How is that manifest in these midterms?
05:22How is it likely to be manifest kind of looking to the general elections?
05:24It's just the role that AI is going to be playing as a political issue.
05:29Right.
05:29I think consistently what we're hearing is that data centers are the physical manifestation of anxiety voters have about AI,
05:39job loss related to AI, energy prices spiking due to the data centers.
05:43So every single day data centers become a more and more potent issue in federal elections.
05:49So, you know, for like the past year they've been important at the local level.
05:53But now people are looking to people and their congressional candidates and, you know, incumbents and they're saying, well, what
06:01are you going to do about this data center thing?
06:02Are you going to make sure that, you know, it doesn't use up all our water?
06:06It doesn't it doesn't spike our utility bills.
06:10So what you're seeing is even in some of these very competitive races.
06:16So thinking about Pennsylvania governor's race, this is coming up.
06:20Candidates are seeking to distinguish themselves, saying, I'm going to protect you from data centers.
06:24My opponent's not going to.
06:26And it's interesting.
06:28It doesn't go along partisan lines.
06:30It's not a left right issue.
06:33It's sort of data centers are becoming a proxy for, you know, I'll protect you from the establishment, from corporations
06:41trying to disrupt, you know, what's happening in your backyard.
06:45So data centers, I think, are the most visible way that AI is coming up across the country.
06:51And I think probably in 2028, AI job loss, AI related job loss is going to be the next big
06:58issue that people consider even a kitchen table issue.
07:02So I was talking with Mike Shepard, editor who does a lot of AI editing for us.
07:05And I said, what are the odds in 2028 we're going to call that the AI election?
07:09It seemed he was very he was very clear that this is going to be a thematic trend here in
07:14this election, the next one and the one one after that.
07:16Well, that was going to be my question.
07:17I'm going to have about 20 seconds left, but we're focused on the midterms now.
07:20Do you expect this to be all exacerbated when it comes to the next presidential race?
07:24Absolutely.
07:25These midterms are just a dress rehearsal.
07:272028 is when we're going to really see AI policy come to a head.
07:31Presidential candidates will have to stake out their positions and we'll see which side wins.
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