Tag: Elon Musk

Starship launch live: Musk and Trump both attend sixth SpaceX test flight – latest

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SpaceX is making preparations for the sixth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, Starship. Elon Musk’s company has been taking a “fail fast, learn fast” approach to research and development more akin to the world of Silicon Valley than the aerospace industry, and the pace of launches only appears to be speeding up.

When is the next flight?

SpaceX says on its website that it aims to conduct the sixth test flight of Starship on 19 November, with a launch window opening at 4pm Central Time (10pm UK). A livestream of the launch will be broadcast on SpaceX’s X account, the social media platform also owned Musk, or you will be able to watch it here at newscientist.com

It took SpaceX 18 months to carry out the first five Starship test flights, with the fifth taking place in the middle of October. If the company carries out the sixth next week, it will mean a gap of just over one month since the last flight – its fastest turnaround yet.

What will SpaceX attempt in flight 6?

In many ways, flight 6 will be a repeat of flight 5, but with a few key differences.

The booster stage will again attempt a “chopstick” landing, in which the craft is grabbed and secured as it returns to the launchpad, allowing it to be lowered to the ground. This approach is designed to eventually allow the booster to be re-used multiple times and massively reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.

Starship during a high-altitude test flight

SpaceX

The upper stage will reach space, carry out a partial orbit and then re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for a splash landing in the Indian Ocean. But this time, the upper stage will attempt to reignite one of its Raptor engines while in space in order to collect valuable operational data. It will also test new heat shield designs during re-entry.

Another difference is that the launch will take place later in the day so that the landing of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean can be filmed in daylight, ensuring greater detail. Previous missions have seen night landings and therefore footage – while cinematic and dramatic – hasn’t given engineers as much insight as video of a daytime landing will.

What happened during previous Starship launches?

Test flight 1 on 20 April 2023 saw three of the booster stage’s 33 engines fail to ignite. The rocket later span out of control and self-destructed.

The second test flight on 18 November 2023 got further, gaining enough altitude that the booster and upper stages separated as planned. The booster stage ultimately exploded before reaching ground level and the upper stage self-destructed, although not before successfully reaching space.

Test flight 3 on 14 March 2024 was at least a partial success, as the upper stage reached space once more, but it failed to return to ground level intact.

The next flight, on 6 June, saw the upper stage reach an altitude of more than 200 kilometres and travel at over 27,000 kilometres per hour. Both the booster and the upper stage completed soft splashdowns in the ocean.

Test flight 5 was the most ambitious to date, with Starship’s Super Heavy booster dropping back to the launch pad and being safely caught by SpaceX’s launch tower, called Mechazilla, in a pair of “chopsticks”. It is equipped with a pair of “chopsticks” to grab the craft at a specific point and secure it, allowing it to be lowered to the ground.

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November 19, 2024
Bluesky is ushering in a pick-your-own algorithm era of social media

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Bluesky sign-ups continue to grow

Anna Barclay/Getty Images

As a technology reporter, I like to think I’m an early adopter. I first signed up to the social network Bluesky around 18 months ago, when the platform saw a small surge in users disaffected by Elon Musk’s approach to what was then still called Twitter.

It didn’t stick. Like many, I found the lure of Twitter too strong, and let my Bluesky account wither, but in recent weeks I have returned – and I am not alone. With Musk continuing to transform his social platform, now called X, at the same time as taking a role in US president-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming government, the Xodus has begun. Bluesky has gained 12 million users in two months, and is fast approaching 20 million users. This time I intend on sticking around – and I think others will, too.

In large part, that’s because I want a social media experience without being bombarded by hate speech, gore and pornographic videos – all of which users of X have complained about in recent months. But I’m also big on Bluesky because I think it signals a shift in how social media works on a more fundamental level.

Social media algorithms – the computer code that decides what each user is shown – have long been a point of contentious debate. Fears of disappearing down “rabbit holes” of radicalisation, or being trapped in “echo chambers” of consensual, sometimes conspiratorial, viewpoints, have dominated scientific literature.

