The Problem with AI Under Trump

He can’t send an email, yet he’s leading the AI revolution

It is ironic that some of the most powerful tech moguls on earth have aligned themselves with a president who does not have the slightest clue on how to use a computer.

In the recent past, Trump’s technological impotence has been a source of frustration in court cases?—?allowing him to slip and slide out of responsibilities and accusations due to his utter lack of digital footprint. He has admitted (under oath) that he has not used “…email, text message, or other digital methods of communication since at least January 1, 2010”.

Fast forward fifteen years, the newly elected president is getting his hands dirty on a technology infinitely more complex and consequential than text messaging. A technology that may very well tilt the course of human history. But is he up for it?

Betting All Our?Chips

On January 21st of 2025, President Trump along with Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), Masayoshi Son (CEO of SoftBank), and Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) announced the initiation of the Stargate Project?—?a new joint venture company that will build 500 billion dollars’ worth of AI infrastructure over the next four years. This includes building massive data centers across the country, purchasing vast quantities of state-of-the-art chips and processors, installing countless miles of IT networking infrastructures, and everything else required to cater the country’s massive demand for AI tools projected in the near future.

Half a trillion dollars over four years sounds like a lot of money, but it is still dwarfed by the $820 billion the country spent on the military in 2023 alone. The main difference here is, the funds for this project are sourced solely from the private sector, not the public. From the perspective of the private sector, $500 billion is indeed a substantial amount, and it reflects just how much trust the tech industry has in Trump’s administration.

Here are the back-of-the-envelope details of the project: $100 billion will be invested immediately, with the next 400 spread across the four years. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman, OpenAI will handle the operations, while SoftBank will handle the finances. The four co-founders of Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX (an AI investment firm from Abu Dhabi). Along with those four?—?ARM (a UK chip designer), Microsoft, and NVIDIA are coming along for the ride as technology partners.

This is, by far, the largest AI investment initiative in history. But the execution of such a monstrous large-scale project will depend on Trump’s long term regulatory support for the industry. If he continues to provide this support, the United States might very well be the winners of the currently heated global race towards AGI (artificial general intelligence). But with such leverage on his hands, not much suggests that the 78-year-old actually understands the magnitude of the technology he is dealing with.

Call him what you wish?—?a racist, a misogynist, an idealist, or an optimist. One thing both his supporters and detractors will agree on is that he is not a technologist. Far from it. But of course, demanding high tech-fluency would be too high of a standard to expect from any sitting president. Along with issues in the realm of politics, economics, law, and history; the president already has a full plate of affairs on his table.

So, let us lower the standard quite considerably. Does he at least have an average understanding of technology?—?as average as, say?—?an average user of consumer technology in America? Even at this modest standard, he still falls short. Trump is not even a daily consumer of technology like most of us are?—?in the sense that the majority of us operate smartphones, send each other emails, and thus have some modicum of understanding of what ‘artificial intelligence’ actually entails.

Is it necessary for the CEO of Ford to also be a mechanic? Negative?—?but it will surely help if he/she has driven a car before, no?

More than anything else, the reality of how smooth the Stargate Project gets implemented has less to do with global technology, and more to do with local politics. Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison has to stay on Trump’s good side if their wishes of US AI supremacy are to be fulfilled as quickly as planned.

Trump speaks in the language of politics, not tech. His relationships with some of the largest tech figures in the world is in the spirit of ‘Making America Great Again’?—?not necessarily in the spirit of pushing the frontiers of artificial intelligence. The vital job for Son, Ellison, and Altman, therefore, is ensuring that there are no future bugs in this public-private relationship.