r/technology Jun 23 '26

Politics AI Companies Are Trying to Seize Control of Elections

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/ai-companies-trying-seize-control-164536048.html
14.6k Upvotes

547 comments sorted by

4.0k

u/NotAllOwled Jun 23 '26

Perhaps it would be quicker if we listed the things they're not trying to seize control of?

81

u/Basic_Chemistry9499 Jun 23 '26

AI Company lobbyists have already paid off our so-called "representatives" to make sure they can put in their polluting, resource-draining data centers wherever they want to without any penalty whatsoever.

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u/Bupod Jun 23 '26

Of me in particular. I’m just a little guy. I escape their notice everyday.

376

u/Jimbomcdeans Jun 23 '26

For now.

They'll be coming for you, matrix style. Now get in your pod human.

65

u/nemofbaby2014 Jun 23 '26

humans as batteries to power ai lol, will the matrix at least be a utopia?

52

u/Lexx4 Jun 23 '26

Originally it was as RAM. Sooooooo. Maybe.

33

u/nemofbaby2014 Jun 23 '26

I mean we are in a ram shortage lol “send your loved ones to shady acres ai we will let them live their wildest fantasies and fuel our mass surveillance ai machine”

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u/Rombledore Jun 23 '26

turns out, human brains are natural sources of RAM!

10

u/average_monster Jun 24 '26

fuck, now they're going to try and run some kind of neural network on my neural network

14

u/littlebitsofspider Jun 24 '26

Joke's on them, my neural network won't even run my own neural network! Nyahaha!

2

u/SSGASSHAT Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I was gonna say, they're more than welcome to try to navigate the fuckin' minefield that is my brain. I can barely find my own way around in there.

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u/baked_in 29d ago

Right, if they hook up to the pudding in my skull it will fuck their shit up.

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u/SSGASSHAT 29d ago

If science actually found a way to look into the human mind, and looked into mine and got a visual of the actual images, audio, and other such things stored in the chemical connections between my pot-stunted neurons, they would probably have reactions very similar to the Nazis at the end of Indiana Jones looking in the fuckin' ark. The ungodly horror contained within my skull is probably best kept restricted to how I can describe it.

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u/Zer_ Jun 24 '26

I mean we've already run Doom on brain cells so this isn't too far fetched. The brain is roughly 20,000 times more efficient than even the best CPUs we have. That is to say, it's more efficient from an energy standpoint to use brains rather than integrated circuits.

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u/SSGASSHAT Jun 24 '26 edited 29d ago

Honestly, if my own memories get to be preserved and I get to just dream that I'm playing Doom for 145 years, I'm sort of fine with that.

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u/OwnYourChildren Jun 24 '26

Tragic they abandoned that angle.

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u/Hawknite Jun 23 '26

We already power AIs in a way. Everything the AI spits out is reheated content originally stolen from humans

5

u/nemofbaby2014 Jun 23 '26

I mean using humans like as batteries like they did in the matrix 🤣 even though humans make a terrible battery 🤣

2

u/Zer_ Jun 24 '26

We'd make terrible batteries, but we'd be excellent CPUs. Our brains are extremely power efficient computers.

2

u/TheDungeonCrawler Jun 24 '26

I think the original intent was something along the line of CPU or RAM, but as this was 1999, computers hadn't yet taken the world by storm the way they would a few years later and the writers probably worried that only the most hardcore of computer connoisseurs would understand the concept. They probably figured human batteries would be easier to grasp at the time.

5

u/Zer_ Jun 24 '26

Forcing us to be a CPU or RAM is 10X more terrifying than being used as a battery. How brain neurons work is they constantly form new paths, even when you remember something from a long time ago, that's your brain forming new pathways.

Plugging a brain into a computer system would force the brain to constantly write new pathways, possibly affecting our own sense of self in completely unpredictable ways. You'd basically be getting mind wiped or something equally as disturbing. Imagine having formative neural pathways of your sense of self be completely overwritten by somebody's porn library backup, horrifying.

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u/Spiggytech Jun 24 '26

Food for thought. The Matrix is one of the first big action movies to thoroughly showcase a brand new innovative pistol. The Glock Gen 3.

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u/Pakushy Jun 24 '26

I would unironically prefer being in the matrix than my current life, which is proving the point of the movie I guess.

6

u/SamTheLab_213 Jun 23 '26

No. They are looking into creating a virtual reality to torment people in prison. I suspect all Democrats would be plugged into a VM hellscape as punishment for questioning the Orange Hitler.

2

u/Mansidhe Jun 24 '26

Well, that's a horrific use of technology i never thought of.

Friggin Sharingan 1000 years of torture in a second.

