The downside of getting hundreds of millions from Elon Musk is that it comes from Elon Musk -- part 3

Picking up from here and here.

I didn't mean for this to be a series but I keep coming across more news stories that illustrate the point.

Frank Landymore writing for Futurism:

A new analysis from Guardrails Action, an AI accountability advocacy group, found that voters in key battleground states still harbor mostly negative feelings towards the AI industry, with the tech being such a toxic topic that it’s potentially driving voters to cross the aisle. The survey, reported by Inc, questioned over 3,000 likely voters in Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio — states where close Senate races are unfolding — about their thoughts on AI. AI, the results showed, is a political landmine, with even a whiff of Big Tech money being potentially disastrous for a candidate’s image. Three quarters of the likely voters said that they would be less apt to vote for a candidate if they found out they had accepted a donation from an AI Super PAC. Some felt even more strongly than that. A quarter said they would switch parties to vote for a candidate who took a strong stance against AI companies and data center construction. “We found that the AI Super PACs were more toxic with voters than Wall Street, cryptocurrency or AIPAC,” Charles Blaettler, political director of Guardrails Alliance, a PAC that combats AI spending that the advocacy group is part of, told Inc. “The influence of AI money on elections and politics sits at this nexus of the anxieties that people are feeling about AI, and this increased disgust people have around corruption and special interest money and politics.”