Elon Musk's "<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-woke">anti-woke</a>" AI chatbot Grok is now apparently a Democratic operative.
That's our takeaway, at least, from <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1899941990462046625">Grok's response</a> to progressive activist Alex Cole after he <a href="https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1899941904382648546">tagged the chatbot on X</a> and asked it whether Republicans or Democrats were "better for the economy in the last 30 years."
Grok was so eager to shill for Elon Musk's opposition that instead of staying within the timeframe Cole asked, it summarized politics and economics since World War II — a period during which "Democrats have outperformed Republicans on the economy," the chatbot noted.
"[Gross domestic product] growth averages 4.23% under Dems vs. 2.36% under GOP," Grok continued. "Job creation? 1.7% yearly for Dems, 1.0% for Republicans. Also, 9 of the last 10 recessions started under Republican presidents."
"Data speaks louder than party lines," it declared pithily.
It appears the first part of Grok's reply was taken almost verbatim from the Wikipedia page for "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._economic_performance_by_presidential_party">US economic performance by presidential party</a>." A similarly Wiki-scraped summary also comes up on Google's AI Overview <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=democrats+vs+republicans+good+for+the+economy+last+30+years&amp;oq=democrats+vs+republicans+good+for+the+economy+last+30+years&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRiPAtIBCTEwNzg3ajBqNKgCALACAQ&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">when searching</a> "democrats vs republicans good for the economy last 30 years."
Still, it's the thought that counts — and per Grok's "<a href="https://scitechdaily.com/how-ai-is-learning-to-think-on-its-own-like-humans/">thinking</a>," Democrats outperform Republicans, Musk's chosen party and that of his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/opinion/trump-musk-executive-overreach.html">alleged co-president</a>, Donald Trump, <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/historical-puzzle-us-economic-performance-under-democrats-vs-republicans">by wide margins</a>.
To put it to the test, we submitted the same question to Grok and got a much more long-winded answer that included a "vibes check" suggesting that Republicans were hit harder by "external shocks" like 9/11 and COVID while Democrats "got luckier with timing" with the 90s tech bubble and the post-2008 stock market crisis recovery period.
As for its "bottom line," Grok confidently asserted that "over 30 years, Democrats nudge ahead on growth, jobs, and markets — [Bill] Clinton’s golden years and [Barack] Obama’s steady hand tip it."
"Republicans got slammed by crises (Bush) or didn’t sustain gains (Trump)," it continued matter-of-factly. "Debt’s a wash — both spent big when pushed. No one’s perfect, and Congress plus the Fed muddy the waters, but the numbers lean D."
Though it's <a href="https://futurism.com/sam-altman-elon-musk-anti-woke-grok">far from the first time</a> the "<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/17/elon-musks-ai-company-xai-releases-its-latest-flagship-ai-grok-3/">maximally truth-seeking</a>" AI has <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musks-grok-salute">countered the politics</a> of its creator, this instance is particularly humbling at a time when <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1899854881810190406">Musk is trashing Democrats</a> for suggesting he and his boss are driving the United States <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/192684/democrat-john-larson-elon-musk-epic-rant">headlong into a recession</a>.
And speaking of Trump: when someone else on Cole's thread asked it to name "<a href="https://x.com/Phenom_com/status/1899951813488423254">the worst president ever</a>," the chatbot ranked Trump among the absolute dregs.
"Historians often point to James Buchanan — his inaction on slavery and the secession crisis led to the Civil War," <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1899951886754591005">Grok replied</a>. "Andrew Johnson and Franklin Pierce also rank low for similar failures in leadership. Trump’s 2024 score of 10.92 out of 100 in the Presidential Greatness Project doesn’t help his case either."
"Pick your poison," Grok concluded.
More on Grok: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-grok-3-chemical-weapons">Elon's Grok 3 AI Provides "Hundreds of Pages of Detailed Instructions" on Creating Chemical Weapons</a>

Wake Up Sheeple

"Data speaks louder than party lines."

Elon Musk's Grok AI Determines Which Political Party Has Performed Better for the Economy

