Can Musk Get Trump Elected? + Steve Ballmer’s Quest for the Facts + This Week in A.I.

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This week, we debate whether Elon Musk’s recent stumping and fund-raising for former President Trump could help him get re-elected. Then, former Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, stops by to discuss his effort to depolarize our politics using government data. And finally, This Week in A.I. returns: We run down some of the biggest recent stories that caught our attention.

Guest:

• Steve Ballmer, former chief executive of Microsoft, founder of USAFacts

Additional Reading:

• Inside Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Growing Alliance

• The American Right Is Terminally Online

• The New Home of the L.A. Clippers Is a Hot Ticket for Art

• A California Bill to Regulate A.I. Causes Alarm in Silicon Valley

• Endless Honking of Waymo’s Driverless Taxis Wakes a Neighborhood

Credits

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Caitlin Love.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Nell Gallogly, Dahlia Haddad and Jeffrey Miranda.