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Ilya Tsukanov<\/p>\n
The Basics<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong> The Stargate Project is a privately financed plan to build 500,000-sq-ft AI data centers (10 under construction, 10 more to come), and grow from there, pending support from Donald Trump on the regulatory front.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong> Its leading tech and financial players include Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI, Larry Ellison\u2019s Oracle, Japan\u2019s SoftBank, and Emirati sovereign wealth fund MGX. ARM, Nvidia, and Microsoft are also involved.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong> Further details are sketchy, aside from an FT report revealing that the project will serve OpenAI\u2019s interests exclusively, and OpenAI\u2019s statement on looking forward to the creation of artificial general intelligence \u2013 the Holy Grail of human-like cognitive capabilities in machines.<\/p>\n Altman and Ellison\u2019s involvement are major warning signs.<\/p>\n Altman is on the record as a proponent of a transhumanist \u201cmerge\u201d of human beings and machines. In 2017, he\u00a0predicted<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe singularity\u201d would take place between 2025-2075, and that superhuman AI, genetic enhancement and brain-machine interfaces were an inevitability.<\/p>\n \u201cMore important than that, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen, genetic enhancement is going to happen, and brain-machine interfaces are going to happen. It is a failure of human imagination and human arrogance to assume that we will never build things smarter than ourselves,\u201d he wrote at the time.<\/p>\n He\u2019s is also an advocate of “AI agents” acting on human beings\u2019 behalf online via the\u00a0controversial World ID concept<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for Ellison, the 80-year-old tech billionaire’s controversial views are well-known. Last year, he\u00a0touted<\/a>\u00a0omnipresent AI cameras keeping citizens \u201con their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that\u2019s going on\u201d\u00a0as a good thing<\/em>, and has been a proponent of national and digital IDs\u00a0since 9\/11<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have supervision,\u201d he said last September, assuring this would apply to authorities like police officers as well (feigning ignorance of the probability of a Robocop-style\u00a04th directive<\/a>\u00a0preventing machines from arresting owners engaged in criminal behavior).<\/p>\n Ellison is also an\u00a0advocate<\/a>\u00a0of AI-driven mRNA cancer vaccines, announcing at Stargate’s rollout this week that artificial intelligence could help identify cancer via blood testing followed by gene therapy.<\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s involvement in the project is also troubling, with the company already planning to commit\u00a0$80 billion<\/a>\u00a0for its own separate AI data centers to train and deploy cloud-based AI worldwide.<\/p>\n A 2024 report by\u00a0Business Insider<\/em>\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0real-life supervillain Bill Gates<\/a>\u00a0remains heavily involved in Microsoft\u2019s AI strategies, from its decision to help OpenAI grow to support for Altman\u2019s AI Agent idea.<\/p>\n However, there\u2019s a hitch in Altman\u2019s development plans, with FT\u2019s revelations that Stargate is an\u00a0OpenAI investment vehicle disguised as a national project<\/a>, combined with Altman\u2019s very public feud with fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk following the initiative’s announcement, signaling trouble.<\/p>\n According to Musk, SoftBank has actually secured less than $10 billion for Stargate so far. Altman assures that\u2019s not the case, and accuses Musk of letting private interests get in the way of \u201cwhat is great for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk, who has integrated narrow AI across his business empire, from Tesla\u2019s autopilot to the AI chatbot Grok, has a\u00a0long-outstanding grudge against Altman<\/a>\u00a0(including a 2024 lawsuit accusing OpenAI of violating its mission statement by putting profits over humanity).<\/p>\n He\u2019s also\u00a0expressed fears<\/a>\u00a0of a 10-20% chance of AI wiping out humanity (although AI safety researcher Roman Yampolskiy says it\u2019s more like\u00a099.999999%<\/a>).<\/p>\n Naysayers of projects like Stargate argue that without regulation and left in the hands of corporations and the military-industrial complex, powerful AI systems will quickly become a tool for\u00a0round-the-clock surveillance<\/a>, signing off on military\u00a0war crimes<\/a>, and the implementation of social credit score systems\u00a0long feared<\/a>\u00a0by sci-fi.<\/p>\n Besides the major political and philosophical concerns and risks, Stargate also faces some everyday concerns, from the\u00a0massive gamble<\/a>\u00a0it represents to investors in the financial sense, to issues relating to the power-hungry project\u00a0straining the US energy grid<\/a>, not to mention AI centers\u2019 obscene levels of\u00a0water usage<\/a>.<\/p>\nRed Flags<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can It Be Stopped?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Screenshot of viral feud between OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk.<\/h5>\nDown-to-Earth Problems May Also Plague Project<\/strong><\/h2>\n