Mark Cuban on AI, Elon Musk, and Big Tech’s influence on society and elections
- by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Oct 28, 2024
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On October 19, the richest man in the world, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and CTO and executive chairman of X Elon Musk, who has been backing former president Donald Trump, announced cash incentives to voters in swing states. Specifically, he extended $100 to voters who signed a petition supporting the first and second amendments in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. Musk also offered $1 million each day until the election through a raffle to a registered voter who signs the petition in one of the seven swing states.
The move has sparked much debate about the legality of such incentives, including a tweet from Dallas Mavericks co-owner, television personality, and ultra-wealthy entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who questioned whether the scheme violates voting or gaming laws in Pennsylvania.
Cuban, a onetime supporter of Trump’s initial presidential aspirations who is now supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, has differed with Musk on not just politics but a variety of other issues, including social media and artificial intelligence. Musk was a signatory to a March 2023 open letter urging developers to pause the training of AI systems more powerful than ChatGPT-4 for six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.” Cuban, on the other hand, believes that it’s crucial to limit government regulation on AI so the United States can retain a leading position in the technology to maintain its economic and military position in the world.
I interviewed Cuban via email to get his thoughts on some of these issues, including the tech sector’s influence on politics and government.
The resulting interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Sara Goudarzi: You have been campaigning for Kamala Harris and against Donald Trump of late. Why?
Mark Cuban: I believe Kamala Harris will be a far better president for our country.
Goudarzi: Over the last several years, a handful of tech companies—such as Google, Apple, Meta, Oracle, X, OpenAI—have amassed enormous power and influence over, among other things, the flow of information and communication. Their decisions on what gets seen can impact everything from public health to policies to elections. Artificial intelligence seems likely to even further concentrate power in the hands of a relatively few tech companies and their leaders. Do you view this concentration of power as a problem? If so, what can be done, in a democratic system, to help solve that problem?
Cuban: That’s two questions: The first is on algorithms, particularly on social media. I think it is an issue. It creates our own personal echo chamber where the algorithm continually sends more of what you have already consumed in an effort to get you to consume even more. Given most are unique to the user, we all have our own personal wormhole. I’m not sure you can do much of anything [in this regard] because creating an algorithm is as deserving of free speech as writing a book.
As far as AI, it’s too early to tell. This is like the early days of mainframes, where each manufacturer required significant, expensive resources. Over time, it became cheaper and cheaper to build increasingly powerful computers and software, which made them mainstream to build or buy.
The same can be said of the different forms of AI. Right now, it’s truly expensive and resource-intensive. Domination in AI is imperative for the United States to retain our economic and military positioning in the world, so it’s the domain of government and our biggest companies.
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