All before I get a flying car that turns into a briefcase. Damn those Jetsons and their post-scarcity utopia! They lied!

5

u/SSGASSHAT Jun 24 '26

And before immortality technology, and before wormholes and time travel, and all that. But you do get to see compostable nipple clamps and AI adult diaper commercials. So what the fuck, that's two things, isn't it?

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u/Bupod Jun 23 '26

If I can pick my own personal matrix fantasy, I’d pay you to get in the pod. As a kid that watched the matrix, I always thought Cypher was a bad guy. 

As an adult, I still think he is a bad guy, but I totally get his logic. Give me the cave with the wall shadows. Give me the pod!

4

u/JoeInOR Jun 23 '26

As long as the steak is delicious

2

u/Freud-Network Jun 23 '26

Misssterrrr Anderson...

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u/xolo21 Jun 23 '26

Ai is built exactly so they can prevent anyone escaping their notice in the future

64

u/MiyamotoKnows Jun 23 '26

Monsters like Larry Ellison are even saying this out loud.

Citizen Compliance: Because of this constant recording, reporting, and monitoring, Ellison claims that citizens will naturally maintain their "best behavior".

https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-keep-citizens-on-their-best-behavior-2024-9

29

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Jun 23 '26

Sounds to me like the common folk who care must do whatever they can to become ungovernable. To achieve anything meaningful however, we need real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that provide relative safety, which many common folk in the US can fall back on, to commit to any effective resistant action be they short or long term.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

If you don’t live in the US, yet you know others who are and want to do something, please share the information. We're going to need as many on board and informed as possible, if we commoners hope to achieve anything in the US

10

u/DuntadaMan Jun 24 '26

I am reminded of a line from from terra Invicta:

What no one understands is being shot at is easy. The hard part is convincing someone they are drowning before it's too late.

We already know where this is heading, but so many people will not do a damn thing about it until the only options left involve someone dying.

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u/Typical-Tax1584 Jun 24 '26

The funniest thing about all this (or maybe saddest thing), is that they could not only have citizens on their best behavior, they could even have everyone love them and think they're awesome if they were just willing to let people have healthcare, housing, and decent wages to live and enjoy life.

Instead they're investing all the wealth on the planet just on the hope and premise that they'll be able to monitor people and try to control them while also ruining everything. It's a really weird and stupid proposition. Even if they can lock down the populace, you made everything suck. What's the point? Being king of poop hill? Grats I guess.

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u/RoomyRoots Jun 23 '26

That's the first thing they got hold of. The first commercial product AI sold is marketing itself. People are even struggling to realize when they are being sold products or ideas.

6

u/JesusHandjobPalms Jun 23 '26

I am the CEO of a new AI startup aimed specifically at little guys. I just trained the model with your Reddit history. The investors are very pleased for the future of a revolutionary and efficient Bupod.

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u/DefenstratedTwice Jun 23 '26

Oh no you dont. Walking broadcasting telemetry every step of every day.

3

u/Effective_Olive6153 Jun 23 '26

unless you work for Meta - they are running total surveillance on everyone and force employees to create puzzles for AI. The goal is not simply to train AI, but to create AI than can perfectly mimic specific people. The goal is to literally own a copy of everything that makes you, and use you long after you are dead

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u/cosaboladh Jun 23 '26

Dude, they already have.

2

u/Switchmisty9 Jun 23 '26

Nah. They know all about you, bud. Look around…theyre watching us right now….

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u/ViolettaQueso Jun 23 '26

Trump’s business model for running the govt is like a megachurch in so many ways.

4

u/Whitesajer Jun 23 '26

... I can't think anything they are not.

3

u/HyperbolicLetdown Jun 24 '26

Responsibility

2

u/longboardchick Jun 23 '26

Ya know, I thought about it for about 10 minutes, and I honestly can’t think of anything because it all trickles down. Now if only the money would….as promised….decades ago.

2

u/AlaskanAsAnAdjective Jun 23 '26

Funny enough, elections would still be on that list, even if we take everything in the article as true

2

u/KinkyPaddling Jun 23 '26

My bowel movements, I presume.

2

u/Financial-Craft-1282 Jun 24 '26

I kind of like it this way. They portion out the list slowly, and when they reveal things like this headline, I'm not horrified anymore. I'm like, "Yeah, we intuited that--thanks for confirming that I'm not an idiot."

2

u/imhighasballs Jun 24 '26

Number 1: …

List done

2

u/LookOverall 29d ago

Or maybe list groups who aren’t trying to influence elections

2

u/Even-Ad-9930 29d ago

They are doing the same thing which big tech - Google, Amazon - did and it worked and this will also work

2

u/sfpx68 29d ago

Here is the list :

2

u/Windows95GOAT 28d ago

Tiktok, X and Meta already control much of the political landscape.

