Elon Musk offers $1 million a day to entice swing state voters to sign petition
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024.
Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters
Elon Musk said Saturday that he would randomly award $1 million a day to registered voters who sign a petition for his pro-Trump political action committee in an effort to get his fans in swing states to the polls.
Speaking at an America PAC event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Musk said, “I have a surprise for you,” adding that the prize money is available “every day from now until the election.”
Musk then called up a man named John Dreher, who he said was one of the petition signees in attendance, and handed him a giant check.
“I think think is kind of fun, and you know, it seems like a good use of money basically,” said the Tesla CEO, who is worth almost $250 billion.
Musk, who is also CEO of defense contractor SpaceX and owner of social media platform X, embarked on a speaking tour in Pennsylvania to drive voter registration in his support of the Republican nominee. He called the state the “linchpin” in this election.
“How Pennsylvania goes I think is how the election goes,” Musk said.
The deadline to sign the petition is Monday night, which is the day Pennsylvania’s voter registration closes. The petition, posted on the America PAC website, said that to be eligible for payments, signees “must be registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.”
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and NBC news election law analyst, said in a blog post that Musk’s initiative appears to be a violation of federal election laws, specifically one that says a person who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
“Certain things in this country can be sold, and certain things we have decided should not be for sale,” Hasen told CNBC in an interview. “Congress has determined you should not be able to sell your vote to the highest bidder, and we should not have the political process distorted by people with the most wealth who may try to get you to vote in a certain way.”
CNBC reached out to Musk and one of his advisors for comment, but they didn’t respond.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said Musk’s plan to give money to registered voters in his state is “deeply concerning” and “it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.”
Floating conspiracy theories
At pro-Trump events, Musk has pushed debunked voter fraud conspiracies, called for deregulation, and repeatedly characterized President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s rival, as replaceable “puppets.”
“No one’s even bothering to try to kill Kamala, you know, because there’s no point,” Musk said on Saturday, repeating a line he’s used in the past that caught the attention of the secret service. “I’m not suggesting someone should try to kill her, it would be pointless, but I’m just saying. I’m just making an observation.”
Musk said in his appearances that he views many government agencies and regulations in the U.S. as ineffective and unnecessary. Trump has taken up an idea floated by Musk to create a government efficiency commission, and said the tech magnate would be a big part of the commission.
“We should not trust the government, really. We just shouldn’t,” Musk said Harrisburg. “Even if I’m in the government, don’t trust the government.”
While Musk’s companies have long relied on government spending and support, he’s berated the Federal Communications Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries for holding SpaceX back.
“We get crazy things,” Musk said, “like SpaceX got fined $140,000 for dumping potable drinking water on the ground at Starbase.”
As CNBC previously reported, SpaceX has repeatedly discharged hot, industrial wastewater into the wetlands surrounding the company’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, which the EPA found was a Clean Water Act violation.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Clipper spacecraft sits on launch pad 39A before the launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024.
Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images
Musk mocked NOAA Fisheries for asking SpaceX to conduct a study to predict how its rockets could impact sharks and whales if they fall into the ocean.
“I’m like, it’s a big ocean, you know, there’s a lot of sharks. It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely,” Musk said. The agency’s mission is to “conserve America’s coastal and marine resources.”
Musk’s animosity towards President Biden picked up in 2021, when the White House declined to invite Tesla to an electric vehicle summit.
“You know, Tesla’s about 140,000 people — it’s like there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears from people working hard to make great electric cars,” Musk said on Saturday. “To be could-shouldered like that for no reason. It’s like, what’s the deal?”
Musk has long battled unions, and Tesla was charged with union-busting before the EV summit. Biden has maintained a pro-labor platform throughout his presidency.
One attendee in Harrisburg asked Musk if he believed that self-driving cars should eventually be mandatory if they can perform more safely in traffic than human drivers. Tesla has promised customers a “robotaxi” for years, but never produced one.
Musk suggested he was against anything federally mandated.
“We should just get the government out of things and let the market figure it out,” he said. “I’m generally against government. With that, I’d like to thank you all for coming. It’s been an honor to speak with you.”
Musk only mentioned Trump sparingly throughout the evening, and didn’t discuss his policies or record as president in any detail.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
Anindito Mukherjee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google has been moderating and removing employees’ internal election-related conversations, CNBC has learned.
Ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. elections, Google executives warned employees to keep political opinions and statements away from a popular internal discussion forum called Memegen, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. Despite the warnings, employees continued posting memes related to the election and criticizing the company’s policies on Tuesday.
The most recent leadership guidance shows the company is taking expanded action to temper internal political discussions. Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday sent a memo reminding employees that people turn to the company’s services for “high-quality and reliable information.” That includes through the company’s Google Search, Google News and YouTube services.
“Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief,” Pichai wrote. “We will and must maintain that.”
As one of the most important tech leaders in the U.S., Pichai himself has been pulled into the broader political discussions of late. Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed to have multiple phone calls with Pichai in recent weeks.
Google has been cracking down on internal conversations since 2019 when the company introduced a policy barring employees from making statements that “insult, demean, or humiliate” their colleagues. The rules also discouraged employees from engaging in a “raging debate over politics or the latest news story.”