The use of algorithms to filter information has become the norm because chronologically presenting information from followers creates a confusing morass for the average user to process. Sorting and filtering what is important – or likely to keep users engaged – has become key to the success of platforms like Facebook, X and Instagram.

But control of these algorithms also gives you a big say in what people read. One of the bugbears many users have with X is its “For you” algorithm, which under Musk has seen commentary by and about him seemingly shoved into users’ timelines, even if they don’t directly follow him.

Bluesky’s approach isn’t to ditch algorithms – instead, it has more than the average social network. In a 2023 blog post, Jay Graber, Bluesky’s CEO, outlined the ethos of the platform. Bluesky promotes a “marketplace of algorithms”, she wrote, instead of a single “master algorithm”.

In practice, this means that users can see posts by people they follow on the app, the standard view Bluesky defaults to. But they can equally opt to see what’s popular with friends, an algorithmically-dictated selection of posts that your peers enjoy. There are feeds specifically for scientists, curated by those working in the field, or ones to promote Black voices, which are often thinned out by algorithmic filtering. One feed even specifically promotes “quiet posters” – users who post infrequently, and whose views would otherwise be drowned out by those who share every opinion with their followers.

This menu of options allows Bluesky to serve two purposes, bridging the past era of social media and the future one. The platform has the potential, once it reaches a critical mass of users, to act as the “de facto public town square”, as Musk dubbed Twitter before he purchased it. Bluesky arguably is the only remaining such square, given X has shifted to exclude many mainstream voices, and competitors like Threads choose to shy away from promoting politics and current affairs.

But Bluesky also allows you to tailor the app to your needs – not only through feeds, but other elements like starter packs of recommended users to quickly get involved in individual niches, or blocking tools to quieten unruly voices.

There are still hitches, undoubtedly. Finding the right feed for you can be tricky, while creating your own is even more complicated, requiring third-party tools. But the ability to get the full view of public conversation, then to drill down into smaller debates within clusters and communities of that broad swathe of society, is exciting. It’s a model of a new social media where users, not big companies or enigmatic individuals, are in charge of what they see. And if Bluesky continues to add users, it could become the norm. So come and join me – I’m @stokel.bsky.social.

Chris Stokel-Walker is a freelance technology journalist

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November 19, 2024
We Break Down the Internet’s Future Under Trump 2.0

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Leah Feiger: Enough trillions that don’t actually currently exist in that budget.

Katie Drummond: Exactly. So thinking about that very messy, very human business and Elon Musk and Donald Trump in a room making decisions about it, where you’re really not seeing a lot of empathy, you’re not seeing a lot of nuanced thinking about people and what people need. That is very stressful.

Leah Feiger: Absolutely. And on the X point, a slight devil’s advocate there is that it depends on what the goal was. If the goal was to actually keep X as this profitable business communications for the world, et cetera, then yeah, absolutely, he failed. If the goal was to get Trump elected and get himself into a seat of power, then who cares about that money that he lost?

Katie Drummond: Great point.

Leah Feiger: He won that back tenfold over the last week with Tesla’s stock and probably some upcoming government contracts and lack of regulations. Which I guess is into the, are you subsidizing your communications, your media platforms in order to pay the dividends later on? I don’t know, maybe we’ll be having a different conversation in a year from now if Musk is all of a sudden in charge of every US defense contract there is.

Katie Drummond: We certainly will. And that’s a great point. I mean, it’s essentially deficit funding what has become and is increasingly a right wing, conservative echo chamber that serves as a megaphone for the Trump administration and his acolytes, then job well done.

Leah Feiger: Yeah. On another note, Trump has vowed to deport millions, jail his enemies. And to carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. We just published the WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself from Surveillance Under Trump, which has some steps you can take to evade all of this. Check out the link in our show notes, please. But besides reading that very handy guide, what more should individuals and institutions be doing or even just thinking about as they approach cybersecurity in the age of Trump? All of this to me is so related.

