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Science & Tech
Inside Elon Musk and DOGE's "revolutionary" push to reshape Washington, with WIRED's Katie Drummond
Listen: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, made his fortune-breaking industries—space, cars, social media—and is now trying to break the government… in the name of fixing it. But what happens when Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ ethos collides with the machinery of federal bureaucracy? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmersits down with WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to unpack the implications of Musk’s deepening role in the Trump administration and what’s really behind his push into politics. In a few short weeks, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has dramatically reshaped the government, slashing budgets, eliminating thousands of jobs, and centralizing vast amounts of government data, all in the name of efficiency. Is this a necessary shake-up or a dangerous consolidation of power? Drummond and Bremmer dig into the political motives behind DOGE, President Trump’s close relationship with Musk, and how the tech billionaire’s far-right leanings could shape the future of US policy. Can Elon's vision of innovation bring efficiency to Washington, or will it just inject more chaos into the system?
How long will President Donald Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk last? The alliance has so far defied predictions from the left (and parts of the right) that a relationship between two famously impulsive and mercurial billionaires would eventually lead to conflict. Instead, Musk is everywhere in the Trump administration—attending cabinet meetings, shaking hands with world leaders, smiling in the Oval Office. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has embedded itself across nearly every federal agency. In many ways, the relationship is mutually beneficial: Musk has an almost limitless checkbook to bankroll Trump’s political operations, and DOGE is helping him deliver on a campaign pledge to “shatter” the deep state. Meanwhile, Musk has become the most powerful person in Washington, not named Trump. But the president also has a history of discarding allies when they are no longer valuable and many of his close advisors have become his harshest critics. So, can the Trump-Musk alliance survive for the long haul, or is it destined to go up in flames?
Watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television this weekend (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
A judge's gavel on a wooden table
Apple faces a federal class-action lawsuit alleging false advertising of AI features that haven’t yet materialized. Filed on Wednesday in the federal district court in San Jose, California, the suit claims Apple misled consumers by heavily promoting Apple Intelligence capabilities in iPhone marketing that weren’t yet fully functional, including an AI-enhanced Siri assistant. Bloomberg reported that when Apple began promoting its Apple Intelligence suite in the fall of 2024, the technology was merely a “barely working prototype.”
The legal challenge came the day before a significant executive shakeup at Apple. On Thursday, the company removed its digital assistant Siri from AI chief John Giannandrea’s purview and reassigned it to Mike Rockwell, creator of the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. The restructuring also follows Apple’s announcement earlier this month that planned updates to Siri are delayed until 2026 due to development difficulties.
Meanwhile, Apple continues developing new future AI features, including an ongoing project aimed at equipping Apple Watches with cameras that could provide visual intelligence features to analyze users’ surroundings. Ultimately, the company is betting on Rockwell’s technical expertise and its own hardware footprint to turn around its struggling AI efforts and catch up with competitors.Perplexity AI apps on a smartphone and a computer screen.
26 billion: CoreWeave, which is expected to start trading next Friday on the Nasdaq stock exchange, updated its prospectus on Thursday to disclose that it’s targeting up to a $26 billion valuation from its initial public offering. The Nvidia-backed company is a New Jersey-based cloud computing company that specializes in offering infrastructure to AI developers.
85: OpenAI and Meta are seeking partnerships with India’s Reliance Industries to expand their AI presence in the subcontinent, according to a report in The Information published Saturday. OpenAI, in particular, has floated the idea of distributing ChatGPT through Reliance’s wireless carrier, Jio, and even cutting subscription prices up to 85% for Indian customers.
10: Researchers have developed an AI weather prediction system called “Aardvark Weather,” which operates thousands of times more efficiently than conventional forecasting methods. This breakthrough from the University of Cambridge, Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft Research, and ECMWF can run on a desktop computer instead of supercomputers and uses just 10% of the input data that existing systems need. Aardvark is currently a research model and not yet available for public use.
50 million: Billionaire Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, announced a donation to his alma mater, Bowdoin College, to the tune of $50 million on Monday. It’s a large gift for the small liberal arts college in Maine — the largest since its founding in 1794, according to the New York Times. Hastings said he wants Bowdoin to use the money to become a leader in studying the risks of AI and ethical questions associated with the technology.
Joachim von Braun, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, speaks at the “Risks and Opportunities of AI for Children: A Common Commitment for Safeguarding Children” event.
In a conference at the Vatican last week, Catholic leaders called for global action to protect children from the dangers of artificial intelligence.
“We are really currently in a war at two frontiers when it comes to protecting children — the old ugly child exploitation, one-on-one, is not overcome — and now we have the new AI, gender-based violence at scale and sophistication,” Joachim Von Braun, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, told the press on Thursday.
The conference, which ran from Thursday to Saturday, brought together Catholic officials as well as tech experts, world leaders, and child protection advocates. Attendees discussed AI’s protection to detect online threats and expand education but also risks for abuse such as deepfakes and algorithmic bias.
