How Silicon Valley Bought the 2024 Election to Secure AI’s Future
As the dust settles from the 2024 election, one thing is clear: there was only one candidate who guaranteed that AI would be allowed to develop without any regulation. While ordinary Americans were caught up in divisive political finger pointing, tech oligarchs united to purchase a future free from democratic oversight in their development of AI. Silicon Valley’s coordinated political operation shattered previous records for campaign spending, with major tech companies and executives strategically deploying their wealth to ensure AI development could proceed without regulatory constraints. To understand the ROI on backing Trump, you have to understand two essential things. First, AI has the potential to generate unprecedented amounts of wealth. Goldman Sachs’ projection of 7% GDP growth from AI technologies appears conservative given the regulatory freedom secured through Silicon Valley’s election strategy. McKinsey’s analysis suggesting30% of work hours across 60% of occupations could face automation was based on careful regulatory progression – a framework now effectively dismantled. The wealth generation potential is unprecedented, but its distribution will likely become the most concentrated in human history. These numbers may be right, and they may be wrong. The important thing is Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and private equity all believe they are in a race to create an AI so powerful it will be worth trillions of dollars. It is no coincidence that the morning after the election, the stock market posted record gains. The second thing you have to understand is that the upcoming four-year period represents more than just a regulatory holiday for Silicon Valley – it’s a sprint toward an irreversible technological milestone. The tech industry believes they’re approaching a critical threshold – a point where AI advancement becomes self-perpetuating and exponential. The next generation of AI models, it is believed, will become so advanced that whoever controls them will simply outpace anyone without access to them. The race to create more powerful artificial intelligence is quickly becoming an exclusive competition among a handful of tech giants. As the speed of AI development increases, only a handful of companies have the money, talent, data, and resources to develop next-generation AI models. The first companies to achieve this level of AI won’t just create a monopoly or oligopoly to dominate the market – they’ll reshape the fundamental nature of technological progress by using AI to achieve economic dominance over wide swaths of the economy. Silicon Valley’s Coup d’État When Marc Andreessen characterized AI regulation as “a form of murder,” he provided (misguided) philosophical cover for what amounts to the tech industry effectively purchasing the right to reshape humanity’s future on its own terms. The implications of Silicon Valley’s electoral coup extend far beyond traditional concerns about campaign finance or corporate influence. We stand at a crossroads where democracy itself may become subordinate to technological determinism. With regulatory guardrails dismantled and unprecedented resources concentrated in the hands of a few tech giants, the race to superintelligence will proceed at a breakneck pace. The irony is stark: in the name of advancing artificial intelligence, we may have sacrificed our collective human agency to determine how this transformative technology should develop. Silicon Valley didn’t just buy an election – they purchased the right to make decisions that will reshape civilization, all while sidestepping the democratic process that is needed to avoid the disastrous consequences of unfettered development of AI.
