The Party That Screams About The Evils Of Socialism Wants To Nationalize AI Companies

from the hypocrisy-as-a-service dept

It’s hard to believe that the same people who spent the Biden years screaming that Democrats were “socialists” out to destroy free market capitalism are now cheerfully handing the federal government ownership stakes in private companies.

And yet here we are.

Just as Trumpists have decided that their go-to strategy for trying to rile up their base for the midterms is to accuse every left-leaning Democrat of being a “communist” like it’s 1950, those very same Trumpists are taking on a genuinely terrible socialist idea: nationalizing industries.

We’ve already talked about how hypocritical Trump has been in attacking the left as being “socialist” while simultaneously giving his own government stakes in both US Steel and Intel, and now he’s talking about taking ownership of the various big AI companies as well.

US President Donald Trump is planning to meet the bosses of some of the country’s most notable artificial intelligence (AI) companies to discuss the government taking a financial stake in their future.

Speaking on Air Force One, Trump said the goal of the US government investing in AI companies was to “create almost a partnership with the American public”.

And later reporting has suggested that OpenAI is discussing coughing up 5% to appease Trump:

OpenAI has proposed handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported Thursday, as the artificial intelligence startup seeks to defuse mounting political pressure in Washington.

A 5% holding would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, after the AI lab closed a record-breaking funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion.

It’s fun to watch the media frame this as “giving the public access to a dividend from the AI companies” rather than “Donald Trump demanding a cut to avoid attacking these companies.” Just look at the NY Times’ framing:

In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would soon host a meeting with the top “12 or 15 executives” in the A.I. industry to discuss the idea of companies’ “giving back something to the public.” He added, “If we do that, the public will become very rich.”

The comments built on Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday when he was first asked about the U.S. government’s acquiring stakes in A.I. companies. He said then that he wanted to meet with the companies to discuss providing the United States with stakes in their business, which “could be given to the American public.”

Yeah, sure, the public will become very rich, says the man who has used his position as president to inside trade his way to insane wealth. And how, exactly, will “the public” get back this money? And how will the government ensure that if the currently quite-inflated AI market drops that “the public” isn’t left holding the bag?

And, sure, there are some potentially interesting questions regarding how more people could benefit from the potential wealth that AI companies might generate. But it’s all highly speculative and still massively unlikely. But if there actually is evidence and an idea for actual redistribution of wealth because of AI company dominance, that would involve a way more nuanced, complex, and thoughtful discussion than Donald Trump saying “gimme 5%.”

But, really, what gets me most about all of this is, as I keep pointing out, how many of the AI VC bros during the Biden era, went absolutely apeshit over the Biden admin’s very weak policies on AI, which were basic guidelines and voluntary agreements that had no whiff of nationalizing the industry. But, with Trump talking about literally demanding cuts of these companies… you don’t see any complaining.

Instead, they’re out there whining about how some left-leaning politicians in NY are winning elections and how that’s the coming rise of “socialism.” Literally a couple months ago Marc Andreessen was on Joe Rogan talking about how these dumb young progressive kids support “socialism” even though “it never works.” Meanwhile, Andreessen was just appointed by Trump to some government policy board. As Trump literally nationalizes parts of the AI industry that Andreessen insisted the prior administration was going to destroy through its woke anti-capitalist policies.

Keep all this in mind the next time you hear Silicon Valley VC bros going around pointing at Democrats and screaming about the “creeping threat of socialist ideology.” If they’re not pointing out that Trump demanding equity from every AI company is way worse than anything that any Democrat has done or even proposed, just know that they’re totally fine with “socialism” where they’re the ones in power.

Filed Under: ai, donald trump, free market, nationalizing, ownership, socialism

Companies: openai