Katie Drummond: Wow, that’s a great question. And a lot of it is covered in this guide, which I would also add is published outside of the WIRED paywall. It’s important service journalism and we want to make sure as many people as possible have access to it. So please do go and check that out. I mean, I think this is a moment for individuals, whatever you do for a living, if you don’t work at a government agency, if you’re not a journalist, it doesn’t matter. I would not make any assumptions about your personal safety at this moment in time because the truth is you never know. You never know what circumstance you may find yourself i, where you would have wished you had been better about digital security, better about your online hygiene and your online communications. I think we have seen that play out in other parts of the world that are not the United States as of now, that a single post on a website can put you in prison. So I think it’s really important for everyone to take a minute and think about what they have out there on the internet, how they communicate with people they love, what is being shared to the cloud. The answer is everything on your phone. All of your text messages, all of your photos, your videos, everything you write down in your Notes app, your most personal details, your search history. Everything is out there and so this is a good moment to grapple with that. And even if it’s not because of an incoming Trump administration, it’s just good practice. And so if this serves as a wake-up call or a reminder for someone who has maybe become a little bit too complacent with how they conduct themselves in the context of digital security, this is just a good moment to reassess that. And I think for people and for institutions, I think it’s also an interesting moment to think about what your lines are. And for people, for families, for companies and institutions, I think this is a moment to really think about, again, whatever you do, whatever your institution does, whatever services you offer, what lines will you and won’t you cross? And what risks are you willing to take to protect those red lines that you have drawn? And that could have everything to do with providing access to reproductive healthcare for your employees. It could be about immigration if you employ immigrants on visas. Really thinking about, okay, we need to spend some time with our lawyers and talk about the worst-case scenario. I think everyone right now, the smart thing to do is think about every worst-case scenario that could potentially affect you, your family, the company you run, the company you work for, and be prepared for the worst possible thing to happen and hope that it doesn’t, but know that you’re prepared if it does. I think even internally at WIRED, that’s something that we are talking about is that obviously we intend to continue to do our journalism as we do it, but we all need to be prepared for what are the potential worst-case scenarios of this administration with regards to the media? And what are we going to do about it if that shows up at our parent company’s door?

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November 14, 2024
The Conspiracy Theory That Elon Musk Stole the Election Using Starlink Is Everywhere Now

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Starlink did not respond to a request for comment.

This conspiracy theory has continued to spread, and it’s not limited to X: Discussion threads on Reddit, posts on Instagram and Threads, and dozens of Facebook posts all push the narrative that Musk colluded with Trump to use his Starlink satellites to steal the election.

One of the most active platforms for these conspiracy theories is TikTok. WIRED has reviewed dozens of videos posted on the platform by users either repeating the claim about Musk and Starlink or adding new twists to the conspiracy theory.

X, Meta, Reddit, and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the most popular new aspects of the theory relates to the fact that Starlink satellites were observed burning up over the US last weekend, which those pushing the conspiracy theory claim is evidence of Musk attempting to cover his tracks. The reality is that Starlink satellites are designed to burn up on reentry at the end of their lifespan.

The conspiracy theory has eerily similar aspects to the so-called Italygate conspiracy pushed by the Trump campaign after the 2020 election, which suggested an Italian military satellite was used to flip votes from Trump to President Joe Biden.

“It’s concerning to see it solidifying and crystallizing into specific narratives, and then to see stuff being added on—this is what we saw last time as well,” says Thomas. “You see this sort of collective storytelling that happens within these communities where the people who are trying to gain clout online by promoting a new version of a conspiracy theory, they all have to add their little bits to it so that they can get their engagement.”

Other conspiracy theorists claimed Trump spoke about “a little secret” he made onstage that he had with Musk, referencing a comment he made during his Madison Square Garden rally last month. In fact, the comment was directed at House speaker Mike Johnson. Some left-leaning accounts have also pointed to podcaster Joe Rogan’s comments this week that Musk had developed a bespoke app to give him early access to election results.

“Apparently Elon created an app and he knew who won the election four hours before the results,” Rogan said. “So as the results are coming in, four hours before they called it, Dana White told me Elon said, ‘I’m leaving. It’s over. Donald won.’” It’s unclear how this app worked or what data it used.

Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that oversees the US elections, said in a November 6 statement that there was “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”

While some right-wing figures are continuing to push election conspiracy theories, the vast majority have fallen silent in the wake of Trump’s win, abandoning overnight four years worth of nonstop posting and shouting about election fraud.

And while the left-wing election conspiracies are nowhere near the scale that the Stop the Steal movement was just weeks ago, some experts are still concerned.

“I’ve seen some comparisons to Stop the Steal and some of these other right-wing conspiracy election theories, and it is smaller than those, as they were at the end of the Trump presidency,” says Thomas. “But I think the significant difference there is that they came after months, if not years, of deliberate agitation and cultivation by a variety of actors. So, for me, to see these left-wing election fraud conspiracy theories getting pretty significant traction quickly, I think, personally, is quite concerning.”

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November 14, 2024
Starship launch 6: When is the next SpaceX flight test and what can we expect?

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SpaceX says on its website that it aims to conduct the sixth test flight of Starship as early as 18 November

SpaceX

SpaceX is making preparations for the sixth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, Starship. The company has been taking a “fail fast, learn fast” approach to research and development more akin to the world of Silicon Valley than the aerospace industry, and the pace of launches only appears to be speeding up.

When is the next flight?

SpaceX says on its website that it aims to conduct the sixth test flight of Starship as early as 18 November. This claim is backed up by the Federal Aviation Administration having issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) warning of a rocket launch in the area of SpaceX’s launch pads in Boca Chica, Texas. The 30-minute launch window will open at 4pm local time (10pm GMT).

It took SpaceX 18 months to carry out the first five Starship test flights, with the fifth taking place in the middle of October. If the company carries out the sixth next week, it will mean a gap of just over one month since the last flight – its fastest turnaround yet.

What will SpaceX attempt in flight 6?

In many ways, flight 6 will be a repeat of flight 5, but with a few key differences.

The booster stage will again attempt a “chopstick” landing, in which the craft is grabbed and secured as it returns to the launchpad, allowing it to be lowered to the ground. This approach is designed to eventually allow the booster to be re-used multiple times and massively reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.

Starship during a high-altitude test flight

SpaceX

The upper stage will reach space, carry out a partial orbit and then re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for a splash landing in the Indian Ocean. But this time, the upper stage will attempt to reignite one of its Raptor engines while in space in order to collect valuable operational data. It will also test new heat shield designs during re-entry.

Another difference is that the launch will take place later in the day so that the landing of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean can be filmed in daylight, ensuring greater detail. Previous missions have seen night landings and therefore footage – while cinematic and dramatic – hasn’t given engineers as much insight as video of a daytime landing will.

What happened during previous Starship launches?

Test flight 1 on 20 April 2023 saw three of the booster stage’s 33 engines fail to ignite. The rocket later span out of control and self-destructed.

The second test flight on 18 November 2023 got further, gaining enough altitude that the booster and upper stages separated as planned. The booster stage ultimately exploded before reaching ground level and the upper stage self-destructed, although not before successfully reaching space.

Test flight 3 on 14 March 2024 was at least a partial success, as the upper stage reached space once more, but it failed to return to ground level intact.

The next flight, on 6 June, saw the upper stage reach an altitude of more than 200 kilometres and travel at over 27,000 kilometres per hour. Both the booster and the upper stage completed soft splashdowns in the ocean.

Test flight 5 was the most ambitious to date, with Starship’s Super Heavy booster dropping back to the launch pad and being safely caught by SpaceX’s launch tower, called Mechazilla, in a pair of “chopsticks”. It is equipped with a pair of “chopsticks” to grab the craft at a specific point and secure it, allowing it to be lowered to the ground.

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November 14, 2024
Donald Trump Taps Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead Nonexistent Department of Government Efficiency

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President-elect Donald Trump announced tonight that he would be appointing billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) upon taking office in 2025. The acronym DOGE appears to be a reference to the digital currency dogecoin, of which Musk is a fan.