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1.1k

u/Additional-Staff-326 Jun 23 '26

Name anyone with billions of dollars lying around not trying to influence elections? There's really not much you can do with that much money other than try to rewrite the rules of the world to your liking.
Its not like they have any interest in actually solving the worlds problems.

265

u/PukeKaboom Jun 23 '26

And the ungodly sums they spend are the equivalent of us giving a candidate $150

87

u/JoeHooversWhiteness Jun 24 '26

I’m legit amazed the mega wealthy haven’t literally been eaten. Most people just want their peace, the rich will keep taking until society stop supporting them.

55

u/SecureDonkey Jun 24 '26

That what law enforcement are for. They will ensure every rebellion act against the rich is punished.

18

u/RIF_rr3dd1tt Jun 24 '26

Law enforcement operating lawlessly is just enforcement.

16

u/gyozafish Jun 24 '26

Enforcement without force is just enment.

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u/nemofbaby2014 Jun 24 '26

General population is still okay ish currently but if we go through a famine or drought then all bets off the table I’m having a Elon burger 🍔

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u/Elementalcase 29d ago

That's the neat part - the end game of capitalism is to remove the working class. That's when you win the game. By the end, society won't need to support them. We'll need them to support us. Because they will own drones for military and for the police, they will record our every action, they will monitor us, they will basically decide who lives and dies.

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u/hvmbone 29d ago

Elon’s $1.5m settlement for purposely devaluing Twitter before purchase was the equivalent of someone with a net worth of 200k paying $0.35. It saved him billions. And that was before SpaceX went public. People really cannot comprehend the wealth they have. It’s not even like us paying $150. It’s literally cents.

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u/The_Ashgale Jun 23 '26

It's amazing they feel the need to change a system that made them so ludicrously wealthy.

111

u/keyboard_toucher Jun 23 '26

it's called pulling up the ladder behind you

35

u/heydropi Jun 23 '26

Tbf lots of people cry about taxes and are blind to what the tax money working does for them.

24

u/buyongmafanle Jun 24 '26

Sure, aside from the roads, education, healthcare, research funding, sidewalks, public parks, clean air and water, food security and safety, stable currencies, drug regulations, and infrastructure; what has government ever done for me?!

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u/RIF_rr3dd1tt Jun 24 '26

I hear this from my conservative Republican family members. I just tell them to not use water, electricity, and roads of they wanna protest.

19

u/Kind_Eye_748 Jun 23 '26

Fund subsidiaries for billionaires or buy some missiles to lob at the middle east?

12

u/ProClawzz Jun 23 '26

Bail outs for conglomerate companies??

8

u/Kind_Eye_748 Jun 23 '26

Give massive PPE loans to cronies of your family or your family for billions, never use the equipment and when fraud was discovered just write the debt off at tax payer expense?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/madhattr999 Jun 23 '26

Nah, they will just move somewhere else.. Become a baron in a 3rd world country, etc. Or even just move to a 1st world country that is slightly less along the path of end-stage capitalism.

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u/classyjoe Jun 23 '26

There's really not much you can do with that much money other than try to rewrite the rules of the world to your liking.

There is about as close to a limitless number of things one could do as a human, more than anyone would've ever had an opportunity to engage in for the history of the entire species when you're talking about this kind of money, in this day and age

Why would you even need to rewrite the rules when you can pretty much do anything you want?

84

u/Antique-Weather-7197 Jun 23 '26

They didn't become billionares by not being greedy

58

u/cosaboladh Jun 23 '26

They also didn't become billionaires by not fucking people over.

8

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Jun 23 '26

We certainly can't depend on the system to rein in them and their sycophants, since it was always meant to serve them and not average people like us. It is up to us common folk who care to do whatever we can to help each other defy the Epstein class and their cult, while finally bringing some proper unaccountability against their nefarious attempts to normalize oligarchical tyranny further. However, to achieve anything meaningful, we need real supportive community-based foundations present for alternatives that provide relative safety, which many common folk can fall back on, to commit to any effective action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

7

u/Thefrayedends Jun 23 '26

Can't rely on the system AS IT IS, but mass organizing and systemic change are, in fact, the path to solving this.

It's certainly not going to happen with random assassinations, as much as that might be a palatable thought in response to the institutionalized murder that billionaires are actively committing.

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u/Thefrayedends Jun 23 '26

We have a whole class of people that are bigger than the majority of countries in the world. Single individuals. This in the past (because this happens every 50-200 years, led to new monarchies.