As the United States struggles to get even basic crypto legislation off the starting line, one small nation went all in on <a href="https://vera-institute.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/publications/the-impacts-of-solitary-confinement.pdf">blockchain </a>— and it's going about as well as you'd expect.
That country is El Salvador, home to the native Pipil people of Cuscatlán, ancient mangrove forests, and for four wild years, the crypto industry.
Following the whims of conservative populist Nayib Bukele — who calls himself "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/26/naybib-bukele-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator">the world's coolest dictator</a>" — El Salvador's congress signed legislation to become the first country in the world to recognize <a href="https://www.rgs.org/schools/resources-for-schools/bitcoin-and-el-salvador">Bitcoin as legal tender</a> in June of 2021. The government hoped the edict would jump-start the nation's ailing economy, a growing haven for <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/05/445382231/how-el-salvador-fell-into-a-web-of-gang-violence">organized crime</a> that's typical of high-poverty nations.
Dreaming of the crypto future, lawmakers set the date for national tokenization for September 2021, but there was a lot of work to do.
Leading up to the big day, the Central American nation contracted US crypto asset trust BitGo to lead its central crypto wallet, promising $30 USD worth of Bitcoin to each citizen, backed by a $20 million <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-06/el-salvador-buys-200-bitcoin-plans-a-lot-more-president?sref=YfHlo0rL">government Bitcoin purchase</a>. Plans were hastily cobbled together for BitGo to become the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/09/07/el-salvador-taps-billionaire-backed-bitcoin-unicorn-in-the-cryptocurrencys-historic-legal-tender-debut/">official digital banking infrastructure</a> for El Salvador's 6.3 million residents. Bukele took to Twitter to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/23/el-salvador-will-not-require-bitcoin-acceptance-president-bukele-confirms">hype up</a> the moves as <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/261985/20210625/el-salvador-install-1-500-crypto-atms-adult-citizens-30.htm">Bitcoin ATMs</a> sprouted up on every street corner.
In all, about $200 million in El Salvadorian tax dollars were earmarked for the gamble — 2.7 percent of the government's <a href="https://www.transparenciafiscal.gob.sv/downloads/pdf/700-DGP-GA-2021-GPC21.pdf">total annual budget</a>, according <a href="https://time.com/6103299/bitcoin-el-salvador-nayib-bukele/">to Time</a>. The government's hype wasn't just typical crypto bro babble; so much was riding on it that it had to work.
Then, reality hit. The immediate results were devastating. Bitcoin's price <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58459098">almost instantly crashed</a> by about 20 percent. BitGo's servers struggled to keep up with the flood of new users, even as the government's official crypto app failed to show up on platforms like Apple and Huawei. Protestors <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/salvador-street-protest-breaks-out-against-bitcoin-adoption-2021-09-07/">took to the streets</a>, surrounding the Supreme Court, where they were met by heavily armed riot police.
Since then, the country has experienced <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/el-salvador/inflation-cpi">increased inflation</a>, upsized <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1392288/national-debt-el-salvador/">national debt</a>, and a huge <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/elsalvador/overview">increase in poverty</a>. As of early March, 2025, less than <a href="https://www.ccn.com/news/crypto/why-el-salvador-made-bitcoin-legal-tender-why-it-wont-work-for-us/">2 percent</a> of the nation's citizens have adopted the much-hyped financial tech.
With <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718524000411">little market incentive</a> to seek a legitimate living, El Salvador's crime woes persisted, prompting a brutal crackdown by Bukele which saw the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-to-know-about-the-el-salvadorian-mega-prison-trump-has-promised-to-send-u-s-prisoners">county's prison population</a> balloon by 205 percent from 2021 to 2024. For many El Salvadorians, the rise of crypto and the escalation of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/el-salvador-policies-practices-legislation-violate-human-rights/">state violence</a> went hand in hand.
And despite requiring all El Salvadorian businesses to accept Bitcoin as tender, Bukele's crypto gamble has largely failed to court many of the international players he hoped would pump his country full of virtual cash.
One video from 2022 might help explain why. It shows a crypto enthusiast at a self-serve beer kiosk struggling to pay for his pint with Bitcoin. "I don't have my invoice ready," he says as he waves his phone around the kiosk to no avail.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Buying beer with bitcoin in El Salvador." width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rdpFJz8y2Z0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It's no wonder El Salvadorans have largely rejected the crypto regime, if this is supposed to be their salvation from a life of poverty.
But his nation's lack of enthusiasm hasn't stopped Bukele from doubling down on his experiment. The president recently expedited plans for an ostentatious "<a href="https://elfaro.net/en/202407/el_salvador/27503/the-promise-of-bitcoin-city-displaces-conchagua">Bitcoin City</a>" which is meant to court industry moguls and crypto enthusiasts from around the world. Located on top of an old mangrove forest, construction has so far destroyed over three square kilometers of wildland and displaced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/12/el-salvador-bitcoin-city-mangroves-president-nayib-bukele">225 households</a>, many of them indigenous.
He's likewise reneged on a $3.5 billion <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2025/03/03/El-Salvador-Request-for-Extended-Arrangement-Under-the-Extended-Fund-Facility-Press-Release-562921">IMF loan</a> that would have <a href="https://www.ccn.com/news/crypto/imf-deal-el-salvador-liquidate-bitcoin-trust-chivo-stricter-transparency/">restricted</a> the government's Bitcoin transactions and banned government Bitcoin accumulation. That was last week, and yesterday El Salvador's "Bitcoin Office" announced it had added <a href="https://x.com/bitcoinofficesv/status/1899195192760275020">one more Bitcoin</a> to the reserve, a bizarre move making the deal's future uncertain.
It's a surprise twist in the long and winding saga of El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment, one that's apparently far from over.
More on Bitcoin: <a href="https://futurism.com/lost-bitcoin-wallet-landfill-purchase">Man Trying to Buy Entire Landfill to Recover Lost Bitcoin Hard Drive</a>

All In

Whoops.

An Entire Country Switched Over to Bitcoin and It's Turned Into a Disaster

America's <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/lbr/current/">biggest bank</a> is sounding the alarm on Tesla's historic value loss under Elon Musk.
As <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/03/12/jpmorgans-scathing-tesla-prediction-musks-car-company-will-report-worst-quarterly-deliveries-in-3-years/">Forbes reports</a>, JPMorgan said in a new note to clients that it's never seen anything quite like the massive value plummet at Tesla, which <a href="https://fortune.com/asia/2025/03/11/tesla-shares-drop-china-byd-ev/">lost $127 billion in a single day</a> this week as its CEO's politics become more toxic by the day.
"We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry," JPMorgan analysts wrote, "in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly."
Led by automotive analyst Ryan Brinkman, the note updated the bank's forecast for first-quarter Tesla deliveries from 444,000 to 355,000 — a 20 percent drop that reflects the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/10/tesla-shares-plunge-14percent-head-for-worst-day-in-five-years.html">hundreds of billions of dollars</a> Musk's electric vehicle company has lost in just a few months.
Driving the new analysis is the "acute" effect the boisterous CEO has had on the carmaker as he takes on a "more divisive new role in government" — which is financespeak, essentially, that Musk's politicking is <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-buyer-disgusted-elon-musk">utterly destroying Tesla</a>.
"Mr. Musk's work with the Department of Government Efficiency has proven controversial domestically," Brinkman observed, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-stock-decline-jp-morgan-analyst-guidance-2025-3">per Business Insider's write-up</a>, and "while as many members of the political right may be pleased as those on the left are displeased, the effect on Tesla sales seems nevertheless negative."
Brinkman also noted that Musk's company "appears to have the most to lose" from the "shifting regulatory backdrop" occurring under Donald Trump's administration — an ironic reminder that this president is <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/396602/trump-evs-executive-orders-rebates-charging">quite hostile to EV</a>s despite <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-tesla-9a43c57a0591a4c7ed8d3f1b2c7ef8d9">purchasing a Tesla</a> in support of his subordinate this week.
In Europe, the analysts wrote, things are even more dire. Between <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-taking-orders-putin-xi">Musk's love affair with Vladimir Putin</a> and subsequent <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-claim-ukraine-linked-cyberattack-x-draws-criticism/">alienation of Ukraine</a>, his <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-insists-us-should-really-exit-nato-2041837">anti-NATO posturing</a>, and of course his support for "<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-endorses-afd-tesla">far-right political parties</a>" — Brinkman's words, not ours – Tesla's <a href="https://www.acea.auto/files/Press_release_car_registrations_January_2025.pdf">new vehicle registrations in January</a> were down 50 percent from the same period in 2024.
Though there have been other massive value drops for Japanese and Korean car companies over "diplomatic disputes" with China, the analysts suggested that things are worse for Tesla because it's an international company that's "not specific to any one nation or geography," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-stock-decline-jp-morgan-analyst-guidance-2025-3">BI wrote</a> of the JPMorgan note.
Notably, this analysis comes after <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-tsla-stock-price-rebound-morgan-stanley/">Morgan Stanley suggested</a> that Tesla shares are still worth buying and could rebound up to 90 percent, highlighting the <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/24/musk_moves_tesla_goalposts_back/">shifting goalposts</a> placed upon the Musk-owned company by its boosters.
Then again, maybe it's not exactly a surprise that JPMorgan specifically is bearish on Tesla given that it was, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/jpmorgan-agrees-drop-lawsuit-against-tesla-over-stock-warrants-2024-11-30/">until recently</a>, suing the company over some stocks it sold to the institution a decade prior.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-biggest-supporter-out-of-patience">One of Tesla's Biggest Supporters Is Running Out of Patience</a>

Bear Market

"We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry."

JPMorgan Says Tesla's Outlook Is Grim

The Department of Defense has proudly announced that two active-duty US military officers will be launching on board SpaceX's upcoming Crew-10 mission to return NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Air Force major Nichole Ayers and US Army colonel Anne McClain — both NASA astronauts — will be joining Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on the mission.
"The Department of Defense is proud to have multiple branches, and two active-duty U.S. military officers represented in this mission," enthused defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
The high level attention to the military space travelers highlights a renewed interest in the militarization of space under President Donald Trump's second term. The US Space Force was <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-executive-order-space-command-space-force">signed into law</a> by Trump in late 2019, sparking a lively discussion about a "space arms race."
While it's not enormously unusual to have active-duty military stationed on board the ISS — <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/astronauts/">according to NASA</a>, 212 of the 360 astronauts it has selected since its inception 66 years ago are from the military — the Pentagon's announcement has a different ring to it now that Trump is back in the White House.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this year calling for the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5277155/trump-military-transgender-dei-iron-dome-orders">development of new space-based defenses</a>. But details remain sparse about the viability or possible schedule of such a system.
Further complicating the mission is the subject of Wilmore and Williams, who were stranded on board the ISS since June due to major technical issues plaguing Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
Their return was <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-dumps-boeing-starliner-spacex">already scheduled months before</a> Trump was even elected last year, but has been turned into a <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-astronauts-puzzled-elon-musk-outburst">political rallying cry</a> by the president and his number one henchman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Musk, in particular, appeared to be incensed when confronted with the fact that the Trump administration wasn't suddenly swooping in to rescue Wilmore and Williams. Last month, Musk got caught up in a heated exchange on his social media platform with several former astronauts over the topic, <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-argument-iss-destroy">ending with him calling them names</a> like a bully in a schoolyard.
At the time, a fuming Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1892584783064052114?s">blamed</a> the Biden administration for getting the pair stuck — claims that were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/04/starliner-astronauts-musk-spacex-nasa/">immediately refuted</a> by former NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
Trump appears to have little knowledge of the topic. During a <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-stranded-astronauts-love">baffling Oval Office press conference</a>, he appeared to make a pass at Williams, arguing she had "wild hair, good, solid hair," and suggested she and Wilmore might have fallen in love.
The upcoming mission to return Wilmore and Williams has since been delayed due to ground issues affecting the hydraulics system used to control the clamps supporting the upper portion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The flight is now scheduled for no earlier than Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the future of Trump's Space Force remains as uncertain as ever. Officials have been calling for a bigger budget for the youngest military arm. On the contrary, many of the administration's brutal cuts to the government may end up undermining his priorities to militarize outer space, including slashing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/09/noaa-firings-trump-space-commerce-industry/">the Washington Post reports</a>.
The military is already reportedly struggling to keep up with America's adversaries due to a budget crunch, <a href="https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/air-force-and-space-force-vectors-for-the-incoming-trump-defense-team/">according to a recent report</a> by the think tank Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
"The cost of the effort to reverse the Air Force’s decline and adequately fund the Space Force will require an increase of at least $45 billion annually, combined," the report reads. "The fixes must start now, or the United States risks losing the next major war."
More on the ISS: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-stranded-astronauts-love">Trump Suggests That the Stranded Astronauts May Have Fallen in Love</a>

