Inside Elon Musk’s Midterm Spending Spree

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Inside Elon Musk’s Midterm Spending Spree

Save this story. This week on Uncanny Valley, Zoë Schiffer and Leah Feiger dive into how Elon Musk’s America PAC is spending millions on the most consequential Senate races of the 2026 midterms—and how most of that money goes to opposing Democrats rather than supporting Republicans. They also break down effective altruism, the once-niche philosophy now at the center of the AI safety debate, and why the Trump administration has called it a dangerous ideology. Plus, they discuss the backlash against the graphic designer who created the logo for Meta’s AI assistant, Muse.

在本周的《恐怖谷》（Uncanny Valley）节目中，Zoë Schiffer 和 Leah Feiger 深入探讨了埃隆·马斯克的“美国政治行动委员会”（America PAC）如何为 2026 年中期选举中最关键的参议院席位投入数百万美元，以及这些资金大部分是如何用于反对民主党人而非支持共和党人的。她们还剖析了“有效利他主义”——这一曾经小众的哲学如今已成为人工智能安全辩论的核心，并解释了为何特朗普政府将其称为一种危险的意识形态。此外，她们还讨论了 Meta AI 助手 Muse 标志设计师所遭遇的强烈抵制。

Leah Feiger: Hey everyone, this is Leah. We wanted to share with you that Uncanny Valley is a finalist for not one or two, but three Signal Awards. The judges pick who wins, but listeners also have a say with the listener’s choice vote. You can go to the links we included in the show notes and vote for us. We promise it takes just a minute and your vote goes a long way. OK, onto the show.

Leah Feiger：大家好，我是 Leah。我们想告诉大家，《恐怖谷》不仅入围了一个或两个，而是三个 Signal 奖项的决赛。获胜者由评委选出，但听众也可以通过“听众选择奖”投票表达意见。大家可以点击我们在节目说明中提供的链接为我们投票。我们保证只需一分钟，而您的投票意义重大。好了，进入节目。

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor. Leah Feiger: And I’m Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. This week we’re doing a deep dive into how Elon Musk’s America PAC has spent millions of dollars to influence some of the most consequential races this midterm season. WIRED has created a tracker to follow America PAC’s support in real time. We’re going to take you through why these races matter and how Musk is throwing Republicans all of this cash.

Zoë Schiffer：欢迎收听《连线》杂志的《恐怖谷》。我是特约编辑 Zoë Schiffer。Leah Feiger：我是政治与科学总监 Leah Feiger。本周，我们将深入探讨埃隆·马斯克的“美国政治行动委员会”如何花费数百万美元来影响本届中期选举中一些最关键的选战。《连线》杂志创建了一个追踪器，以实时监测该委员会的支持动向。我们将带您了解这些选战为何重要，以及马斯克是如何向共和党人投入这些资金的。

Zoë Schiffer: We’re also going to break down the once obscure philosophy that now seems to be everywhere from X threads to The Economist cover, effective altruism. We’ll talk about what this ideology is actually all about, why many AI researchers subscribe to it, and how it has been actively shaping the debate around AI safety.

Zoë Schiffer：我们还将剖析一种曾经鲜为人知、如今却似乎无处不在（从 X 上的讨论帖到《经济学人》封面）的哲学——有效利他主义。我们将探讨这种意识形态的本质，为何许多人工智能研究人员信奉它，以及它如何积极地塑造了关于人工智能安全的辩论。

Leah Feiger: And we’re going to get into why the designer of Meta’s Muse logo has been receiving a ton of backlash. Zoë spoke with her all about it this week and she had a lot to say. Zoë, it’s just me and you this week. We’ve officially pushed Brian off a cliff.

Leah Feiger：我们还将讨论为什么 Meta 的 Muse 标志设计师会受到如此多的抨击。Zoë 本周与她进行了深入交流，她有很多话要说。Zoë，这周只有我们俩。我们正式把 Brian “踢下悬崖”了。

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah, we have. The FaceTime chat has gone live. We will not be talking about any tech conferences this week. Leah Feiger: Absolutely not. But he’ll be back next week. So at the very least, there’s that. OK, Zoë, Elon Musk. He’s back.

Zoë Schiffer：是的，确实如此。FaceTime 聊天已经开始了。我们这周不会谈论任何科技会议。Leah Feiger：绝对不会。但他下周会回来，至少还有这一点值得期待。好了，Zoë，埃隆·马斯克。他又回来了。

Zoë Schiffer: He’s back. He never left for some. Leah Feiger: He never really left, but he is back and so is his wallet. To refresh everyone’s memories a little bit, Musk is the founder and main donor of America PAC, a super PAC that was started in 2024 to help elect President Donald Trump to the White House. They succeeded. Trump is in office. The PAC spent more than $260 million to make that happen.