“These two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” stated the announcement from Trump.

The statement did not offer specifics on the nature of DOGE, but did say that it would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” and that it would “partner with the White House of the Office of Management & Budget.”

In September, Trump said that he would create a government efficiency commission that Musk would run. Musk has called for cutting $2 trillion in federal spending. In 2023, the government spent $1.7 billion in discretionary funds. On X, Musk has already alluded to departments and areas he’d aim to cut, including the Department of Education and funding for National Public Radio.

Musk has been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters. During the campaign, he poured close to $200 million into his political action committee (PAC), the America PAC, which he used to support Trump’s campaign. He also appeared with him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and held townhalls across the state to drum up support for the former president. Musk also used his own celebrity, and X, the social media platform that he owns, to bolster the Trump campaign’s talking points, and encourage followers to vote for Trump. A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that Musk’s political posts on X between when he endorsed Trump and the end of October garnered 17.1 billion views.

In his Tuesday statement, the president-elect said that Musk and Ramaswamy would conclude their work in the new department “no later than July 4, 2026.”

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November 13, 2024
Elon Musk Is Already Doing Exactly What He Said He Would

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Less than a week after the election results were called for former president Donald Trump, his centibillionaire backer Elon Musk is already doing what he promised: taking an active role in shaping the government under a second Trump administration.

During the campaign, Musk emerged as one of Trump’s biggest backers and his most zealous advocate in Silicon Valley. His political action committee, of which he was the primary funder, spent $200 million to help the Trump campaign. But he also hit the campaign trail drumming up support in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, made an appearance with Trump at a rally, stumped for Trump on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, hosted a livestream on X (which he owns), and used his platform and the power of his own celebrity to push the campaign’s talking points and boost propaganda claiming Democrats would allow unauthorized immigrants to vote.

In his first administration, Trump famously made governing a family business, bringing his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner into prominent positions. Musk, according to Trump’s granddaughter Kai, has now apparently reached “uncle” status, appearing in a family photo (and apparently refusing to leave). It does appear that Musk will be heavily involved in whatever comes next. And his posts on X, as well as his early post-elections interactions with Trump, make clear what that might look like.

Musk, who has apparently joined Trump’s calls with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Serbia president Aleksandar Vučić, and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, looks poised to have some kind of role in the administration. In September, Trump said he would create a government efficiency commission with Musk—whose business empire benefits extensively from government contracts and subsidies—at the helm. On Sunday, Musk reshared a post envisioning a Trump administration that focuses on “deregulation (defanging the SEC, FTC, and others), government spending cuts (making room for the private sector), tax cuts, and a focus on technologically enabled innovation,” adding the comment, “Great.” Musk also called for “ensuring that maniacally dedicated small-government revolutionaries join this administration!”

And already, Musk is beginning to weigh in on staffing decisions for the second Trump administration and beyond. On Sunday morning, Musk released a poll asking users who should be the new Senate majority leader, in line to succeed the outgoing minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Users appeared to overwhelmingly vote for MAGA favorite Senator Rick Scott of Florida. When Trump announced that New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik would be his pick for UN Ambassador, Musk took to X to weigh in, saying, “Elise is awesome, but it might be too dicey to lose her from the House, at least for now.” Reporting from the Financial Times revealed that Musk is looking to install his own loyalists and backers into the government, particularly people like Steve Davis, CEO of the Musk-founded Boring Company, and has reportedly asked Trump to appoint SpaceX staff to the Department of Defense.