That policy signaled a significant culture shift for the company. Some employees pushed back against the restrictions, saying they were too broad, and in 2020, the company said it was expanding its internal content moderation practices, requiring employees to more actively moderate internal discussions, CNBC found at the time.
Since 2021, Google has dealt with internal dissent regarding Project Nimbus, which is a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and AI services. Google briefly shut down an internal message board this March after employees posted comments about the company’s Nimbus contract.
In a 2019 settlement, the U.S. National Labor Board ordered Google to post a list of employee rights at its headquarters that included the right to discuss workplace conditions. That came after a former Google employee filed a complaint alleging that the company restricted free speech and fired him for expressing conservative views, which Google refuted.
The company declined to comment.
Banning political discussions
Google announced more updates to its Memegen guidelines in September that included broadening the forum’s restrictions against political discussions, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. The company also said it would ban employees from the platform if they violate policies three times, and Google said that it would also also use artificial intelligence technology to better detect violative content.
“Memegen will no longer allow posting of personal political opinions, including national policy/events, geopolitical content (eg, international relations, military conflicts, economic actions, territorial disputes, and other international affairs unrelated to Google), or sharing related news with or without commentary,” one document said.
Political debates have driven the “vast majority” of content removals, one document of the expanded policies said.
“Memegen isn’t a place for personal political opinions or statements,” reads a yellow banner that Google recently added at the top of Memegen, according to images viewed by CNBC.
One employee wrote that Google’s internal community management team, or ICMT, took down their meme, which they didn’t feel was violative. Many memes viewed by CNBC included messages such as “sending support” and “encouragement” to fellow employees. Others poked fun at the company’s expanded policy and the ICMT.
“This meme is a political statement please report to ICMT immediately,” one meme said. Another read: “Make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.” Another meme just said “aaaaaaaa” overlaid on a black void.
Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s full memo to employees below
Hi Googlers,
Tomorrow is election day here and many in the U.S. will be heading to the polls to vote for everything from school board to judges to the Congress and President.
Teams across Google and YouTube have been working hard to make sure our platforms provide voters with high-quality and reliable information, just as we’ve done for so many other elections around the world — in fact, dozens of countries have held major, hotly contested elections this year, from France to India to the UK to Mexico and many more, with well over a billion people casting votes in 2024.
We should be proud of our work, and also of our teams’ efforts to keep campaigns secure, to deliver accurate information on where and how to vote, and to provide digital advertising solutions to campaigns. Thanks to everyone working around the clock on these efforts throughout the campaign season and as votes are tallied.
As with other elections, the outcome will be a major topic of conversation in living rooms and other places around the world. And of course, the outcome will have important consequences. Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief. We will and must maintain that. In that spirit, it’s important that everyone continue to follow our Community Guidelines and Personal Political Activity Policy.
Beyond election day, our work to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful will continue. Al has given us a profound opportunity to make progress on that mission, build great products and partnerships, drive innovation, and make significant contributions to national and local economies. Our company is at its best when we’re focused on that.
Thanks,
Sundar
WATCH: Google: More than a quarter of new code is now AI-generated
Perplexity AI logo is seen in this illustration taken January 4, 2024.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Perplexity AI, the artificial-intelligence search engine startup, is in the final stages of raising $500 million in funding at a $9 billion valuation, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC.
The startup competes against the likes of Google and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Perplexity most recent valuation was $3 billion in June. Institutional Venture Partners, a Bay Area-based firm, is leading the new round, according to the source, who requested anonymity since the funding is not yet public.
Perplexity started the year with a roughly $500 million valuation. Since then, the company has continued to attract investor interest amid the generative AI boom, raising four funding rounds so far this year.
Last week, OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positioned it to better compete with Perplexity, as well as leading search engines like Google and Microsoft‘s Bing. OpenAI’s search feature offers up-to-the-minute sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, powered by real-time web search and partnerships with news and data providers, according to the company.
Despite the AI boom, Perplexity has been embroiled in controversy due to accusations of plagiarizing content from media outlets. The New York Times last month sent Perplexity a “cease and desist” notice, claiming that the startup scrapes the news outlet’s content to generate answers. Perplexity has denied the allegations.
In July, Perplexity debuted a revenue-sharing model for publishers. Any time a user asks a question and Perplexity generates ad revenue from citing an article in its answer, Perplexity will share a percentage of that revenue with the publisher, the company said.
Media outlets and content platforms including Fortune, Time, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel and WordPress were among the first to join the company’s “Publishers Program.” Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, told CNBC in a July interview that if three articles from one publisher were used in one answer, the partner would receive “triple the revenue share.” Perplexity worked on its revenue-sharing model since January, and the company’s goal is to have 30 publishers enrolled by the end of the year, Shevelenko said.
Perplexity’s app has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and it answers more than 230 million queries a month, the company said in August. U.S. queries have increased eightfold in the past year, according to a pitch deck for potential advertisers that was viewed by CNBC.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the new funding round.
WATCH: Perplexity unveils AI election hub: Here’s what you need to know
Technology
Bitcoin drifts near $69,000 on election night as crypto investors see choppy trading ahead
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway