Experts are issuing stern warnings about business support for Trump – it could backfire badly and endanger democracy From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, a growing number of billionaires, tech titans and venture capitalists are backing Donald Trump’s campaign for president, among them Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity fund, Steve Wynn, the casino tycoon, Bill Ackman, the hedge fund manager, and Marc Andreessen, a leading venture capitalist. But many business school professors and historians are issuing stern warnings about this business support for Trump, saying that backing him could backfire badly for business and endanger America’s democracy. These professors caution that corporate America – along with everyone else – should be hugely concerned about a candidate who has talked of being a dictator on day one, terminating the constitution, and weaponizing the justice department to exact revenge against his critics. Continue reading...

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The Democratic contender tells it like it is about Donald Trump • You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

AI images posted to Truth Social bore the watermark of a tiny Texas non-profit looking to bankroll X users When Donald Trump shared a slew of AI-generated images this week that falsely depicted Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing his campaign for president, the former US president was amplifying the work of a murky non-profit with aspirations to bankroll rightwing media influencers and a history of spreading misinformation. Several of the images Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, which showed digitally rendered young women in “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, were the products of the John Milton Freedom Foundation. Launched last year, the Texas-based non-profit organization frames itself as a press freedom group with the goal of “empowering independent journalists” and “fortifying the bedrock of democracy”. Continue reading...

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AI company bans accounts and says operation did not appear to have meaningful audience engagement OpenAI said on Friday it had taken down accounts of an Iranian group for using its ChatGPT chatbot to generate content meant for influencing the US presidential election and other issues. The operation, identified as Storm-2035, used ChatGPT to generate content focused on topics such as commentary on the candidates on both sides in the US elections, the conflict in Gaza and Israel’s presence at the Olympic Games and then shared it via social media accounts and websites, Open AI said. Continue reading...

New Meta security report finds that AI-powered deception campaigns ‘provide only incremental’ results for bad actors Russia is putting generative artificial intelligence to work in online deception campaigns, but its efforts have been unsuccessful, according to a Meta security report released on Thursday. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram found that so far AI-powered tactics “provide only incremental productivity and content-generation gains” for bad actors and Meta has been able to disrupt deceptive influence operations. Continue reading...

Harris’s track record, and time as California senator and AG, has tech leaders wondering if she’d have a friendlier approach to the industry About 700 wealthy Democratic supporters packed into San Francisco’s Fairmont hotel on Sunday to see Kamala Harris in her first return to the city since launching her campaign for president. Among the crowd at the fundraiser, where the cheapest tickets cost $3,300 and went up to $500,000, was a mixture of tech billionaires, executives and Silicon Valley venture capitalists who have quickly embraced the vice-president in her bid for the White House. The event, which raised more than $12m, was the latest in the Harris campaign’s outreach to tech Democrats and an extension of a relationship with Silicon Valley elites that goes back more than a decade. Continue reading...

The X owner, talking to Trump Monday, has cast doubt on mail ballots and claims there’s rampant non-citizen voting When Elon Musk took over as owner of Twitter, researchers and elections officials feared a rampant spread of misinformation that would lead to threats and harassment and undermine democracy. Their fears came true – and Musk himself has emerged as one of its main drivers. Continue reading...