Donald Trump's antics may work with Elon Musk, but not with China
You can't have two kings in one kingdom. The relationship between two men with such strong egos won't last very long.
When asked in February what would happen to Elon Musk and Donald Trump, I answered that way. Four months later, Musk left the administration as expected. Although he said he is somewhat regretful, it seems too late to repair the relationship at this point.
The recent verbal sparring between these two grown men — the leader of the world's No. 1 superpower and the richest man on Earth — was downright juvenile. Musk called Trump's recent tax and spending bill "outrageous' and a 'disgusting abomination," adding that it would only increase the national debt, and asserted that the president wouldn't have won the last election without his help. He proceeded to repost a call for Trump's impeachment, floated the idea of forming a new political party representing '80% of the middle class and claimed that Trump's tariff policies would trigger a U.S. recession in the second half of the year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
42 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans split after Meta deal, sources say
Reuters file photo People walk next to a Google logo during a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. SAN FRANCISCO, June 13 (Reuters) – Alphabet's Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to cut ties with Scale after news broke that rival Meta is taking a 49% stake in the AI data-labeling startup, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Google had planned to pay Scale AI about $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data that is crucial for developing technology, including the sophisticated AI models that power Gemini, its ChatGPT competitor, one of the sources said. The search giant already held conversations with several of Scale AI's rivals this week as it seeks to shift away much of that workload, sources added. Scale's loss of significant business comes as Meta takes a big stake in the company, valuing it at $29 billion. Scale was worth $14 billion before the deal. Scale AI intends to keep its business running while its CEO, Alexandr Wang, along with a few employees, move over to Meta. Since its core business is concentrated around a few customers, it could suffer greatly if it loses key customers like Google. In a statement, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data. The company declined to comment on specifics with Google. Scale AI raked in $870 million in revenue in 2024, and Google spent some $150 million on Scale AI's services last year, sources said. Other major tech companies that are customers of Scale's, including Microsoft, are also backing away. Elon Musk's xAI is also looking to exit, one of the sources said. OpenAI decided to pull back from Scale several months ago, according to sources familiar with the matter, though it spends far less money than Google. OpenAI's CFO said on Friday that the company will continue to work with Scale AI, as one of its many data vendors. Companies that compete with Meta in developing cutting-edge AI models are concerned that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities and road map to a rival, five sources said. By contracting with Scale AI, customers often share proprietary data as well as prototype products for which Scale's workers are providing data-labeling services. With Meta now taking a 49% stake, AI companies are concerned that one of their chief rivals could gain knowledge about their business strategy and technical blueprints. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI declined to comment. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Rivals see openings The bulk of Scale AI's revenue comes from charging generative AI model makers for providing access to a network of human trainers with specialized knowledge – from historians to scientists, some with doctorate degrees. The humans annotate complex datasets that are used to 'post-train' AI models, and as AI models have become smarter, the demand for the sophisticated human-provided examples has surged, and one annotation could cost as much as $100. Scale also does data-labeling for enterprises like self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, which are likely to stay, according to the sources. But its biggest money-maker is in partnering with generative AI model makers, the sources said. Google had already sought to diversify its data service providers for more than a year, three of the sources said. But Meta's moves this week have led Google to seek to move off Scale AI on all its key contracts, the sources added. Because of the way data-labeling contracts are structured, that process could happen quickly, two sources said. This will provide an opening for Scale AI's rivals to jump in. 'The Meta-Scale deal marks a turning point,' said Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, a Scale AI competitor. 'Leading AI labs are realizing neutrality is no longer optional, it's essential.' Labelbox, another competitor, will 'probably generate hundreds of millions of new revenue' by the end of the year from customers fleeing Scale, its CEO, Manu Sharma, told Reuters. Handshake, a competitor focusing on building a network of PhDs and experts, saw a surge of workload from top AI labs that compete with Meta. 'Our demand has tripled overnight after the news,' said Garrett Lord, CEO at Handshake. Many AI labs now want to hire in-house data-labelers, which allows their data to remain secure, said Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, a startup that in addition to competing directly with Scale AI also builds technology around being able to recruit and vet candidates in an automated way, enabling AI labs to scale up their data labeling operations quickly. Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labeled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Meta deal will be a boon for Scale AI's investors including Accel and Index Ventures, as well as its current and former employees. As part of the deal, Scale AI's CEO, Wang, will take a top position leading Meta's AI efforts. Meta is fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models released in April fell short of performance expectations.