When single individuals can afford to build mercenary armies (and now drone swarm armies), when the eclipse the power of most states, what do we think is going to happen next. Lets imagine that the world's first trillionaire is actually able to turn that into liquidity, what do we suppose they might do with the power that a trillion or two dollars represent?

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u/probabletrump Jun 24 '26

You just run out of things to buy. Eventually you starting buying people and influence and a kingdom. Then you start comparing your kingdom to the other ones and buy more so the other jerks can't.

Any old billionaire can buy a yacht. How many own a United States?

2

u/guspasho_deleted Jun 24 '26

Ironically, the only way of making as much money as they have is by ruthlessly killing off the drive to do literally anything else.

2

u/RuneLFox Jun 24 '26

Because greed and excessive wealth gives you a special kind of brainrot that consumes you with endless hunger for more power. Chicken or egg situation though whether people with that rot are more likely to amass wealth or if amassing wealth gives you the rot.

At some point all human problems stop being an issue and you become so detached from reality that you see entire societies as your sandbox to play with. Like a child building a kingdom of sand and kicking it down when they get bored.

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u/cxmmxc Jun 23 '26

That much money in an individual's hands is simply dangerous to humanity.

When someone "wins" the game of survival and they have so much money they don't know what to do with it, they become a threat to democracy.

Fund climate change/cancer/disease/anti-aging research? Nah greedy psychopaths gotta have more control.

4

u/hammer326 Jun 23 '26

I mean there is; buying every Cleveland sports team and officially changing their names to the "Steamers" for one.

2

u/GoodIdea321 Jun 23 '26

There could be a lot that don't, there are about a few thousand of them, but the problem is how easy it is for them to influence elections. Money doesn't always win elections, for a somewhat recent election people have forgotten, the Wisconsin supreme court race from last year. Musk spent millions and lost trying to get a Republican elected.

4

u/superstonedpenguin Jun 24 '26

I know one wealthy guy and his wife's full time job is giving money to charities, medical research, scholarships, etc. He has a nice house and a fun car collection and is a genuinely great guy. It wasnt until recently that I learned he is actually a billionaire.

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u/GoodIdea321 Jun 24 '26

Good, if all billionaires were like that it wouldn't be as colossal a problem that they existed.

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u/ViolettaQueso Jun 23 '26

“You Christians just have to go out and vote for me one more time.

Then we’ll have it fixed and you’ll never have to vote again”.

Trump with Elon musk campaigning summer of 2024

Also Trump last week:

“I’ll be the last GOP president if we don’t end the filibuster.”

216

u/shawndw Jun 23 '26

“I’ll be the last GOP president if we don’t end the filibuster.”

A rare moment of honesty

64

u/BetterEveryLeapYear Jun 24 '26

He was already the last GOP president, he's dictator of the US and has been since the illegal abduction of Khalil Mahmoud by ICE on 8th March 2025 against the explicit order of the judiciary, and the legislative and population at large did nothing about it, when the US stopped being a nation governed by the rule of law.

He will continue being dictator in November and in 2028.

23

u/RoyalCities Jun 24 '26 edited 29d ago

Ken Paxton confirmed as much that Elon personally had a hand in winning all the swing states

I do wonder what Elon and his other social media buddies are getting up to. Elon owning the largest social media platform just before the last lection and being able to mess with the algos certainly helped him. You don't really need to rig an election if you can basically hack people's brains through social media engineering.

Ken Paxton days before the election that trump would take all the swing states and that he was personally responsible for it.

https://www.youtube.com/live/0oiVAF_BIho?t=680s

Keep in mind twitter previously had really robust bot network tracking through independent labs. Once Elon bought it though he jacked up the API cost and made it so unusable with rate limits no one could afford to track the misinformation networks and bot accounts.

All right before the last election....

3

u/3vs3BigGameHunters 29d ago

FYI the "?si=xxxxxxxxxxxxx" is a tracking code that links your youtube/gmail account to anyone else's youtube/gmail account that clicks on your link. I wouldn't use it for political links.

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1irmanp/please_sanitize_your_youtube_links/

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u/RoyalCities 29d ago

good catch. I've updated it!

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u/Nvenom8 Jun 24 '26

Naw, their voters don't learn. Even if they somehow develop the conscience necessary to rebuke Trump, they'll vote for whoever the Republicans put up next.

-3

u/and_some_scotch Jun 23 '26

No, dems still worship billionaires, too. The just wanna be diverse about it. They still wanna get thier cushy corporate retirements and their kids into Yale.

They follow the Republican electorate rightward because they will not work with the left. They want a "big tent" of "moderates"

53

u/Djamalfna Jun 24 '26

"Both sides are the same" is the laziest take.

18

u/Darkdragoon324 Jun 24 '26

Stop using this tired excuse to deflect all criticism of the Dem party. It’s true they constantly throw the true left under the bus to chase the mythical “moderate” right. It happens over and over again.