Zoë Schiffer：他又回来了。对某些人来说，他从未离开过。Leah Feiger：他确实从未真正离开，但他现在又活跃起来了，他的钱包也是。为了帮大家回忆一下，马斯克是“美国政治行动委员会”的创始人和主要捐赠者，这是一个成立于 2024 年的超级政治行动委员会，旨在帮助唐纳德·特朗普总统入主白宫。他们成功了，特朗普现在在任。该委员会为此花费了超过 2.6 亿美元。

This time around for November’s midterms, the PAC has been going about it a little bit differently. WIRED created a live tracker to monitor their donations in real time. You can check it out on the WIRED website. And we learned a lot putting this together. Basically, the PAC is donating to the election’s most consequential races. They are not focusing obviously on the presidential race. There is no presidential race this year. But they are all in on the most critical Senate races in the country that are really going to decide the makeup of Congress next year.

这次 11 月的中期选举，该委员会的策略有所不同。《连线》创建了一个实时追踪器来监控他们的捐款，您可以在《连线》网站上查看。在整理这些数据时，我们学到了很多。基本上，该委员会正在向选举中最关键的选战捐款。显然，他们不再关注总统选举，因为今年没有总统选举。但他们全力投入到全国最关键的参议院选战中，这些选战将真正决定明年国会的构成。

The PAC is primarily pumping money against Democrats as opposed to for Republicans, which is really interesting. For every dollar that America PAC has spent supporting a Republican candidate, more than two have gone to oppose a Democrat. And that only becomes more extreme in some of these Senate races, right? In Texas where several Musk companies are based, the group has spent tons and tons of money attacking Democrat James Talarico. We’re talking like $9 million. Whereas promoting Ken Paxton, around the one million mark.

该委员会主要是投入资金反对民主党人，而不是支持共和党人，这一点非常有趣。“美国政治行动委员会”每花一美元支持共和党候选人，就有超过两美元用于反对民主党人。在某些参议院选战中，这种情况甚至更加极端。在马斯克多家公司所在地德克萨斯州，该组织花费了巨额资金攻击民主党人 James Talarico，金额高达 900 万美元左右，而用于支持 Ken Paxton 的资金仅在 100 万美元左右。

Similar numbers can be found in the Ohio Senate race, in Iowa, really up and down the board. And these races are not random. They represent the path for Democrats to take control of the chamber this November and could open Republicans, Musk included, up to a lot of investigations and regulatory pressure. So this is critical for so many reasons. I’m so excited to talk with you about it. What did you think of the tracker? Did you get a chance to play around with it?

在俄亥俄州和爱荷华州的参议院选战中也能看到类似的数据，几乎遍及各地。这些选战并非随机，它们代表了民主党在今年 11 月夺取参议院控制权的路径，并可能使共和党人（包括马斯克）面临大量的调查和监管压力。因此，这在很多方面都至关重要。我很高兴能和你讨论这个问题。你觉得这个追踪器怎么样？你有机会试用一下吗？

Zoë Schiffer: I did get a chance to play around with it. I was really impressed, not least because you coding something for the internet, an app and web, honestly, groundbreaking. Leah Feiger: I can take zero, zero coding credit. This all goes to our amazing investigations team who really knocked it out of the park. They did.

Zoë Schiffer：我确实试用了。我印象非常深刻，尤其是因为你为互联网编写了代码，开发了一个应用程序和网页，说实话，这具有开创性。Leah Feiger：我一点编程功劳都没有。这完全归功于我们出色的调查团队，他们真的做得非常出色。确实如此。

Zoë Schiffer: Well, jokes aside. No, I think it’s really important. I mean, like you said, the total spending on America PAC’s part is less than what they spent previously, but it’s much more targeted. They’re being really specific. And that’s because the stakes are really high. I feel like we should just back up for a second and talk about that. Because there is this chance that Congress flips, that Democ

Zoë Schiffer：好了，不开玩笑了。不，我认为这真的很重要。就像你说的，美国政治行动委员会的总支出比以前少了，但目标更明确了。他们非常具体，这是因为利害关系非常重大。我觉得我们应该退后一步谈谈这一点，因为国会确实存在翻盘的可能，民主党……