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Stargate, A.I., cancer vaccine, these three phrases dominated, the past week’s social media news cycle and they all fit together as part of the same conversation even though they have been reported somewhat separately depending on what the journalist or influencer themselves have latched onto.

Public Private Partnership?

Upon the announcement of Stargate, I immediately thought “there it is” a public private partnership using taxpayers to fund the A.I. race. The initial press conference itself was a bit unclear and lacking in details… details that matter at least. The headlines following the announcement read “Trump’s $500 billion A.I. infrastructure plan,” leaving the investment details pointing to President Trump himself, which ultimately points back to the American people. The questions started pulling up in my head, like, “shouldn’t this have cleared Congress?”

However, after some careful listening it appears that financially we, the American taxpayer are not bound… at least directly. But, it still remains a public private partnership, in some ways.

What is STARGATE?

Three, “world leading technology giants,” are coming together to form a new company: Stargate. The three tech giants being, Masayoshi Son ‘Masa’ of SoftBank, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Sam Altman of OpenAI.

These “tech giants” are the investors. Though the headlines have pointed to a $500 billion investment, ‘Masa’ announced at the press conference that he would start with a $100 billion initial investment. The $500 billion actually refers to the total goal investment over the next four years. He also clarified that MGX would be an additional investing partner.

Trump stated, he will help “a lot” through “emergency declarations” to, from my understanding, help push through permits for energy infrastructure on the basis that China is a major competitor. In other words, we want the USA to win the A.I. race and emerge as the leader in this new technology, therefore getting infrastructure built and powered is emergent according to the President.

I have many questions on the energy side of things. It has been interesting the last several years watching the tech sector hypocritically push the “green agenda” and A.I. simultaneously. One thing is for sure, it won’t be wind and solar powering these data centers, they won’t be capable.

 

‘Masa’ also cited NVIDIA and Microsoft as additional technology partners on the project. Trump touted more money… a lot more money coming in from other investors. Essentially nodding to himself as the one who brought together the people to back and fund the project that will theoretically allow for the United States to lead the way with A.I., instead of competing countries, namely, China.

The data centers themselves are already underway. In the recent White House press conference we were told, construction on 10 buildings in Abilene, Texas, each a half a million square feet, is started with plans to expand to 20 buildings and at different locations.

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“Project Ludicrous”

According to an article in Business Insider, Project Ludicrous, is the name filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for the Stargate project. Construction on the first building started in June 2024. As a side note, ludicrous means absurd, laughable or foolish.

Concerns have been raised about the three men who are coming together to form Stargate.

Larry Ellison openly expressed his excitement about a “cancer vaccine.” Digging deeper, he’s also, in the past expressed his excitement for (paraphrasing) a surveillance state.

Sam Altman stated that he was “thrilled to be a part” of this venture as he thinks it will be “the most important project of this era.” Also stating his belief that as this technology progresses we will see disease be cured at an “unprecedented rate.” Outside of the White House press conference announcing Stargate, Altman can be found saying things like, “in some sense, the history of science has been humans becoming less and less at the center” and that “over a long period of time, I still expect that there will be some change required to the social contract given how powerful we expect this technology to be … the structure of society itself will be up for some degree of debate and reconfiguration.”

Masayoshi Son says AGI “will come very very soon … but that’s not the goal … artificial super-intelligence will come to solve the issues that mankind never ever thought we could solve.” He’s previously predicted that artificial super intelligence will be 10,000 times smarter than a human brain and will exist by 2035.

Disappointment, Faith & Trust

There are a lot of “takes” regarding Trump standing behind the creation of “Stargate” floating around the internet, most of them fit into one of the following two categories.

  1. Disappointment: Many were disappointed, feeling that Trump broke promises by aligning with big tech potentially (likely) ushering in a nefarious agenda and along with it allowing mRNA again to be a highlighted means of trying to achieve health outcomes.
  2. Faith and Trust:  Others believe that these “tech giants” are up to no good but that Trump knows exactly what he’s doing and is only putting them on display to “shine light” in dark places. I actually heard someone say, “like he did with Fauci.”

I don’t agree with either… here’s my take:

Remember Mark Zuckerberg’s 180 degree turn around after “taking the cultural pulse?” His decision, as I said, was not so much about saving face as it was getting himself in position to benefit from the America First agenda that Trump brings. America First to techies like Zuckerberg and the rest means America First in A.I.

Don’t misunderstand, I am the last person you’d find excited about the A.I. race. I hate the thought of A.I. as future… but it’s happening whether any of us like it or not.

The writing was on the wall. Trump aligned with Musk, Zuckerberg openly discussed his hopes for the government partnering to push American tech companies to the front with A.I. and Trump in general having an America First agenda, it was no secret that there would be some endeavor to “win” with A.I.

Other countries are advancing with the technology, it will be used for everything from writing an email to national defense. How do we allow other countries to move forward without also doing so… without making it a national security issue? I hesitate to add this but this scenario stirs up thoughts of the Manhattan Project.

Even though I personally don’t align with an agenda that does anything to aid advancement of artificial intelligence or augmented reality on any level, I expected a move and am not disappointed by it as I, unfortunately, cannot see a way around it.

As far as Trump putting evil in the spotlight as a way of cleaning house… that’s, in my opinion, wishful thinking. From where I stand, that line of thinking takes a lot of squinting to see something that is not there.

Some things are just as they seem.

A.I. is inevitable. Trump wants American companies to outdo China. He is lining things up to make that happen. Right or wrong, he isn’t spending time weighing the moral and philosophical implications of this leap. Economic matters and winning are the focus.

It’s on us as concerned citizens to keep watch of what advancement in A.I will usher in with it, decide what we accept and reject when it comes to it’s use and encroachment on our everyday lives, call on Congress to start passing legislation on A.I. ethics (how has this not happened yet) and not let the fast news cycle move us to forget Stargate exists.

Additional reading:

A.I. leaders clash over safety and $100 billion

A battle for the future

 

Rita

Rita

Rita is a former Cardiovascular ICU nurse living a simple homeschool, 'homemade' farm life in Central Illinois with her husband, Levi, two daughters and son.

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