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“One of the features we see in … a lot of the billionaire tech elites is a real kind of anger,” says Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. “They’re angry at what they see as the excesses of woke culture and liberal and lefty politics. … And they’re angry that they don’t have free rein to enact the world they want to enact, and that includes areas like AI.” Silverman also discusses how tech elites like Peter Thiel and David Sacks are shaping the Trump administration’s approach to technology.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump said the U.S. would not be reining in artificial intelligence, telling the gathered world leaders, quote, “Whoever wins AI wins.”

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence, being spoken of so much now, hereinafter officially called superintelligence. … Whoever wins AI, you have to remember this, and now I say, whoever wins SI, whoever wins superintelligent, wins. That’s the group that wins. And we’re leading now over China by a lot, and everyone else. … But we will only encourage superintelligence. We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence, being spoken of so much now, hereinafter officially called superintelligence. … Whoever wins AI, you have to remember this, and now I say, whoever wins SI, whoever wins superintelligent, wins. That’s the group that wins. And we’re leading now over China by a lot, and everyone else. … But we will only encourage superintelligence. We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: While AI CEOs on Wednesday called for some kind of international regulation on AI development while speaking to world leaders at the United Nations, President Trump has called warnings about AI risk a hoax, likening it to global warming. He’s instead announced plans for a so-called AI Force.

Silicon Valley’s Billionaire Cults Are Coming for Democracy

AMY GOODMAN: Well, who is advising President Trump on AI? One primary voice in the room is former White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks. He stepped down as czar in March after his 180 days as special government employee expired. He’s now co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. David Sacks spoke earlier this month at Politico’s Decoded Summit in Washington, D.C. Here he is addressing a question about President Trump’s response to AI concerns.

DAVID SACKS: He’s seen this movie before. I mean, how many hoaxes have been run on the president himself, going back to the whole Russiagate hoax? I mean, we’ve seen this over and over again, that especially before an election, the media will take a narrative — and, look, there can be grains of truth to the narrative, right? I mean, like, you take the climate change, you know, hoax, there’ll be elements of truth. There’ll be pseudoscience to it, and then the media will blow it out of proportion and use it to further a political agenda. … They have a basic corporate responsibility to make sure their products are safe. … If you look at the frontier right........

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