Big Tech goes down with GOP

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Calder McHugh (0:30)

Hello, and welcome to Decoded by POLITICO. I'm Calder McHugh.

Christine Moy (0:34)

And I'm Christine Moy.

Sam Sutton (0:36)

And I'm Sam Sutton. It's the morning after the midterms. We'll be discussing everything we know about the world of AI and what the midterms will mean for the vibe around big tech.

Calder McHugh (0:48)

I'm here in DC, everyone. It is exactly 1:19 AM East Coast time. So technically, it is Wednesday.

But, of course, we've been up all evening tracking all of these races. Would love to hear first just how everyone's feeling. Christine, it's a little earlier where you are.

Christine Moy (1:06)

Yeah, I'm probably feeling a lot better than you both. Polls have only been closed for a little over two hours here.

Sam Sutton (1:12)

It's been quite the night, but it's been exciting. There's been a lot of... Most people expected a blue wave, but I'm not sure anyone expected this big a blue wave.

Christine Moy (1:20)

Yeah, and I'm not sure that for us, we were expecting this much to talk about on the front of AI and the black policy this early.

Calder McHugh (1:26)

And once again, I should mention here, we are recording at a little after one in the morning Eastern time. Of course, there is a chance and in fact, a likelihood that things will change and more news will come overnight. But we're going to try our best to keep things as relevant as possible for our listeners and keep up to date with us over the next few days, because this is all happening very quickly and in real time. Christine, you've been out and about a little bit tonight. Tell me what you've done and what you've seen.

Christine Moy (1:56)

Yeah, so I'm coming from the watch party for state Senator Scott Weiner, who authored the nation's first AI safety law. And he's seen his campaign boosted by AI safety motivated, tech funded groups spending millions of dollars. And the mood was exuberant to say the least. Like we're in deep blue San Francisco and people were very excitedly chattering about the blue wave, the blue NAMI as most people put it. And people at the watch party were talking about Elon Musk, the enormous amounts of spending that he put toward boosting Republicans in the midterms. One person in the line in the rain said, I love that Elon had spent $200 million for nothing. And the other person was like, I don't really know what he was expecting from that, maybe more favorable data set of regulations. So they're coming around to, I think, the same takeaway that other AI safety and tech advocates have come to tonight. And Wiener had given a speech like he had already won. That's even as California is behind the rest of the nation.

Polls had closed less than two hours ago at that point of the night. We're talking about 10 p.m. Pacific time, and he was leading Chan by 13 percentage points, but with less than half of the votes reported. But we did see his parallel in Colorado. Manny Rutineau, also a state legislator, authored AI regulations before running for Congress, and has received AI safety money. He won his House race against Republican Gabe Evans. So it's looking up for these state AI safety advocates tonight.

Calder McHugh (3:24)

Yeah, Christine, and I actually think those people in line may have severely undercounted the Musk spend. It was actually close to $450 million, this election cycle. And after all that, it really looks like he's in big trouble. I mean, he threw his lot in with Donald Trump before 2024 and into the beginning of Trump's second presidency.

And now with Democrats sweeping the House and the Senate, it seems quite likely that he will be dragged in front of Congress in some way or another. So he can't be feeling very good tonight, Sam.

Sam Sutton (3:58)

Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds like what we're talking about, it's emblematic of the entire night, right? The AI safety folks, the folks who've been calling for more regulation, who've been calling for guardrails, they tended to have a pretty good night, whether it was around, guardrails around the tech itself, or obstacles to the infrastructure that supports the technology.