Donald Trump won the presidential election, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai called to congratulate him. But what surprised Pichai was that on the other end of the line, in addition to Trump, there was a special male guest: Elon Musk. Trump had previously made things difficult for Google and even threatened that if he was elected, he would file criminal charges against Google, claiming that the results presented by its search engine were biased. But Pichai had to put aside past grievances. Google is facing a series of regulatory threats, the most serious of which is that the U.S. Department of Justice is asking federal judges to break up Google. From antitrust issues to social media to related rules in the AI field, there are many things Pichai will need to communicate with Trump about in the future. While Musk is certainly a favored figure around Trump, such direct and in-depth involvement still caught Pichai off guard.
After all, Musk has 6 companies and has a multi-dimensional competitive relationship with Google: from social media to video, from autonomous driving to artificial intelligence. Not only Google, Musk has competitive relationships with too many tech companies, including Chinese companies going global. On the other hand, Musk's companies are deeply entangled with the U.S. federal government, and his SpaceX, Tesla, etc. have various collaborations with the government, as well as legal disputes with multiple government agencies. In other words, if Musk participates in government decision-making, it will create huge conflicts of interest. Last week, Trump officially announced that Musk would be in charge of the 'Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)', to cut unnecessary regulatory laws and wasteful spending, and help restructure federal agencies. Musk has already rolled up his sleeves and started planning massive layoffs among federal employees. This situation is unlikely to make many people happy. Whether it's Mark Zuckerberg, who was still challenging Musk in the octagon last year, or Tim Cook, who was attacked by Musk multiple times for his 'walled garden', or Sam Altman, who was sued by Musk for a good opportunity... everything seems to be moving along an established track. Musk may have been a thorn in the hearts of many colleagues in the past, but now he is about to become a cloud overshadowing the head - whether the sun shines or not depends on the thickness and breadth of the cloud. Musk has already started to take action. Since Trump officially announced the establishment of the 'Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)', with Musk in charge, the latter has already warmed up the upcoming 'cutting' plan within a week. First, Musk initially promised to help the federal government reduce spending by $2 trillion, accounting for nearly one-third. The question is, what spending will be cut? In addition to serious discussions about some policy expenditures, Musk has also exposed some of the federal government's past 'peculiar' expenditures, such as $1.5 million spent on researching the effects of yoga on goats, $33.2 million spent on research on transgender monkeys, and $1.66 million to study the impact of COVID-19 on Russian women... In short, it can be done, but it’s unnecessary. Musk's move undoubtedly sends a signal: there is a lot that can be done to cut spending, so don't think it's exaggerated. Secondly, Musk has focused on federal government employees. To save money, layoffs must be considered. Musk has long established his image as a 'layoff maniac'; after acquiring Twitter, he let go of half the employees, and the company continued to operate. In an article published on November 20 in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who co-leads DOGE with him, proposed to 'determine the minimum number of employees required for institutions to perform their statutory functions.'
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