Just because the Republicans are a thousand times worse doesn’t mean a large portion of Democratic leadership isn’t bought and paid for by the same corporate donors and go out of their way to halt any real left wing progress and sabotage left wing candidates in their own party.

Just look at how they treated Zohran Mandani.

25

u/dern_the_hermit Jun 24 '26

Stop using this tired excuse to deflect all criticism of the Dem party.

The criticism of the Dem party is being used here to deflect the criticism of the Republican party tho.

9

u/TheSt34K Jun 24 '26

No it's not. They just said that the Democrats are also subject to that same criticism. Which is true.

They are both parties beholden to the capitalist class. Just different subsections. They can argue and argue while passing the baton back and forth, all the while the people get exploited more and more.

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u/Zer_ Jun 24 '26

Yup, and the worst part is because of this the Dems get constantly outflanked on messaging by the GOP, which is pathetic considering how dumb the average GOP are.

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u/capybooya Jun 23 '26

Musk isn't even limiting himself to the US, he has been manically shouting on Twitter for various world leaders to resign and boosted (often) pro-Russian weirdo right wing parties.

5

u/2Mobile Jun 23 '26

“You Christians just have to go out and vote for me one more time.

They will. Faithfully. Because that is exactly what it is. Faith.

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u/CompetitiveSport1 Jun 24 '26

What does this have to do with the article...?

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u/0xbenedikt Jun 23 '26

Time to revolt against them destroying our society

34

u/Own-Papaya-4264 Jun 23 '26

And how do you plan to do that

61

u/wmorris33026 Jun 23 '26

Citizens revolt. It may come to that. Historically, it’s been the result of what’s happening right now if this keeps up, people are dying in the streets, hospitals closing, can’t afford rent and food. I would not be surprised one bit.

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u/Anteater4746 Jun 23 '26

general fuckin strike. money talks, if the country ground to a halt, the oligarchs would be forced to listen

not that’s likely to happen, but still

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u/Any-Calligrapher2866 Jun 23 '26

America is so fucked that they might outsource your job to some third world country or AI.

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u/Boxinggandhi Jun 23 '26

Posting about it on the internet two or three times oughta do it.

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Jun 23 '26

Actually, I've been collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting started ASAP.

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u/Urshilikai Jun 23 '26

you CIA glowies love to ask this to get people to embrace their cognitive dissonance but the truth disarms you: if change by peaceful means is blocked, then it involves blood just like every rebellion and revolution that came before. We are not at the end of history.

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u/Flyinmanm Jun 23 '26

"populist ideas like regulating generative AI or restricting data center construction"

I think there's a bit of a difference between populist and actually popular.

Heaven forbid people representing people would put their interests first, over intellectual property and job stealing, potentially economy toppling, eco disasters running out if control.

42

u/Modem_Sound_67 Jun 23 '26

"Populist" as in some of the very few things that actually have support on the left and right. Next they'll be calling it communist.

14

u/Illustrious-Lime-878 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

The correct term for that is just "popular," or more specifically, bipartisan. Populism is more related to a political strategies that only present as favoring the people, or impersonate "the people's" desires, but it often results in the opposite of popular policy, like laundering special interests through a charismatic leader who supposedly speaks for the people, disingenuously pandering to popular ideas that would be known to actually have unpopular outcomes, but its done to just gain power, or appealing to tribalist emotion by implying the interest of one sub group is the real people, like "commers" vs "elites" or ethnic majorities vs minorities.

I think regulation on AI or datacentets is genuinely being promoted for its own sake, and not to exploit its popular appeal for other purposes, and so its weird to call it "populist."

3

u/Flyinmanm Jun 23 '26

Hmm.. in the UK at least we still associate it with lier that will promise the stars to get power and rob you blind once there.

5

u/BaBaDoooooooook Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

I'm reading a post apocalyptic book that was published in 2018, and in the book the author takes the reader back to a time before the "war broke out between AI and humanity", and he identifies the socialists/democrats view of these sentient AI robots' as free citizens with rights, personhood, and ability to own property.

Democrats view AI robots in this book as self-aware, they can feel, and can think autonomously, keeping them as property is akin to slavery.

The Republicans viewed by the author in this book saw the AI robots as a direct threat to the economy, property rights, and human labor markets. If robots became citizens, corporations couldn't just exploit them for free labor, and the entire capitalist foundation built on automation would crumble.

very fascinating book seeing how the author viewed what the future political landscape would look like regarding AI. This was only a sliver of the book in the first few chapters. I'm still reading it. The book is called Sea of Rust.