The Vatican under Pope Francis has been particularly interested in AI with the pontiff appointing an AI advisor in 2024, and it recently warned of “profound risks” of the technology in January.Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration.
A coalition of nine European countries is discussing how to accelerate the continent’s chip independence, the group said on Friday.
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain are involved in the discussions, which are plotting a second Chips Act, according to Dutch Economy Minister Dirk Beljaarts. The first European Chips Act went into effect in 2023, though Reuters notes it has so far “failed to meet key goals” to stimulate the European chip market. On Wednesday, the European Semiconductor Industry Association and SEMI Europe, both industry trade groups, publicly called for a new Chips Act.
The new initiative could target specific gaps in Europe’s industrial capacity. Europe has a grasp on research and development, and semiconductor equipment (such as the Dutch lithography powerhouse ASML) but needs to invest more in chip packaging and production, Beljaarts said. In September, Intel delayed plans to build a factory in Germany by at least two years. The coalition is planning to present its proposals to the broader European community this summer.The Trump White House has received thousands of recommendations for its upcoming AI Action Plan, a roadmap that will define how the US government will approach artificial intelligence for the remainder of the administration.
The plan was first mandated by President Donald Trump in his January executive order that scrapped the AI rules of his predecessor, Joe Biden. While Silicon Valley tech giants have put forth their plans for industry-friendly regulation and deregulation, many civil society groups have taken the opportunity to warn of the dangers of AI. Ahead of the March 15 deadline set by the White House to answer a request for information, Google and OpenAI were some of the biggest names to propose measures they’d like to see in place at the federal level.
What Silicon Valley wants
OpenAI urged the federal government to allow AI companies to train their models’ copyrighted material without restriction, shield them from state-level regulations, and implement additional export controls against Chinese competitors.
“While America maintains a lead on AI today, DeepSeek shows that our lead is not wide and is narrowing. The AI Action Plan should ensure that American-led AI prevails over CCP-led AI, securing both American leadership on AI and a brighter future for all Americans,” OpenAI’s head of global policy, Christopher Lehane, wrote in a memo. Google meanwhile called for weakened copyright restrictions on training AI and “balanced” export controls that would protect national security without strangling American companies.
Xiaomeng Lu, the director of geo-technology at the Eurasia Group, said invoking Chinese AI models was a “competitive play” from OpenAI.
“OpenAI is threatened by DeepSeek and other open-source models that put pressure on the company to lower prices and innovate better,” she said. “Sam [Altman] likely wants the US government’s aid in wider access to data, export restrictions, and government procurement to boost its own market position.”
Laura Caroli, a senior fellow of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed. “Despite DeepSeek’s problems in safety and privacy, the real point is … OpenAI feels threatened by DeepSeek’s ability to build powerful open-source models at lower costs,” she said. “They use the national security narrative to advance their commercial goals.”
Civil liberties and national security concerns
Civil liberties groups painted a more dire picture of what could happen if Trump pursues an AI strategy that does not attempt to place guardrails on the development of this technology.
“Automating important decisions about people is reckless and dangerous,” said Corynne McSherry, legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group submitted its own response to the government on March 13. McSherry told GZERO it criticized tech companies for ignoring “serious and well-documented risks of using AI tools for consequential decisions about housing, employment, immigration, access to benefits” and more.
There are also important national security measures that might be ignored by the Trump administration if it removes all regulations governing AI.
“I agree that maintaining US leadership in AI is a national security imperative,” said Cole McFaul, research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, which also submitted a response that focused on securing American leadership in AI while mitigating risks and better competing with China. “OpenAI’s RFI response includes a call to ban the use of PRC-trained models. I agree with a lot of what they proposed, but I worry that some of Washington’s most influential AI policy advocates are also those with the most to gain.”
But even with corporate influence in Washington, it’s a confusing time to try to navigate the AI landscape with so many nascent regulations in Europe, plus changing signals from the White House.
Mia Rendar, an attorney at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, noted that while the government is figuring out how to regulate this emerging technology, businesses are caught in the middle. “We’re at a similar inflection point that we were when GDPR was being put in place,” Rendar said, referring to the European privacy law. “If you’re a multinational company, AI laws are going to follow a similar model – you’ll need to set and maintain standards that meet the most stringent set of obligations.”
How influential is Silicon Valley?
With close allies like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and investor David Sacks in Trump’s orbit, the tech sector’s influence has been hard to ignore. Thus, the final AI Action Plan, expected in July, will show whether Silicon Valley really has pull with the Trump administration — and, specifically, which firms have what kind of sway.
While the administration has already signaled that it will be hands-off in regulating AI, it’s unclear what path Trump will take in helping American-made AI companies, sticking it to China, and signaling to the rest of the world that the United States is, in fact, the global leader on AI.