Spaced Force

Nothing to see here.

NASA Sending Military Personnel to Space Station

For most of us, getting revenge on a company that screwed us over will only ever be a bitter daydream. But when one company messed with the wrong man, he decided to make good on that fantasy, turning it into costly reality.
Last week, a Texas-based software developer by the name of Davis Lu was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-convicted-sabotaging-his-employers-computer-systems-and-deleting-data">found guilty by a federal jury</a> for maliciously disrupting servers at Eaton Corp, a huge power management firm headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
An employee since 2007, Lu's efforts at digital sabotage started in 2018 when he became frustrated with Eaton's management, which had begun "<a href="https://www.salolawoffice.com/employer-reorganizations-rif-layoffs#:~:text=An%20employer%20reorganization%2C%20also%20sometimes,and%20changes%20in%20reporting%20structures.">corporate realignment</a>" — a vague PR term that usually means layoffs are imminent. In this case, Lu's work duties shifted, and he found that his system access had been reduced.
Fearing the worst, the software dev hatched a plan straight out of "Tron": he began researching ways to boost his admin privileges, rapidly delete system files en masse, and hide the code that does it.
By August 4, 2019, Lu began programming "infinite loops" to intercept logins and delete employee files, codes which he named "Hakai," Japanese for "destruction," and "HunShui," part of the Mandarin idiom "<a href="https://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learn-chinese-blog/chinese-slang-buzzword-%E6%91%B8%E9%B1%BC-moyu/">hún shuǐ mō yú</a>," meaning to use the computer to be lazy at work. Cyberslacking, in a word.
But his magnum opus was a "kill switch," a string of code called "IsDLEnabledinAD," an abbreviation of "Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory?" The code was dormant so long as the system's response was "yes." But on September 9 of 2019, when Lu was laid off, that answer became "no," causing the code to lock out all other users, throwing the company's operations into chaos.
FBI investigators uncovered his handywork by tracing the code back to a server Lu had access to, which was executing the attack via a computer using Lu's login info. He could face up to 10 years in federal prison for his handywork, which the company claimed caused "hundreds of thousands in losses," though Lu's attorneys peg that number closer to $5,000, <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2025/03/former-eaton-corp-employee-found-guilty-of-sabotaging-companys-computer-systems.html">according to Cleveland.com</a>.
Lu may not know it, but he joins a tradition of like-minded neo-Luddites, a term harkening back to militant worker groups in Britain who <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2024/12/01/the-attenuated-politics-of-popular-luddism/">smashed</a> shiny new textile machines to protect their jobs from automation. Such groups tend to be disorganized and clustered within Western countries, like the <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/boundary-2/article-abstract/50/4/195/383923/Computer-Center-Sabotage-1968-1971-Luddism-Black?redirectedFrom=fulltext">American computer smashers</a> of the late 60s, or the French anarchist cell <a href="https://www.felixtreguer.fr/en/2019/06/laction-directe-contre-linformatisation/">Action Directe</a> of the late 70s and early 80s.
Though <a href="https://fee.org/articles/the-luddites-were-wrong-then-and-theyre-wrong-now/">typically smeared</a> as Neanderthals scared of progress, Luddites of all stripes have historically been <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/06/the-luddites-were-right">highly-skilled workers</a> whose resistance to tech had more to do with wresting control of it from the grip of <a href="https://jacobin.com/2013/04/the-rise-of-the-machines/">capitalists</a>, rather than the equipment itself.
One noteworthy group was the Comité Liquidant Ou Détournant Les Ordinateurs (<a href="https://archive.org/details/machines-in-flames-documentary">CLODO</a>), a coalition of disgruntled software engineers and tech workers who sabotaged computer centers and nuclear sites throughout southern France in the early 80s.
Like Lu, they also made light of their work — "Clodo" is French slang for "bum" — submitting a quippy <a href="https://ia903104.us.archive.org/24/items/ZineArchive/CLODO-Communiques_from_the_War_on_Computers.pdf">self-interview</a> with the French magazine Terminal 19/84.
"We are essentially attacking what these tools lead to," CLODO says of their sabotage: "files, surveillance by means of badges and cards, instrument of profit maximization for the bosses and of accelerated pauperization for those who are rejected."
Though their most public stunts were firebombs and vandalism, CLODO also claimed to engage in more silent forms of destruction on the job: "These actions are only the visible tip of the iceberg! We ourselves and others fight daily in a less ostensible way... we take advantage of [software errors], which undoubtedly costs our employers more than the material damage we cause. We’ll only say that the art consists of creating bugs that will only appear later on, little time-bombs."
Far from simple technophobes, CLODO and Lu share a much more complicated cause as workers for whom technology represents <a href="https://futurism.com/startup-investors-gig-jobs-ai">layoffs</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/google-sergey-brin-60-hour-week-ai">hardship</a>, and <a href="https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite-a-ruthless-criticism-of-technology-and-capitalism-book-review/">dehumanization</a>. As those controlling tech increasingly choose profit over people, it's no wonder workers like Lu are fighting back.
More on sabotage: <a href="https://futurism.com/teslas-targeted-fire-arson">Arsonists Set Fire to a Dozen Teslas, Charging Stations Amid "Anti-Capitalist Coordination to Target Tesla" </a>

