Tech giants and AI raise red flags ahead of crucial US vote

Tech-savvy troublemakers are getting ready to mess with US voters minds as the Nov 5th election draws near. Foreign bad actors from places like China Iran and Russia are pushing hard to spread fake news‚ but this time theyʼve got a new toy: AI

Gary Marcus‚ a well-known tech brain points out some real-world problems: “In early-24‚ we saw a fake-robocall using Joe Bidens voice to trick New Hampshire voters; plus theres that Russian-made video showing made-up ballot stuff in PA.“ These AI tricks (which are getting better day-by-day) could be just the start of bigger problems

I wanted to get people to realize‚ as those elections take place‚ that AI policy is really‚ really important; We screwed up social media‚ and we cant afford to do the same with AI

The tech world is changing fast — big companies control everything from cloud storage to social apps. Marietje Schaake‚ who used to work in EU politics thinks its getting out of hand. Her new book shows how Silicon Valley has too much power: these days theyʼre running things that governments should handle

• Amazon runs 1/3 of worldʼs cloud computing
• Meta controls most social media speech
• Palantir manages government data systems
• SpaceX handles critical space operations

The situation with Elon Musk shows how one person can have too much power: his companies control both space tech and social media platform X. Brazil even had to ban X for a bit this year because of problems with fake news

Experts say we need better rules — fast. The old ways of dealing with tech companies dont work anymore; its not just about money its about protecting democracy itself. But with the election coming up everything could change depending on who wins: some want to give tech bosses more power while others want to control them more