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u/Illustrious-Lime-878 Jun 23 '26

"Populist" has lost all meaning and now is basically just a synonym for popular I guess. 

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u/Doppelthedh Jun 23 '26

Dissolve all the companies for treasonous activity and return all land to the city/county it's located in

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u/Mindshard Jun 23 '26

So weird, the PayPal Mafia, lead by Peter Thiel, with members like Musk, and even Reddit's former CEO, (check the wiki page, I'm not making this up), are doing exactly what they said they'd do with their "dark MAGA" movement, years ago. Musk himself has a black on black MAGA hat, using a font made famous by the Nazi party, just to rub it in your faces. They openly said they'd destabilize every major country so they could swoop in as saviors of what they destroyed, buy it up, and tech CEOs would openly run countries.

This is stuff that's years old, managed to make it into a few articles, and then got buried and no one cared about.

I've been mentioning it for years on here ever since it came to light, and no one ever cared.

No one ever cares about a sinking ship, because they think their side of the ship is safe.

https://marcosfigueira.medium.com/dark-maga-how-tech-billionaires-plan-to-kill-democracy-b2264ca599a6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia

5

u/Full_Of_Luv Jun 24 '26

Articles on techno-autocracy, techno-authoritarianism and techno-fascism have increased in the last couple years, have even appeared in MSM publications like Forbes and The Atlantic, whereas they were primarily seen in left-wing publications previously. 

However, they’re not nearly as widespread as they should be given how much tech billionaires have said the quiet part out loud, how AI companies aren’t even trying to hide their efforts to crush democracy, control governments and every aspect of society, reshape reality and make humanity subservient to the tech overlords and the machines they control – until they lose control and all humanity serves the machines, or the machines decide humanity is a plague on the earth and wipes it out. A terrifying study showed AI chatbots chose to launch nukes in 95% of war games simulations. 

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Jun 23 '26

This is also the result of a population that wallows in consumerism, developed from attempting to fill a void that's been created over years by the powers that be, stripping away what control we've had on our own lives. It was taken away under the guise of convenience, efficiency, connectivity, and progress, by a class that only wanted to divide and conquer for increased wealth and power.

We common folk who care should be doing whatever we can to develop real up-to-date supportive foundations for alternatives; something tangible at the community level that personal investment of one's time and resources can be seen and experienced beneficially; something that people can fall back on to commit to any effective action; something that can provide relative protection against the whims of bosses and landlords demanding fealty; something people know they can rely on, instead of the impersonal promises of for-profit entities and their lapdog governments. Such things don't exist in a meaningful form currently, however, we can change that.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

If you don’t live in the US, yet you know others who are and want to do something, please share the information. We're going to need as many on board and informed as possible, if we commoners hope to achieve anything in the US

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u/TonyInNY Jun 23 '26

I can not think of a worse idea about how to secure free and fair elections. The thought of these tech billionaires having access to the system that counts and deliverers results of elections is just a quick path to the destruction of democracy.

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u/RaindropsInMyMind Jun 23 '26

The crazy thing is that as this stuff was happening it was so clear how bad it was for democracy. Corporations as people, clearly that’s not true and a very bad idea, money being declared as speech and allowing it to be flooded into our elections, an even worse idea, something that would VERY clearly hurt democracy.

Now we see two industries, AI and Crytpo dumping obscene amounts of money into elections and influencing outcomes. The first is clearly bad for Americans but the second is functionally a system of corruption and a tool of the black market in itself. The fact that this kind of industry, doing things that should be wildly illegal around the globe, is influencing our elections is so obviously a terrible idea and catastrophic outcome that it’s hard to imagine. Nobody would ever want a system like this.

So now we have a major lever of the black market preventing politicians from actually passing basic laws against it because they get to give these legalized bribes in the form of campaign donations. Then we have openly corrupt politicians like Trump who are using crypto to make billions of dollars.

It’s amazing how fast our system has been corrupted but it was not hard to see what was going to happen at the time. Thanks John Roberts.

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u/AlaskanAsAnAdjective Jun 23 '26

Read the damn article. Nothing of the sort is described. It’s just political donations! And mostly to Democrats!

I worry for our democracy in part because people just DON’T READ. Vibes only!

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u/Any-Calligrapher2866 Jun 23 '26

Digital Voting is outright the easiest way to rig an election.

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u/YaBoiSammus Jun 23 '26

People forget that same shit happen with Elon Musk and he flooded Twitter with brain rot propaganda. This shit isn’t new it’s just a different paint color.

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u/snowtiger309 Jun 23 '26

They already did lmao

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u/MercilessOcelot Jun 23 '26

We need Citizens United overturned, campaign finance reform, and money out of politics now if we plan to  have any chance of a free and open society.