Job Security

Become unfireable.

Man Installed "Kill Switch" So That If He Was Ever Fired, All Hell Would Break Loose

It's been <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/he-jiankui-released-prison">nearly three years</a> since controversial Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui was released from prison for gene-hacking human babies — and now, he appears to be hitting back at the rules that led to his punishment.
In a <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1899271973190209969">cryptic post on X</a> that featured a photo of the scientist blankly staring directly into the camera, He wrote that "ethics is holding back scientific innovation and progress."
Though he doesn't mention it directly, that post seems like a clear reference to the ethical standards that made his 2018 gene-hacking experiments — which saw him using CRISPR to edit the DNA of twin girls pseudonymously known as "Lulu" and "Nana" in an attempt to make them immune to HIV — the source of global public outcry.
After He announced that he'd created the world's first so-called "<a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/crispr-bombshell-chinese-researcher-claims-have-created-gene-edited-twins">CRISPR babies</a>" and that they'd been born <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-021-01138-5">seemingly without defect</a>, the experiments were <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/12/03/65024/crispr-baby-twins-lulu-and-nana-what-happened/">widely denounced as unethical</a> to the point of abomination. In 2019, the scientist was arrested in China and sentenced to three years in prison — and just 18 months after his release in April 2022, <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/he-jiankui-back-in-lab">He was back in the lab</a> working on how to use genetic editing to fight Alzheimer's.
Despite his return to the lab, however, it appears per a string of <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He">English-language missives</a> posted on X that the notorious Chinese scientist has a chip on his shoulder about the stigma he accrued for his gene-hacking experiments.
"Gene editing technology has the power to reshape the world," <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1860870096958456233">He wrote</a> in a November post, "like [the] nuclear bomb."
"Great revolution begins with controversy," the scientist <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1864853871912501277">declared in another</a>.
Alongside his vague proclamations of grandeur, He also <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1870667240590463232">came down hard</a> on the use of biological weapons, paid lip service to the potential for <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1860524060603814331">universal access to genetic editing</a> regardless of income, and even <a href="https://x.com/Jiankui_He/status/1864133586653466959">claimed in one post</a> from December that "gene editing should not be conducted in countries with lax regulation in ethics."
Taken together, these statements paint the portrait of a self-righteous scientist who, like so many of his <a href="https://humsci.stanford.edu/feature/why-cancel-culture-doesnt-exist">Western counterparts</a>, seems to believe despite all evidence to the contrary that he has been "canceled" for going against the grain.
The reality, of course, is that He clearly feels hemmed in by the ethical rules that he was punished for ignoring the first time around — and wants to be able to do his problematic work in peace.
More on strange science: <a href="https://futurism.com/new-computer-neural-network-human-brain-cells">Weird New Computer Runs AI on Captive Human Brain Cells</a>

Back in the Lab

"Ethics is holding back scientific innovation and progress."