In another post including a video of National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher from a TED Talk she gave in 2021, three years before she took over the organization, Musk asks, “Should your tax dollars really be paying for an organization run by people who think the truth is a ‘distraction’?” In a post shared over the weekend, Musk described the Department of Education as “not exactly great value for money.” (Project 2025, a road map created by the Heritage Foundation for a second Trump administration, calls for eliminating the Department of Education). In all, Musk has advocated for $2 trillion in spending cuts—more than the federal government’s total spending in fiscal year 2023 on all discretionary outlays including defense, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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November 12, 2024
Taylor Swift Fans Are Leaving X for Bluesky After Trump’s Election

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Following the US presidential election, Swifties, the name for Taylor Swift’s fans, are fleeing X for Bluesky. X’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, was one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers, funneling over $100 million into the Trump-supporting America PAC; stumping for the candidate on the campaign trail; and boosting Trump’s messaging on X. Musk also helped Trump tap into a distinctly right-wing male audience. Swifties, who have built a robust community on the platform formerly known as Twitter, took notice. By Thursday, less than 48 hours after Trump won the presidency, they were starting to flock from the platform for good.

“I love the idea of building a new community here and would love not to have to support Elon in any way,” says Justin, who goes by @justin-the-baron.swifties.social on Bluesky and asked to use only his first name for fear of harassment. “Elon is of course a big Trump supporter, which doesn’t align with Taylor’s values or the values of Swifties.”

Though there are Swifties on all sides of the political spectrum, the community prides itself on being a positive and accepting space. After Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic nominee for president, Swifties began to mobilize to support her. In September, Swift herself endorsed Harris. In an Instagram post announcing her support, Swift cited AI-generated images of herself and her fans that had been used by Trump to imply she’d endorsed him.

Following the endorsement, Musk posted, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.” Musk, who has repeatedly shared concerns about declining birth rates, has at least 11 children with at least three women. According to The New York Times, he also offered his sperm to Nicole Shanahan, the former running mate for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (She declined.)

Irene Kim, an organizer with Swifties for Harris, says that the outpouring of misogyny following the election pushed her and many other Swift fans to abandon X and seek refuge on Bluesky. Though research has found that hate speech and disinformation increased after Musk took over the platform, the election of Trump seems to have supercharged it. A report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that in the 24 hours following Trump’s electoral victory, phrases like “Your body, my choice,” parroting the election night rhetoric of white supremacist Nick Fuentes, rose 4,600 percent on X.

“I think that’s the kind of rhetoric we want to get away from,” Kim says. She also notes that X’s recent update to the “block” feature, which allows people to see the profile and posts of users that have blocked them, has contributed to a more negative experience on the platform. “Twitter has definitely become such a hellscape,” Kim says.

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November 8, 2024
Donald Trump Isn’t the Only Chaos Agent

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Eight years ago, the November US election results profoundly shocked the small staff at Backchannel, the boutique tech publication I headed. The morning after, an editor posted on our Slack that working on a technology story seemed tone-deaf, if not futile. On a plane from New York to San Francisco, I wrote a column to answer that impulse, directed as much to myself and my colleagues as it was to readers. I argued that regardless of the enormity of this event, one thing hadn’t changed; the biggest story of our time was still the technological revolution we were living through. Disruptive politicians, even destructive ones, may come and go—or refuse to go. But the chip, the network, the mobile device, and all they entailed were changing humanity, and maybe what it will mean to be human. Our job was to chronicle that epic transformation, no matter who was politically in charge. The headline of my column was “The iPhone Is Bigger Than Donald Trump.”

This week, Trump was once again elected president despite … oh hell, I won’t go through the litany of what would seem to be slam-dunk disqualifiers. You’ve heard it all, and to the majority of voters it doesn’t matter. It’s an unbelievable story, and the next few years will undoubtedly be the stuff of history. Maybe not in a good way. Maybe in a very bad way for a country where many expected to celebrate its continuing values on America’s 250th birthday. (In the spirit of unity, I’ll use the “maybe” qualifier since losers should be humble, and who knows what’s ahead.)

Yet I’m not budging from the thought I had in 2016. As Stewart Brand once said, “Human nature doesn’t change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly.” What is happening in technology and science remains the activity that will ultimately make the biggest impact on our species. Hundreds of years later, future generations (and possibly Ray Kurzweil) will look back at this time and identify it as the period when microchips and neural net software changed everything. And who was that strongman with the funny hair who crashed the country that used to occupy real estate in the Western Hemisphere? I no longer run a publication and instead represent but a single voice in a much larger staff. (For WIRED’s institutional view, please note the words of my boss, which I endorse.) So, speaking for myself, I emphatically reprise my 2016 statement of purpose, with a slight tweak: Artificial intelligence is bigger than Donald Trump.