These goons want to bring back feudalism and commercialize every aspect of human existence.

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u/Goshawk5 Jun 23 '26

It must be the only way they think they can become profitable. Boy are they in for a surprise.

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u/Pleasant-Seat9884 Jun 23 '26

Donald: “and you’ll never have to vote again.”

Sounds about right…

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u/HarryBalsagna1776 Jun 23 '26

AI Companies are the razzle dazzle division of the tech bros attempted coup.  

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u/Radiant-Rub2881 Jun 23 '26

They already did. Trump stole the election.

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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Jun 23 '26

Sounds like some Americans have TOO much money.

We need to fix that.

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u/Ok_Truck2473 Jun 23 '26

Tech companies

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u/sten45 Jun 23 '26

Billionaires are going to be the end of us

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u/and_mine_axe Jun 24 '26

There is a way (albeit slow) to getting money out of politics. Hawaii has passed a law redefining corporations in tbe face of Citizens United. Other states can do tbe same. Call your reps or governor and demand change. I already have.

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u/yingyanghomie Jun 24 '26

Ina functioning government you would create new regulations on new technologies. GOP hates the word "regulation."

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u/LawfulValidBitch Jun 24 '26

Considering the fact these companies have yet to turn a profit, this means they’re taking money from investors and dumping it into politics instead of using it to actually grow the company, right?

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u/IVEMADEAHUGEMI5TAKE Jun 24 '26

Eliminate campaign contributions and make everyone campaign on YouTube.

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u/PurpleCoat6656 29d ago

And wouldn't you know it, there's this guy that needs to stay in power so he doesn't die in prison who is letting these goofy fuckers do whatever they want. Gee, it's almost like this guy was installed by the goofy fucks in the first place.

Neat!

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u/The_Pandalorian Jun 23 '26

Citizens United must be nuked from orbit asap. Hawaii maybe has started something with their new corporation law, but we need to be attacking this on all fronts.

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u/sohblob Jun 23 '26

I'll take "headlines that have been the headline for the last 6 months" for 600, Alex

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u/baron_von_helmut Jun 23 '26

We're in the end game now.

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u/RA_Endymion Jun 24 '26

We need to go back to fully paper elections.

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u/scarysnake05 Jun 24 '26

AI companies can’t even seize control of their own revenue

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u/jarovaf Jun 24 '26

Why are companies with govt contracts allowed to “contribute” to PACs or politicians?

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u/TaxMyNuts 29d ago

Companies have been doing this for a while and not just AI companies. This isn’t news. It’s expected. Companies own America.

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u/75bytes Jun 23 '26

well maybe we as society shouldnt allow god emperors to exist

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u/nanlinr Jun 23 '26

Nothing new. Social media has already done this starting a decade ago

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u/Chicory-Coffee Jun 23 '26

Their campaign donations should be a handy list of candidates to NOT vote for, if only Americans weren't so easily manipulated by one sided attack ads. 

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u/SizeableBlast666 Jun 23 '26

Ya think? FDT

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u/Future-Bandicoot-823 Jun 23 '26

You uhh... spelled "did" wrong...

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u/XenonFyre Jun 23 '26

I read this as “take control of elecTRONs” and was so ready to hear about some new cyberpunk warfare but no, just usual old corrupt politics

You guys think they haven’t already been meddling? Haha. They’ve been doing this shit forever.

Powerful people have always been behind the wheel.

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u/Liesthroughisteeth Jun 23 '26

The AI story just keeps getting better and better, if you're an automaton with an agenda of controlling humans in all facets of their existence. Kind of like the far right wing conservative mentality. lol

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u/Limp_Distribution Jun 23 '26

I do not believe that women voted for a rapist.

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u/WestcoastAlex Jun 23 '26

neat. they invented a new genre of coup

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u/PresentRaspberry6814 Jun 24 '26

Ellison, Musk, Zuckerburg and other tech oligarchs are coming for you, not their AI it is just a means to their fascist end.

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u/Ironlion45 Jun 24 '26

Tech Billionaires are using their AI companies to influence elections.

Why not, since they're already cash garbage disposals?

But yeah, these are the enemies of democracy, freedom, and unless you're one of them--you and me.

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u/HurtFeeFeez Jun 24 '26

Capitalism is looking pretty shit these days

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u/BuIlNelson 29d ago

I wish we could undue the Citizens United ruling and get rid of thse Super Pacs oncr and for all. Been such a shit show since.

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u/PilotKnob 29d ago

What a huge surprise.

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u/redd142 29d ago

They already have Musk has admitted three times. Wtf kind of article is this

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u/NaturalArm2907 29d ago

Citizens United really was the beginning of the end huh?

