Vinod Khosla, founder and partner of Khosla Ventures and recently a prominent investor who was one of the first to check out OpenAI, spoke in an interview Monday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 focused on the future of AI. I got distracted. After speaking about the future and risks of AI, he took a moment to issue a stark warning about the upcoming US election and what's at stake for this country.
In short, “our democracy is definitely at stake,” he said, along with other harsh words for Trump supporters, including Elon Musk.
“can't believe it [Musk is] We support someone with corrupt values like Trump,” Khosla told the conference audience. “I can't imagine anyone who cares about 'values' voting for Trump,” he continued. “He's a very corrupt person, I can't even imagine it. But clearly Mr. Trump is tapping into a very real vein of grievance.”
The intensity of his remarks caused murmurs of surprise, laughter, and scattered applause to ripple through the audience of mostly entrepreneurs.
The investor went on to explain why he believes the US is in the position it is in, saying that when dissatisfaction is great enough, people tend to believe something or rely on their own “set of facts.” He said there is.
He pointed to misinformation that has recently spread about FEMA in the wake of devastating hurricanes that hit multiple U.S. states, stating that FEMA is not allowing funds provided by the U.S. government to actually be transferred elsewhere. He pointed out that he had made a false claim that he was there.
Khosla pointed out that the lack of a shared set of facts is the cause of this type of misinformation. He brought up President Trump's claims about a “stolen” election as another example of this problem.
“If you say so, [stolen]I don’t want to talk about it too much because I’m not sharing the facts,” the investor said.
Khosla also blamed Elon Musk in particular for helping spread this type of misinformation on X. (Or, as Khosla put it, “I still call it Twitter,” referring to Twitter.)
After crediting Musk with entrepreneurship such as electric cars and “catching a rocket with chopsticks,” Musk said, “All of Trump's depravity, that he is a convicted felon. I could go on and on about how shameful the billionaire was for ignoring the fact that he was convicted of rape in 2013. And more,” Khosla said bitterly.
He noted how Musk helped spread Trump's misinformation, including his bizarre claim that immigrants eat pets.
“How ridiculous can it get? I don't know how to communicate in that respect,” Khosla said. “I don't know what the correct objection is.”
Of course, Mr. Khosla has been at odds with Mr. Musk in public, and not just on the topic of the upcoming election. The two sides have fought over land-use issues, with Mr. Musk challenging him over making a previously public beach parking lot private property, for example.
(When asked if Musk's recent actions influenced his choices, Khosla said, “I bought a Tesla before Elon went crazy.”)
Criticisms of Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump aside, Mr. Khosla said the U.S. election may not have much of an impact, especially on the technology industry.
“I don't know where their policies differ,” he said, referring to both the right and the left.
“It's going to change how we tax people, how we distribute wealth, what we do for the bottom 50 percent of this country. It's going to be very different for them.” said Khosla.