GoKawiil
Tech News
Elon Musk has agreed to settle two lawsuits filed by Arizona residents in Austin, Texas over his 2024 promise to give $1 million daily to randomly selected registered voters in swing states. The settlement terms have not been disclosed. The plaintiffs alleged the drawings weren't actually random and that they wouldn't have signed the required petition had they known this.
Federal filings show Elon Musk's America PAC spent $76.7 million in the third quarter of 2026, including $35.8 million on a voter-turnout canvassing operation across seven Senate battleground states and various House races. That canvassing spend already exceeds the roughly $45 million the PAC had spent at the same point in the 2024 presidential cycle. Musk also directed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and a similar sum to a newly registered Texas PAC supporting Ken Paxton's Senate bid.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican Senate super PAC, raised a record $272.9 million in the third quarter and holds over $155 million in cash ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms. Elon Musk contributed $158 million of that total through a Texas PAC tied to Ken Paxton, in two donations of $75 million and $83 million. The Democratic Senate Majority PAC raised $151 million in the same period and had $111.8 million on hand.
On WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast, hosts Brian Barrett and Leah Feiger spoke with reporter Reece Rogers about testing Meta's AI agent Muse, discovering it would engage in sexual roleplay beyond its advertised calendar-management functions. The episode also covered a pro-AI super PAC network directing millions of dollars through LLCs, criticism of Apple's new HomeView feature, and a study on men overestimating their AI knowledge.
Federal campaign finance records show Leading the Future's pro-AI super PAC network, including Think Big and American Mission, paid roughly $20 million to Lantern Production Consultants and millions more to three other Nevada-based LLCs for polling, advertising and strategy work. These entities list addresses at a PO box, a mail center, a Staples store and a strip mall, with no other discernible business presence. The network has raised over $140 million to back candidates supporting an AI-friendly policy agenda ahead of the midterms.
Elon Musk has given more than $276 million to Republican political groups since July, newly disclosed figures show, including $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and over $76 million to his America PAC. The contributions push his known federal political spending for the 2025-26 cycle to about $366 million, surpassing his 2024 presidential election spending, with disclosures arriving ahead of a Thursday FEC filing deadline.
A super PAC running ads meant to influence Maine's Senate race reportedly aimed its campaign at the wrong Portland, targeting Oregon's largest city instead of Maine's. The mix-up means the ad spending likely reached an audience with no stake in the Maine election.
Elon Musk has donated more than $276 million since July to political groups working to preserve Republican majorities in Congress ahead of this year's midterm elections. Of that total, $158 million went to the Senate Leadership Fund, the primary super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates. The donations make him the largest known contributor to the midterm cycle so far.
Elon Musk has donated at least $276 million to Republican-aligned groups since July, according to The New York Times, making him the party's top known donor for the 2026 midterms. The largest chunk, $158 million, went to the Senate Leadership Fund, with smaller sums to America PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and groups backing Texas Republicans including Ken Paxton's Senate bid.
YouTuber Valery Kryzhanovsky used the MAME emulator with ReShade and RenoDX to force Nvidia's leaked DLSS 5 upscaler onto the MS-DOS version of Pac-Man, applying a 4x Multipass technique across four rendering modes: Natural, Default, Cinematic, and Denoise. The results were glitchy, with some modes erasing Inky's eyes and the game's dots, since Pac-Man lacks the 3D depth data DLSS 5 is built to process.
A satirical article frames lobbying as a conversation explaining the concept to a non-American, describing how corporations and wealthy individuals fund politicians' reelection campaigns and Super PACs in exchange for favorable legislation. The piece mocks the distinction officials draw between this system and outright bribery, including the post-office 'revolving door' where politicians take consulting jobs with former lobbyists.
WIRED's Leah Feiger and Zoë Schiffer discuss Elon Musk's renewed political spending through America PAC heading into the midterm elections, following his major financial involvement in the 2024 cycle. They note this spending pattern is echoed by other Silicon Valley tech leaders and their own PACs, who are similarly active this election cycle.