Of course journalists must cover Trump’s second presidency vigorously, with relentless demands for accountability. In the short term—for some of us codgers it may be all of our remaining term!—what happens in our community and country will have a bigger influence on our daily lives than the latest version of Claude, ChatGPT, or even Apple Intelligence. (Sorry, Tim Apple.) If you lose your health care, or your reproductive rights, or find yourself in a deportation camp or a prison cell because of the policies of our returning president, the knowledge that AI, mixed reality, and quantum computers might one day redefine us won’t lessen the pain.

Also, those of us covering tech will definitely wind up reporting on the Trump presidency; policy as always affects the course of technology. (Remember, the US government produced that thing called the internet.) Right now a debate is raging about how, or whether, we should regulate or restrain AI, a technology which some refer to as “the last invention.” I’m already hearing discussions about the new administration nixing the elaborate executive order on AI that Joe Biden mandated. Some worry that the new president’s mega-adviser Elon Musk—who has his own AI company and builds AI into his other enterprises, like Tesla and Neuralink—will have an outsize and possibly inappropriate influence on government policies and contracts. I’ve also heard speculation that the movement to regulate AI might be, um, trumped by the threat of China’s full-throated efforts in the field. That’s important, because the ground rules of today’s AI, and the quirks of its inventors, may affect whether the worst fears about the technology come true.

That’s why, the day after Donald Trump got reelected, I visited an AI company and interviewed one of its leaders and a top engineer. Yes, on the walk back to the office I thought about the election results and got depressed all over again. But I will finish the article about that company, and then do another, sticking to the tech beat for as long as my broken heart keeps beating. AI, after all, is still the biggest story in town.

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November 8, 2024
Did Elon Musk Win the Election for Trump?

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Donald Trump [Archival audio]: Frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond.

Leah Feiger: The win was decisive, almost shockingly so. Many of us are still figuring out the big factor that pushed the country hard to the right. Here at WIRED however, we have a theory and we’ve been reporting on him for a while. Elon Musk.

Donald Trump [Archival audio]: Who did you say?

[Archival audio]: Elon.

Donald Trump [Archival audio]: Oh, let me tell you. We have a new star. A star is born, Elon.

Leah Feiger: This is WIRED Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. I’m Leah Feiger, the Senior Politics Editor at WIRED. As we discussed on the show a few weeks ago, Elon jumped into the political conversation this cycle in a big way, endorsing Trump, joining him at rallies, and putting a lot of money behind him, over a hundred million dollars. Did his influence make the difference for Trump, and what happens now? Joining me today to talk about all of this and more is WIRED’s Director of Science, Politics and Security, Tim Marchman. Hey, Tim.

Tim Marchman: Hey, glad to be here.

Leah Feiger: Glad you’re here too. Also joining, is WIRED Senior Reporter, Vittoria Elliott. Hey, Tori.

Vittoria Elliott: Hey, Leah.

Leah Feiger: Quick check-in guys. How are you both doing?

Vittoria Elliott: I don’t know what day it is.

Tim Marchman: I really need to just go to the park and read a Victorian novel, or play shuffleboard or something.

Vittoria Elliott: That sounds great. Honestly, I wish someone would prescribe me some seaside time, like they used to.

Leah Feiger: Instead of seaside time and instead of reading a Victorian novel in the park, we should just talk about Elon Musk. Right? That also sounds incredibly fun to me.

Tim Marchman: I think we’re going to be talking about Elon Musk for the next four years. I, for one, can’t wait.

Leah Feiger: Let’s get into it. So, the big question to me, and I think to probably all of us, is did Elon Musk make this happen? Is he responsible, or at least quite responsible, very responsible, largely responsible for this Trump victory? What do you think?

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November 7, 2024