Welcome to the Techmeme Ride Home for Thursday, November 7, 2024, I'm Brian McCulloch today, more in-depth analysis of what the Trump victory might mean for Silicon Valley and Elon Musk's companies in particular. Canadian regulators going after TikTok, Australia wants to make sure no one uses social media until their 16th, France is aware of Polymarket and the reviews of all the new Macs. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.
Okay, more election details for the tech industry. This time with a heavy Elon Musk flavor today. The Times is reporting that before Trump's victory, Elon Musk asked him to hire SpaceX staff as top government officials, including the Department of Defense, a sign of the benefits Musk may reap after he had a close association with the former president over the last few months of the election. So it's almost like what Musk did with Twitter, bringing in a bunch
of people from his other companies to get things in line. This time, though, with the government, quote, the outreach regarding the SpaceX employees, which hasn't been reported, shows the extent to which Mr. Musk wants to fill a potential Trump administration with his closest confidants, and asks his billions of dollars in government contracts pose a conflict to any government
role. Mr. Musk and executives at SpaceX and Tesla, his electric vehicle company, did not respond on Wednesday request for comment, a spokesperson for Mr. Trump's transition team, also did not respond to a request for comment. The six companies that Mr. Musk oversees are deeply entangled with federal agencies. They make billions off contracts to launch
rockets, build satellites, and provide space-based communication services. Tesla makes hundreds of millions more from emissions trading credits created by federal law, and Mr. Musk's companies are facing at least 20 recent investigations, including one targeting a self-driving car technology that Tesla considers key to its future. Now, Mr. Musk will have the ear of the president who oversees all of those agencies. Mr. Musk could even gain the power to oversee
them himself. If Mr. Trump follows through on a promise to appoint him as head of a government efficiency commission, Mr. Trump has told Mr. Musk that he wants him to bring the same scalpel to the federal government that he brought to Twitter after he bought the company and rebranded it as X. Mr. Musk has spoken of cutting at least $2 trillion from the federal
budget. And further to that end, Kurt Wagner at Bloomberg makes a compelling point. Did Elon overpay for Twitter after all since he turned his feed into a Trump-inspired billboard for his 200 million plus followers? Further, ingratiating himself to the next administration, now looks like maybe that was the deal of this century. So it's become what maybe he wanted all along, a major media platform for his views. Quote, the general belief that Musk was
fleeced when he bought Twitter. Now X was flipped on its head this week thanks to Trump's win. The US election highlighted a stark reality that has existed for X since well before Musk ever arrived on the scene. The social networks value is almost impossible to measure because the product's impact on culture and politics is significantly more meaningful
than the size of its business. Musk may be losing money, driving away advertisers and eroding the company's paper value, but it turns out X still holds a significant place in the world of American politics. It appears as though Musk is finally caching in on what the Wall Street Journal reported was, quote, the worst buyout for banks since the financial crisis. There's no way to quantify the impact X had in this week's US presidential election.
I just know that it felt significant. X's vocal Trump supporting owner did everything he could to get at real Donald Trump reelected. Now comes the payoff. There's a long list of ways that Trump's presidency could eventually benefit Musk's constellation of companies. From friendly regulatory moves to government contracts, there is no doubt that Musk will
benefit greatly from Trump's new slash old job. That boon should extend to X2. Again, those benefits will be hard to quantify, but the last time Trump was in the White House Twitter was more relevant and consequential than at any other point in the company's history. Both Trump returns to his policy by tweeting tendencies X will be at the center of the global political universe for years. And unlike last time, Trump won't need to worry about how
the company will police his account. He's free to say whatever he wants and will most likely hear an echo from Musk in the process. And, quote, and finally, from the times Kevin
Rousse looks at what a Trump victory means for tech writ large. He agrees with me that it feels like the antitrust temperature will be turned way down, except for maybe Google, a safe bet that in a second Trump administration, the crypto industry will get most of what it wants in Washington, starting with the removal of Gary Gensler, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has become a villain among crypto companies for his tough
regulation efforts. Crypto companies that were being sued or investigated under the Biden administration may see those cases dropped under a Trump administration and a pro crypto voice is likely to hold sway when it comes time to write new rules for the industry. Crypto prices could go to the moon as a result. Already Bitcoin prices are spiking Tuesday night
