Rare!
On Wednesday morning, October 23rd local time, Berkshire Hathaway issued a rare statement on its official website, emphasizing that the company's chairman, Warren Buffett, will not recommend any investment products or political candidates on social media.
Berkshire Hathaway makes rare statement
On October 23rd, Berkshire Hathaway released a statement on its official website stating that its chairman Warren Buffett will not endorse investment products or political candidates. The statement said, "Given the increasing use of social media, there have been numerous fraudulent allegations about Mr. Buffett endorsing investment products and endorsing and supporting political candidates. Mr. Buffett currently does not endorse investment products, nor will he endorse and support political candidates in the future
(Source: Berkshirehathaway)
Regarding this statement, Buffett further emphasized on the same day, "I am concerned that someone may impersonate me, which is why we posted this matter on the Berkshire Hathaway website. Don't believe those who claim that I am telling you how to invest or how to vote
At present, as the countdown to the US presidential election approaches, the support of top billionaires for candidates from both camps is also a hot topic in this year's election: Musk and Bill Ackerman openly wave flags and cheer for Trump. In order to support Trump, Musk even launched a petition to "support freedom of speech and gun rights". As long as voters in swing states are willing to sign the petition, they have a chance to receive $1 million. Meanwhile, the latest news indicates that Bill Gates will secretly support Harris with a whopping $50 million. Famous American rapper Eminem also publicly supports Harris.
It is worth mentioning that Buffett's last foray into American politics dates back to 8 years ago, when he publicly supported Hillary against Trump during the 2016 US election. In addition, relevant records show that Buffett's political donation account has not been opened since the last check was sent in 2019.
According to previous reports, the Buffett family has explicitly rejected the Democratic Senate candidate from Nebraska and the fundraising request from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee this year.
AI fraud worries Buffett
It is understood that Buffett's statement was partly due to false political support information appearing on Instagram, a social platform owned by tech giant Meta, which caught his attention. I don't even know how to log in to Instagram, "Buffett said, adding that he wants to make sure people realize that" anything they see with my image or voice is not me.
Buffett is concerned about the so-called AI fraud, which refers to the use of artificial intelligence to impersonate influential individuals for commercial gain or other purposes. Due to technological advancements, images or videos are becoming increasingly realistic. At present, a large number of false images and information about Buffett's support for the election have been deleted from Instagram, but there are still a large number of portrait images of Buffett generated using AI technology.
Buffett stated earlier this year that although he is not very familiar with artificial intelligence technology, there was an experience that made him feel "a bit nervous" about AI. He accidentally discovered a video generated by AI using his image, conveying a message that was "completely not sent by him personally". This worries him that AI may open the door to scams, and he claims that this phenomenon could become the "fastest-growing industry in history".
At this year's Buffett shareholder meeting, Buffett stated that he knew "nothing" about artificial intelligence, but that doesn't mean the technology isn't important. Buffett compares this technology to nuclear weapons because it has the potential to bring about significant changes. Artificial intelligence has enormous potential and enormous' harm '. At that time, Buffett compared artificial intelligence to' an elf that has already come out of a bottle '. I've said before that when we developed nuclear weapons, we released the Genie from the bottle, and that Genie has been doing some terrible things lately. The power of that Genie scared me. And I don't know any way to put the Genie back in the bottle, artificial intelligence is a bit similar, "Buffett said.
Buffett said at the time that it may be too early to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence. Buffett believes that artificial intelligence technology is incredible, but not everyone's predictions about it may be correct. If it is only used for social or convenience services, artificial intelligence may be a benefit, but we are not sure whether artificial intelligence will be the next 'nuclear bomb' we develop
