Leah Feiger: I think that’s a really, really good point, honestly. And obviously there’s a clear fear that a Lina Khan-esque figure could come in and wreak havoc. But to your point, that havoc will be paperwork. No, I hear you. I hear you.
Zoë Schiffer: I mean, think about it. The one time he was held accountable in a real way was for saying that he had money to take Tesla private. He had funding secured to take Tesla private. What was the outcome of that? He was fined $20 million? How much is Elon Musk worth? Ultimately, even if that number hurts, he doesn’t want to pay it, it’s kind of a drop in the bucket.
Leah Feiger: No, he’s a trillionaire now, again, I guess. And I guess to that point, this is not the first time that super PACs or big money in politics has stirred up a little bit of controversy. We had this big conversation in 2024 about how crazy it was that Elon Musk was just throwing money at the wall, and now he’s throwing money again via America PAC, which now feels like a pattern, and it feels like other tech founders and their influence and their PACs are already outsized in this administration. You have PACs from all sorts of groups up and down Silicon Valley that are very involved this election cycle. I’m really interested in what you’re hearing about how folks are thinking about this midterm cycle and how they’re kind of thinking more future.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. I mean, Silicon Valley is not a monolith. You hear a lot from the really loud voices in the room, and a lot of those voices are people who have gone all in on supporting President Trump and the Republican Party. And I think those people kind of align with Elon Musk in some of the fears that you have said, that there will be investigations, that if Democrats take control, it’ll slow growth, that they won’t be able to lead the race in AI and these other areas. And so they need to go all in and protect that future that they want to see happen. Of course, there are a lot of rank-and-file employees who have more liberal values, and they are staying a little more quiet, but they are contributing to different causes. It’s an interesting conversation in the Valley right now because there are a lot of newly minted millionaires, people who worked in AI research and now have a ton of money, and they are having active conversations on what is the best way to deploy, to allocate capital right now? Where do we put the money to have the biggest effect? Is it in philanthropy? Is it in politics? If it’s in politics, where should we contribute? There’s not one defining take right now, but it is definitely a topic of conversation. Leah, as you and our listeners both know, the debate over AI safety has been everywhere lately. It has escaped containment in a big way. And in that debate, there is one central philosophy that keeps coming up again and again, and it’s starting to become kind of the center of attention, effective altruism. Last month, AI researcher Jacob Coxon loudly voiced support for one of effective altruism’s central concerns, that advanced AI could destroy humanity. This kicked off a wave of headlines and a pretty intense response from the Trump administration. Senior Pentagon officials labeled effective altruism as a, quote, unquote, “dangerous ideology” and an official Department of Defense social media account implored people to choose, quote, “Americanism, not effective altruism.” So we’re really seeing these dividing lines. But Leah, just to back up a little bit, when did you become aware, because you’re not in Silicon Valley, you’re in New York, when did you learn about effective altruism?
