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The problem the Republican party seems to have right now is that it’s caught in a bizarre cult of personality, where the only viable candidate is Donald Trump. Eight years have been dedicated to a man that likely won’t be around for another eight due to his age and lifestyle. Donald Trump can’t drop out, because to many he IS the Republican Party.
Put succinctly, if Trump were to drop out, could you realistically see him backing another candidate, without making it about himself?
In some ways it’s petrifying that Trump could win. In another, it’s hilarious to think that IF Trump were to lose, how would the Republicans recover in four years? Trump will never not make it about himself, and I bet he’ll put himself on the ballot for as long as he can, further eroding the right.
I can kinda answer that.
There’s a term used in tech called “empire building”. It’s where managers and execs promote their little slice of the company to persevere and grow their own career. At a certain level, it leads to someone that leads a division like AI having enough influence that they can say “let’s put AI into search”.
The sad thing about tech is that at a certain level, an executive rises above the customer in dictating what is best for a product. Data and stats can tell you whatever story you want to promote, so at Google HQ they’re probably worried about the negative press, but they’re looking at “successful” numbers of questions answered by AI and are patting themselves on the back. Both search and AI execs look good because they delivered something, and they’ll likely get a nice bump from their bosses in terms of rep.
The thing with empires is that they fall. Not overnight, and maybe not with the same emperor, but they do fall.