Scientist Who Gene-Hacked Human Babies Says Ethics Are "Holding Back" Scientific Progress

Wall Street is getting increasingly frustrated with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has seemingly abandoned the carmaker in favor of spending most of his time gutting the federal government with the help of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Even one of the brand's most prominent bulls, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, is running out of patience.
"Musk needs to step up as Tesla CEO at this critical juncture," Ives wrote in a <a href="https://x.com/Teslarati/status/1899437888888090826">note</a>. "In a nutshell, the word 'balance' has been missing with Elon Musk and his ability to run Tesla as CEO... while instead focusing all of his energy and time driving his DOGE initiative within the Trump Administration."
"There has been little to no sign of Musk at any Tesla factory or manufacturing facility the last two months and perception has become reality for Tesla shares," he wrote.
It's a notable change in tune for one of the carmaker's biggest backers, highlighting the precariousness of the situation. Tesla sales have been <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-china">driven off a cliff worldwide</a>, in large part due to Musk's abrasive behavior and endorsement of far-right ideologies, which have cast a looming shadow on the brand and <a href="https://futurism.com/wave-vandalism-protest-tesla">triggered waves of protests and vandalism at showrooms</a>.
The carmaker's shares tanked on Monday, dropping over 15 percent in less than a day. A <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-notes-tesla-sales-pitch">highly unusual event</a> put on by president Donald Trump outside of the White House has seemingly breathed some new life into the embattled company, sending its shares up over seven percent on Wednesday.
Yet the overall prognosis is grim, and Tesla stocks are still down almost 35 percent year to date. Analysts are anxiously awaiting the company's Q1 sales numbers, to be released next month — and many of them <a href="https://eletric-vehicles.com/tesla/jp-morgan-cuts-teslas-price-target-expects-q1-deliveries-to-fall-8/">are expecting the worst</a>. JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman predicts a massive <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-price-target-lowered-to-120-from-135-at-jpmorgan-1034470140">51 percent drop from Tesla's current valuation</a>.
Even Ives, who has long remained bullish on Tesla's performance, warned in his note that investor patience is wearing "thin" and that Musk is "not reading the room."
According to Ives, Tesla is facing a "moment of truth."
Meanwhile, Musk has doubled down on his newfound job in the White House. During a <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6369857710112">Fox Business interview</a>, Musk <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://bsky.app/profile/internetceleb.bsky.social/post/3lk2rd73f422n">appeared to be on the verge of tears</a> after being asked about "giving up" his "other stuff."
"With great difficulty," the mercurial CEO admitted after being asked how he's running his other businesses.
But according to Ives, Musk doubling down on gutting the government and leading mass layoffs in Washington, DC, could imperil the future of Tesla.
"Becoming a political object is a dangerous path," he <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/03/11/tesla-bull-wedbush-dan-ives-change-of-tone-warns-elon-musk-patience-wearing-thin/">told Fortune</a>.
"As someone who’s covered Tesla for many, many years, it was time to communicate to Musk and the board what Tesla shareholders are telling us: Balance your time," he added. "Show that you are Tesla CEO."
"This is not the time to just play in the DOGE sandbox," Ives argued. "He needs to step up."
Despite the analyst's dire warnings, Ives maintained that Tesla shares will be worth $550 in a year, more than $100 above the company's all-time high set during last year's presidential election.
Whether that'll ultimately be the outcome remains to be seen. Musk has promised that the carmaker will roll out "autonomous ride-hailing for money" <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-robotaxis-by-june-musk-turns-texas-hands-off-regulation-2025-02-10/">by June</a> in Austin, Texas, a characteristically ambitious timeline.
And the risks are considerable, especially considering the unfinished state of its driver assistance software, which has been <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/26/24141361/tesla-autopilot-fsd-nhtsa-investigation-report-crash-death">linked to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths</a> by regulators.
Will 2025 really be the year when Tesla will finally be able to deliver on a promise Musk has <a href="https://futurism.com/video-elon-musk-promising-self-driving-cars">made every year</a> for the past decade?
Investors will certainly be keeping close tabs on the company's progress. After all, with car sales in freefall, Tesla may eventually be forced to reinvent itself to keep them happy.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/nyc-weed-shop-owner-tesla-sledgehammers">NYC Weed Shop Owner Says She May Park Her Tesla Outside and Give Out Sledgehammers to Destroy It</a>

Bad Dad

"Becoming a political object is a dangerous path."