on the news of Mr. Trump's strong early returns. And the investors and crypto executives who poured millions of dollars into electing Mr. Trump and other pro crypto candidates are likely to feel that they got their money's worth. Neither Mr. Trump nor Ms. Harris said much about artificial intelligence on the campaign trail, but it's a safe bet that AI
progress will continue under a second Trump administration and might even speed up. Some of the tech elites who supported Mr. Trump, including the venture capitalist Mark Andreessen, are associated with the accelerationist wing of the AI movement and have opposed any AI regulations that could slow down the industry. To be honest, I bet against Mr. Trump's spending much time thinking about AI at all, he might delegate it to Mr. Vance, who
does seem to have interest in the subject. But to the extent Mr. Trump's views on AI will be shaped by the people in his orbit. It's likely to be in the direction of encouraging American tech companies to race ahead of rivals in China and elsewhere and removing regulatory roadblocks that might get in their way. Interestingly, Mr. Musk is a bit of a wild card when it comes
to AI. He runs an AI company XAI that would benefit from light touch regulation. But he also worries about existential risk from AI and supported a controversial California bill that would have imposed safety standards on AI models, which many AI companies opposed. Mr. Trump and his allies are likely to get rid of anyone associated with the Biden administration's
anti-trust battles with the big Silicon Valley tech companies. Already, Mr. Musk has said Lena Khan, the head of the Federal Trade Commission, who spearheaded the agency's cases against companies like Amazon and Metta will be fired. You'd also expect Mr. Trump to clear out the Justice Department and replace the enforcers responsible for bringing cases against companies like Apple. The one tech giant that may not benefit from a changing of the anti-trust guard
is Google. Pro Trump conservatives, including JD Vance, have been angry at Google for years. They have claimed, without much evidence, that the company is biased against conservatives and Mr. Trump supported efforts to break it up during his first term. These days, the company is regularly cast as a punching bag and right-wing culture wars, even for issues such as whether its AI systems can generate racially accurate images of historical figures, and
it hasn't been as adept at lobbying Republicans as some of its peers. It's going to be a hard four years for Google and Washington, no matter how many courtesy calls are made by Sundar Pachai, the company's chief executive. One tech company that may be toasting Mr. Trump's victory is Bite Dance, the Chinese conglomerate that owns TikTok. Under the TikTok ban bill that was passed by Congress and signed into law this year, Bite Dance was supposed to
sell off TikTok's US operations by January or face a nationwide ban. That probably won't happen now because Mr. Trump, who spent much of his first term in office trying to ban TikTok, changed his mind this year, reportedly after an intense lobbying effort by a major Bite Dance investor. Since then, he has pledged to save TikTok in the United
States. Mr. Trump can't repeal a law without Congress and TikTok could lose its appeals in court, so there's still a chance a TikTok ban might go into effect, but Mr. Trump could simply refuse to enforce it or otherwise make good on his pledge to leave the company alone. But hold up their TikTok Canada is ordering TikTok's business in that country to be dissolved, citing national security concerns, but also saying it does not intend to block
Canadians' access to the app. TikTok plans to appeal, of course, quoting Reuters. The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to Bite Dance operations in Canada through the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. Innovation Minister Francois Philippe Champagne said in a statement, Ottawa last year began reviewing TikTok's plan to invest and expand its business in Canada. Bite Dance is TikTok's
Chinese parent company. Under Canadian law, the government can assess potential risks to national security from foreign investments, such as the TikTok proposal. The law prevents the government from revealing the details of such investments. The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada security and intelligence communities and other government partners Champagne added.
TikTok said it will challenge the order in court, shutting down TikTok's Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone's best interest. And today's shutdown order will do just that. A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement, Canada has banned the TikTok app from government-issued devices saying it presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.
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How many times do I quote from the Washington Post in a given month on this show, easily into the dozens, right? They're one of our most referred to sources. Well, this podcast is sponsored by the Washington Post. When you go to Washingtonpost.com slash ride, my listeners can get an exclusive deal to subscribe to the Washington Post for just 50 cents per
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for your first year. And this sounds a tad extreme. Australia plans to introduce legislation that would ban children under the age of 16 from using social media, not exempting those already with accounts or those with parental consent, quoting ABC news. The government had previously committed to introducing the legislation that would get kids off social media by the end of the year, but earlier suggested it would not announce a specific cutoff age until after a trial of verification technology.
