The talk was billed as a fireside chat on AI. But a week before the election, Vinod Khosla, the billionaire founder of Menlo Park-based Khosla Ventures, couldn’t help but weigh in on politics at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.
His outlook is dire — and he made his negative feelings on another Donald Trump presidential term crystal clear.
“Our democracy is definitely on the line,” Khosla said on stage at the Moscone Center Monday. “I have a simple test for MAGA extremists: Was the last election stolen? If you say it was, I don’t really want to talk to you, because we don’t share facts.”
Trump wasn’t the only person in Khosla’s line of fire. The 30-minute conversation, moderated by TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos, turned to Khosla’s relationship with Elon Musk at the halfway mark.
“Musk is a great entrepreneur,” Khosla said. “Catching that rocket with chopsticks was one of the coolest engineering feats I’ve seen, and I sent him a congratulatory message,” he said, noting that Musk replied thank you to his Twitter message.
But, Musk has also ignored “all the depravity of Trump,” lambasting the fellow billionaire for amplifying Trump’s misinformation. “How ridiculous can you get?” Khosla said, joking that the way to counter Musk’s misinformation was to tell everyone he’s “an alien or something.”
Despite disapproving of Musk’s recent political activity, Khosla said he’s keeping his electric car.
“I bought my Tesla before Elon went crazy. I haven’t thought about getting rid of it,” he said.
Khosla similarly criticized Musk last week at Reid Hoffman’s sold-out Masters of Scale conference. But unlike that deep-blue gathering centered on politics, at least one person at Disrupt in the packed auditorium was clearly unhappy with the political chatter.
When Khosla brought up Musk’s support of Trump, an audience member near the front shouted, “Are we talking about politics now!?!”
Khosla briefly paused to consider the heckler but continued on. When Khosla talked about democracy being on the line in this election, the heckler audibly groaned and walked out of the auditorium. The man, whose conference badge identified him as Alex Winter of Hotpoint App, declined to speak with reporters.
Even when the topic of AI did arise, Khosla couldn’t help diving back into politics, dissing California state senator Scott Wiener, the author of SB 1047.
The bill, vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, would have established regulations for AI companies to prevent their technology from being used for harm. The bill infuriated many in tech and venture capital, who thought it would stifle innovation in the nascent field.
“If he’s here right now, I’d love to debate him,” Khosla said with a bit of pro wrestler flair about Wiener, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday on a panel about AI governance.
“He’s clueless about the real dangers, which are national security issues. He thinks it’s a state issue,” Khosla said.
Khosla noted he’s a big supporter of the lawmaker’s initiatives on housing and local issues, but on AI and large language models, he said Wiener should stay in his lane. “This is a global national security issue,” Khosla said. “He’s not qualified to have an opinion.”
Loizos was ready to moderate an impromptu debate. “Scott, raise your hand!” she said.
In a statement, Wiener said he appreciates Khosla’s support of his work on housing.
“I have no idea how to build a house, so I work with brilliant housing experts to craft smart housing policy,” Wiener said. “Similarly, in crafting and advancing SB 1047, I worked with some of the top AI experts on the planet.”
Wiener added that Khosla’s view that policymakers shouldn’t regulate tech is misguided. “It’s incredibly arrogant to suggest that only AI technologists and mega investors have a right to an opinion.”