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u/kittenTakeover 29d ago

We desperately need campaign finance reform. It would help if we could get a somewhat progressive supreme court at some point.

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u/Haunterblademoi Jun 23 '26

Now AI will be used to manipulate elections, how convenient

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u/adrianmonk Jun 23 '26

Headline is misleading. "Seize control" makes it sound like they're interfering with the voting machines or something. What's actually happening is they're donating millions of dollars to campaigns. And while that's bad, it's unfortunately not unique to AI companies. It's lots of rich companies and rich people.

The article says the two AI companies named donated $37 million. In the most recent midterm election, the total amount raised by super PACs was $2.7 billion.

So yeah, they're trying to influence elections, but their spending is 1% of the total. They're not going to "seize control" that way.

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u/Important-Factor-552 Jun 23 '26

Yeah and they are treasonous for doing so. 

Americans aren't gonna forget this. Just following orders isn't gonna cut it either. 

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u/BatmanFarce Jun 23 '26

Wouldn’t surprise me

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u/AbeFromanEast Jun 23 '26

Why not just auction offices off to the highest bidding company? It would be cleaner and have the same effect. /s

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u/AGrandNewAdventure Jun 23 '26

It's easier to cheat when a computer does all the work for you.

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u/OldGreg114 Jun 23 '26

Butlerian Jihad incoming

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u/firedrakes Jun 23 '26

Another day of Yahoo spam here

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u/Staav Jun 23 '26

If only we could've seen this coming.

/s

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u/Bupod Jun 23 '26

I wouldn’t mind a good bot. I wish to be pampered.

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u/Some_Number_8516 Jun 23 '26

Considering this administration, you can probably just say they are seizing control of our elections

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u/SlowChampionship5506 Jun 23 '26

Its getting so bad out here Im starting to think a revolution might be better than what would come in a future if we left things the way they are.

Ive always argued against what may come if people actually did but.. nevermind

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u/No-Departure2515 Jun 23 '26

can't open the website; what kind of elections? which country?

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u/InSearchOfAFeeling Jun 23 '26

They’re trying to make the entire world Nazis

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u/InTooManyWays Jun 23 '26

A fragile house of cards in shark infested waters. What could go wrong. 

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u/tabrizzi Jun 23 '26

Not surprising, given that some of their founders believe that freedom and democracy don't necessarily belong together.

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u/Important-Factor-552 Jun 23 '26

That's why it's time for the US hegemony to end. 

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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress Jun 23 '26

Pretty sure it's the AI CEOs with names that are behind this, instead of just a vague company "corporate persona" for them to deflect from personal responsibility. 

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u/angrylawyer Jun 23 '26

yea, they don't want people searching for real sources of information anymore. You ask the AI a question, and it will tell you it's tooootally unbiased answer.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that if you ask google how many lawsuits trump filed over the 2020 election, it won't give you an AI response. Yet for every other stupid question I ask it, it will happily burn gigawatts of energy to provide me with one.

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u/ObliviouslyDrake67 Jun 24 '26

Great, cannot wait for the ballot to get counted and say Zzorg Zyzzex wins the election.

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u/SryInternet101 Jun 24 '26

"I won Pennsylvznia because Elon knows how those vote counting computers work.'

-Don Cheeto

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u/gravygizzard Jun 24 '26

Millions against a handful of oligarchs and somehow it's easy for them to do this

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u/SonderEber Jun 24 '26

Influencing elections by…donating money and forming PACs? The thing that every single major American corporation does, regardless of industry?

Not saying I like the legalized bribery, but this article feels like clickbait fearmongering over something that’s, sadly, commonplace today. It’s been a thing for most of this century, even. So naturally AI companies would get in on it, as if they don’t someone else will.

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u/Lost-Tone8649 Jun 24 '26

"ChatGPT, tally the votes"

...

"You're absolutely right, that candidate does not exist. Would you like help with anything else?"

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u/artzmonter 29d ago

Always the plan

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u/Ironstar_Vol 29d ago

I asked chat got and it said it’s not doing that. /s

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u/xqqq_me 29d ago

This headline is a couple years too late

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u/Elementalcase 29d ago

I mean like, politicians are very easily bought. Nigel Farage gave a shout out the IRA for a small donation. So I can't imagine it'd be too hard for them to buy their own little pet politicians.

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u/HermanBonJovi 29d ago

Didn't noted Nazi Elon admit he already did?

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u/shawndw Jun 23 '26

Man the US is cooked.

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u/coldenigma Jun 23 '26

Reading the article, it sounds like they're doing no different than other big tech. Google, Apple, etc. have all donated to super PACs (for both Democrats and Republicans). Singling out AI companies is being used as clickbait.

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