Prime Minister Anthony Albinay is also confirmed on Thursday that the proposed legislation would not include grandfathering arrangements, meaning young people already on social media would not be exempt, nor would it allow for exemptions due to parental consent. A virtual national cabinet meeting will be held on Friday to discuss the changes where states and
territory leaders will be asked to support the policy. Labor's decision to back the higher cutoff age comes after the coalition announced it would support a minimum age of 16 earlier this year. The changes would come into force a year after the legislation is passed by parliament. Mr. Albinay's told reporters and there will be a review of
the rules after they commence under the proposed changes. Social media companies will bear the onus of enforcing the age limit rather than parents and there would be no penalties for users as for what social media platforms would be included in the legislation. Ms. Roland said platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and YouTube would likely
fall within that definition. I'm not trying to editorialize here though maybe I am, but my gut for why this feels a tad much to me is best summed up by this tweet from James Ball. Quote, banning teenagers from doing stuff is always very effective. And 16-year-olds suddenly arriving on social media with no phased or supervised introduction to it will definitely work out brilliantly. And more regulatory stuff. Remember how we discussed yesterday
the seeming validation of betting markets in the selection year? Well, Francis gambling regulator says it is quote, aware of polymarket and is quote, currently examining its operation and compliance. Quoting Bloomberg, the scrutiny comes after a suit anonymous trader identified by polymarket as a French national made large bets on the platform in favor of Donald
Trump winning the race. The trader known as the user name Freddie 999 is expected to haul in a profit of around $48 million on the bets across four known accounts calculations by Bloomberg news show online gambling is tightly regulated in France, although betting
on sports and in poker games is permitted operating any new gambling market is subject to prior authorization from the A&J according to a government website trading on New York based polymarket skyrocketed this year as the race for the White House drew in betters wagers on which candidate would be the next president. It's most popular market produced almost $3.7 billion in volume according to polymarket data throughout the final months of the
campaign. Polymarket's odds on a Trump win were consistently above those in regular polls. Polymarket isn't available to us users following a 2022 settlement with the US commodity features trading commission in which the platform was accused of providing illegal gambling services.
Despite that, American traders flocked to its election markets Bloomberg reported earlier this year in practice polymarket system for blocking us users can be circumvented by using virtual private networks and social media is full of instructions on how to do that.
Finally today the reviews are out for all the new max and we can't do all of them in depth obviously so I'm just gonna quote the concluding paragraphs for all the various reviews hit the links if you want to read the full reviews for all of the devices first from Engaget on the
Mac mini with the M4 Pro. If you're looking for a basic and a dorkly small Mac desktop the $599 Mac mini will likely be all you need and if you're looking to do a bit more serious work and can't justify the $1,999 Mac studio the 1399 model is a decent value compared to PC workstations
just be prepared to stomach Apple's upgrade prices you'll have to spend an additional $400 just to get 32 gigabytes of RAM on the base mini and another 400 to get a one terabyte SSD that's wildly out of step with prices outside of the Apple ecosystem where you can easily find a
decent one terabyte SSD under $100 that said unlike a laptop connecting a cheap but capacious external drive to the mini is a more viable option and quote from the verge on the 14 inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip quote the entry level MacBook Pro doesn't really feel like a compromise the
base configuration has enough memory and storage to be actually worth considering and it has all the ports and creature comforts of the higher end pros even the nano texture screen upgrade feels worth it for the first time in a long time it actually feels like a pro and quote then we have
in gadget on the 16 inch MacBook Pro quote there's no doubt these new MacBook Pros are compelling especially if you need the raw power of the M4 Pro or conceivably the M4 Max if you're running an M1 MacBook Pro or still trekking along with an Intel model you'll definitely see some notable
performance gains from these machines but if you've got an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro the M4 hardware is less of a qualitative leap you're probably better off waiting for the eventual OLED refresh which is rumored to happen in 2026 and quote finally Tom's guide on the new iMacs quote while I wish Apple
had done more to make the iMac m4 the ideal family PC I know it can be it's hard to complain about an updated version of one of the best all in ones on the market the upgrade to an m4 chip doesn't usually improve the iMac m4 over the old m3 model or change what it's capable of but it does
deliver great performance the bump up to 16 gigabytes of RAM minimum is a good one for consumers as 8 gigabytes just doesn't cut it for most work in 2024 and while you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the 12 megapixel webcam on this model and the old 1080p webcam on the old iMac m3
it's nice to get access to the desk view feature ultimately I can't help feeling like Apple didn't go far enough when improving the iMac for 2024 I'm grateful for the under the hood upgrades and the improved camera but overall it feels like a shuffling half step forward when I was hoping for a giant leap and quote nothing more for you today talk to you tomorrow