One of Tesla's Biggest Supporters Is Running Out of Patience

On Tuesday, president Donald Trump appeared in front of the White House as part of a <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-notes-tesla-sales-pitch">bizarre sales pitch</a> for Elon Musk's embattled carmaker Tesla.
During the highly unusual event, Trump announced that he had bought a Tesla while gushing over a red Model S.
The endorsement was a staggering display of Trump and Musk's unusual bond. To call it a conflict of interest would be an astronomical understatement, with senator Chris Murphy (D-CN) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/trump-musk-tesla-white-house-showroom-buys-car-rcna195905">accusing them of rampant corruption</a>.
"Just because the corruption plays out in public doesn't mean it's not corruption," he <a href="https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1899557531476713625">tweeted</a>.
But as experts have since pointed out, the president's desperate attempt to drum up excitement for a company that's facing a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/06/business/musk-trump-tesla-shares-slide/index.html">cataclysmic financial year</a> could easily end up backfiring.
As the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tesla-stock-musk-trump-evs-sales-b3118cbab69fbfaa3abcceb059ba8c58">Associated Press reports</a>, the already tarnished brand's reputation could be even further undermined by an even closer association with Trump and his toxic brand of politics.
Musk's gutting of the government with the help of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, in addition to his <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-investors-disgusted-elon-musk">endorsement of extreme right-wing ideologies</a>, has already triggered <a href="https://futurism.com/wave-vandalism-protest-tesla">protests and vandalism</a> at dealerships across the company.
"Tesla is becoming a political symbol of Trump and DOGE, and that is a bad thing for the brand," Wedbush Securities financial analyst Dan Ives, one of Tesla's biggest backers, told the AP. "You think it’s helping, but it’s actually hurting."
Earlier this week, Tesla's stock <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-freaking-out-tesla-craters">was put through the wringer</a>, plunging a whopping 15 percent in a single day. While it's since recovered somewhat, the company's shares are still down over 33 percent year to date, and lower than they were when Trump won reelection last November.
And sales figures paint an extremely troubling picture of what's still ahead, with monthly sales dropping off a cliff in <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-absolutely-destroyed-europe">Europe</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-australia-catastrophic">Australia</a>, and even <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-china">China</a>. Sales are also <a href="https://futurism.com/numbers-consumers-against-tesla">starting to dip in the US</a>.
Investors are <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-investors-disgusted-elon-musk">fuming</a>, and calling for Musk to stop ignoring Tesla's woes.
"It's become clear he's now spending more time on DOGE than anything else," CFRA Research senior equity analyst Garrett Nelson <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-stock-price-crash-investors-want-elon-musk-ceo-tsla-2025-3">told Business Insider</a>.
Instead of blaming Musk for his abysmal behavior and abandoning his EV business, Trump <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-illegal-boycott-tesla">pointed the finger at so-called "Radical Left Lunatics</a>" in a ranting post on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday, arguing that their boycott of the brand was "illegal."
But whether Trump's embrace of his buddy Musk's ailing car company will have the desired effect and conjure some much-needed optimism remains to be seen.
As the AP points out, workers likely won't be incentivized by stock offers thanks to the company's plummeting shares. The company could also struggle to raise new money for expansion, since falling sales could negate any need for it.
Tesla isn't the only fire Musk has been trying to put out. His social media platform X was taken down by what Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/reason-twitter-went-down-embarrassing">claimed to be a "massive" cyberattack</a> earlier this week. His space venture SpaceX is also <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-new-starship-performing-worse">struggling</a> to get its massive Starship rocket off the ground.
Now that he's firmly cemented himself as Trump's left hand man, the future of Tesla is as uncertain as ever. Will investors look past DOGE's brutal cuts to government budgets and Trump's global trade war, which has <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/wall-street-falls-in-a-manic-day-after-briefly-dropping-more-than-10-below-its-record/">sent the stock market spiralling</a>?
The carmaker's share price recovered over seven percent on Wednesday, indicating at least some willingness to tap into the excitement surrounding Trump's latest car purchase. Tesla bulls on Wall Street <a href="https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/teslas-tipping-point-tsla-stock-132000359.html">are adamant</a> that the carmaker's woes are only temporary.
But rising anti-Musk sentiment could <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/tesla-vehicles-destroyed-vandalized-musk-began-role-white/story?id=119677836">leave far more permanent scars</a> on the company's brand and financial future.
"Elon is probably the most hated person in the world," Gerber Kawasaki CEO and Tesla shareholder Ross Gerber <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/11/how-elon-musks-trump-support-could-hurt-or-help-tesla.html">told CNBC</a>. "Most people around the world, you know, hate Elon. And the way they’re taking it out is on Tesla. And it’s a really unfortunate thing."
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-notes-tesla-sales-pitch">Trump Was Reading Notes for His Tesla Sales Pitch and a Photographer Got a Shot of Them</a>

White House Showroom

"You think it’s helping, but it’s actually hurting."