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Pizza delivery monitor alerts to secret Israel attack
The timing of Israel's plan to attack Iran was top secret. But Washington pizza delivery trackers guessed something was up before the first bombs fell. About an hour before Iranian state TV first reported loud explosions in Tehran, pizza orders around the Pentagon went through the roof, according to a viral X account claiming to offer "hot intel" on "late-night activity spikes" at the U.S. military headquarters. "As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity," the account, Pentagon Pizza Report, posted Thursday. Not confining its analysis to pizza, the account noted three hours later that a gay bar near the Pentagon had "abnormally low traffic for a Thursday night," and said this probably pointed to "a busy night at the Pentagon." While far from scientific, the Pentagon pizza theory "is not something the internet just made up," The Takeout, an online site covering restaurants and food trends, noted earlier this year. Pentagon-adjacent pizza joints also got much busier than usual during Israel's 2024 missile strike on Iran, it said, as there are "a multitude of fast food restaurants in the Pentagon complex, but no pizza places." Pizza deliveries to the Pentagon reportedly doubled right before the U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989, and surged again before Operation Desert Storm in 1991. President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal he was fully aware in advance of the bombing campaign, which Israel says is needed to end Iran's nuclear program. "We know what's going on." For the rest of Americans, pepperoni pie activity was not the only way to tell something was about to happen. Washington had already announced it was moving some diplomats and their families out of the Middle East on Wednesday. And close to an hour before Israel unleashed its firepower on Iran, the U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, sent out a rather revealing X post: "At our embassy in Jerusalem and closely monitoring the situation. We will remain here all night. 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!'"
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
‘We Knew Everything,' Trump Tells Reuters about Israel's Strikes on Iran
Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Congressional Picnic at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 12, 2025. WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) – After months of urging Israel not to strike Iran while he worked toward a nuclear deal, President Donald Trump told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday that he and his team had known the attacks were coming – and still saw room for an accord. 'We knew everything, and I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out,' Trump said. 'They can still work out a deal, however, it's not too late,' he added. Trump had repeatedly pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay an Israeli attack to give diplomacy more time, though the president himself had threatened to bomb the Gulf nation if nuclear talks failed. Trump's shifting stance around the Israeli strikes, which he called 'excellent' and 'very successful' in a series of media interviews on Friday, offered one of the most striking examples yet of how he conducts high-stakes negotiations through both frank public rhetoric and behind-the-scenes maneuvers. The U.S. president offered support for Israel's decision to launch a series of devastating raids in Iran, showing a willingness to embrace the use of military force to set back Tehran's nuclear program. In contrast, some allies stressed the need for restraint. Asked if the U.S. would support Israel against Iranian counterattacks, Trump said he supported Israel. He said he was not concerned about a regional war breaking out as a result of Israel's strikes but did not elaborate. 'We've been very close to Israel. We're their number one ally by far,' Trump told Reuters, adding, 'We'll see what happens.' Later on Friday, two U.S. officials said the U.S. military had helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed toward Israel. Talks in doubt Still uncertain is whether Trump's attempt to reach an agreement with Iran to halt uranium enrichment is still viable, with a sixth round of talks still scheduled for Sunday in Oman but now in doubt after the attacks. In negotiations with Iran, Trump sought to persuade the Iranians to give up uranium enrichment and was awaiting a counter-proposal from Iran. Tehran had balked at giving up enrichment, seemingly leaving little room for an agreement. 'They seek enrichment. We can't have enrichment,' Trump told reporters on Monday. As the week wore on, Trump sounded increasingly resigned to the prospect that Israel would strike and hinted that he knew more than he was willing to talk about publicly. 'I don't want to say it's imminent, but it looks like something that could very well happen. Look, it's very simple, not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, I want them to be successful,' he told reporters on Thursday before the raids began. Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Trump said he had given the Iranians 60 days to come to an agreement and that the time had expired with no deal. 'We knew just about everything,' he said. 'We knew enough that we gave Iran 60 days to make a deal and today is 61, right? So, you know, we knew everything.' Trump said it was unclear if Iran still has a nuclear program following Israeli strikes on the country. 'Nobody knows. It was a very devastating hit,' Trump said. Israel said it had targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon. Trump said the U.S. still has nuclear talks planned with Iran on Sunday but he was unsure they would take place. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was scheduled to meet an Iranian delegation in Oman. 'They're not dead,' Trump said of the U.S.-Iran talks. 'We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I'm not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday.' The president had convened his top national security advisers at Camp David on Sunday night for what he said were discussions that included Iran, and he spoke to Netanyahu on Monday about Iran. A White House official said Trump spoke with Netanyahu again on Friday. Trump also held talks about the attacks with his National Security Council in the White House Situation Room. No details of the discussions were immediately available.