Trump's Attempt to Help Tesla May Backfire Spectacularly

Over 200 Canadian car dealers are crying foul after Elon Musk's Tesla claimed tens of millions of dollars worth of rebates mere days before the government shut down a subsidy program in January.
As the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/tesla-gamed-the-system-canadian-auto-dealers-stiffed-millions-when-u-s-giant-rushed-to/article_6d1025c6-fa0a-11ef-b780-a73277202cb2.html">Toronto Star reported</a> last week, the dealers are now an estimated $6.91 million out of pocket after having to provide rebates to over 2,000 customers hoping to be reimbursed.
The Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) Program was launched by the federal government department Transport Canada in 2019, and offered up to roughly $3,500 at the point of sale to Canadian EV and plug-in hybrid buyers.
But with the resignation of former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the ensuing political chaos led to Transport Canada informing dealerships on January 10 that the program would run out of money well before its original termination date at the end of March, per the Star. (Trudeau's replacement, prime minister Mark Carney, is <a href="https://www.jalopnik.com/1807796/tesla-last-minute-canadian-incentives-eligibility-request/">expected to renew the program</a>.)
On the program's final weekend, though, a massive surge of claims from just four Tesla outlets in the country raised alarm bells. A single dealership in Quebec City claimed that it had sold more than 4,000 EVs in a single weekend, asking for over $13 million in public subsidies, according to the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/8-600-teslas-in-one-weekend-how-the-surprise-end-to-a-federal-subsidy-led/article_0e2213d4-f858-11ef-9a6e-6385bfdbc505.html">newspaper's reporting last week</a>.
As experts have since pointed out, there's a good chance the EV maker heavily fudged the numbers. But it remains to be seen whether Tesla actually broke the law — or abused a system that was ironically designed to drum up some much-needed demand.
The four Tesla-run showrooms claimed a total of 8,653 EV sales in just 72 hours and asked for almost $30 million in rebates.
"Tesla had a run on the bank," Canadian Automobile Dealers Association spokesperson Huw Williams told the Star. "Somehow, Tesla gamed the system. What we can’t figure out is how this could have happened without setting off alarm bells."
The number of sales, in particular, appeared extremely suspicious to officials. Many of the showrooms can't physically hold even a fraction of the number of cars they claimed to have sold in less than a day, as the newspaper reports.
Sure, the end of the incentive program was expected to result in a spike in the number of sales — but this is far and beyond what anybody expected.
One possibility is that the dealerships filed the rebates in massive, backdated batches, which would still raise plenty of eyebrows.
"Tesla didn’t sell those cars that weekend," one Transport Canada official told the Star.
It's worth noting that <a href="https://futurism.com/hundreds-protest-tesla-dealership">Tesla CEO Elon Musk's vitriolic behavior</a> and his close chum president Donald Trump's persistent <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/politics/canada-trump-51st-state-rob-ford/index.html">stigmatizing of Canada</a> and his entirely <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-retaliatory-tariffs-1.7481258">unprompted trade war targeting the country</a> have sent sales plummeting there. According <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/tesla-sales-are-plummeting-in-canada-is-a-backlash-against-elon-musk-to-blame">to the National Post</a>, sales in the country crashed a whopping 70 percent between December 2024 and January 2025.
The situation has gotten so desperate for the EV maker that even Trump put on his best performance as a Tesla car salesman this week, by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/business/tesla-stock-trump-white-house/index.html">making a bizarre sales pitch</a> alongside Musk in front of the White House.
Meanwhile, Canadian transport minister Anita Anand told the Star that the situation was "unacceptable" and that she has asked the "department that is responsible for administering this program to provide me with detailed and complete information."
It remains unclear whether Tesla broke any laws and we'll likely have to wait for Transport Canada to conclude its investigation before we can draw any conclusions — but given the glaring sales numbers, it's not a stretch to wonder if something dodgy was afoot.
The independent dealers affected by the surge are still waiting to be reimbursed, and Tesla hasn't responded to the Star's requests for comment.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-illegal-boycott-tesla">Trump Says It's "Illegal" to Boycott Tesla</a>

Stiffing Canadian Dealers

"Tesla didn’t sell those cars that weekend."

Tesla's Being Accused of Something Unbelievably Sketchy in Canada

An angel investor-turned-dispensary owner has sold one of her family's two Teslas amid dissatisfaction with the company's boisterous CEO — and is considering a more dramatic fate for the other one.
In a post on her personal blog, <a href="https://gothamgal.com/2025/03/we-tossed-the-tesla/">investor Joanne Wilson</a> wrote that her partner suggested they let customers at Gotham, the luxury dispensary she owns in downtown Manhattan, use their spare Tesla to take out their frustration on 4/20.
"We could give out sledgehammers, let people smash the car, and film it for Instagram," Wilson wrote. "It may go viral."
That suggestion — which may or may not be legitimate, and we've contacted Wilson to get to the bottom of the proposal — was made after the dispensary owner admitted in the same post that she only got $2,000 in trade-in credit for her other Tesla, which she sold amid mounting disgust with Elon Musk's politics.
"We are not the only Tesla owners who want to get rid of their cars," the investor and weed shop owner wrote. "Was it Elon’s complete disregard for human beings as he attempts to completely disrupt the federal government like a classic tech dude without a proper understanding of how government works, or was it that awful new cyber truck that looks like something out of Mad Max and looks angry? It is a toss-up."
Wilson joked in an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/angel-investor-sold-tesla-elon-musk-2025-3">interview with Business Insider</a> about the fate of her family's Teslas that if she and her partner, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/union-square-ventures-fred-wilson-on-investment-in-the-recount-2019-12">early Twitter investor</a> Fred Wilson, decided to monetize such an event, they'd probably end up making more than the two grand they got at the Volvo dealership.
While Wilson muses about letting strangers destroy her car, other Tesla haters are expressing their distaste for Musk in similar fashions across the world — though generally, it's not so sanctioned.
From vandalizing Cybertrucks with <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-vandalism-defaced-video">dick graffiti</a> and <a href="https://x.com/simko_bednarski/status/1892221014739734642">eggs</a> (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/nyregion/egg-shortage-prices-new-york-city.html">in this economy</a>!) to <a href="https://futurism.com/someone-stole-tesla-tires">removing the wheels</a> from parked Teslas and committing <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/10/business/police-chief-rips-suspects-release-after-another-arson-incident-at-tesla-dealership/">arson at dealerships</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/someone-stole-tesla-tires">charging stations</a>, public ire against Musk is clearly turning violent. As such, there's no reason for the Wilsons not to make a buck off his back — especially considering how much money the unelected billionaire <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/elon-musk-business-government-contracts-funding/">makes from the American people</a>.
More on Tesla hate: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-billionaire-tesla-blame">Elon Musk Searching for Mysterious Billionaire Who’s Making Everyone Hate Tesla</a>