I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you while sitting in front of Roy Lichtenstein’s monumental Drowning Girl, on view in New York City. Today in tech, we’re discussing the perils of Elon Musk’s one-man global infrastructure, AI-generated music, and a Guardian AI conference in Paris. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the single largest satellite operator in the world, larger than any government space bureau.
The life-threatening consequences of that dominance and centralization of power are on full display. One man is in charge of global, vital infrastructure, which is thumbing the scales in the war on Ukraine. SpaceX’s internet service was throttled in Ukraine amid a series of devastating attacks by Russia last week, leaving the country extremely vulnerable.
The US government controls StarShield, the satellite internet service produced by SpaceXSI for the Pentagon, which is what Ukraine relies on. Objects moving faster than 100 mph (160.9 km/h) – drones, the centerpiece of Ukraine’s counteroffensive – lost connectivity. The sudden restrictions Tuesday evening led to the failure of several Ukrainian combat missions.
Russian drones fly at nearly 200 mph (328.9 km/h), so Ukrainian interceptor drones can’t catch them without Starlink, and no alternative is as yet viable. In response, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned “people will die.” The cutoff comes alongside Donald Trump’s mercurial souring on Ukraine. Pressured domestically by the high price of diesel and upcoming midterm elections, the US president has eased sanctions on Russia, and Zelensky has said US intelligence agencies on several occasions in recent days didn’t warn Ukraine of incoming missile attacks, as they usually do.
Musk has denied his own involvement in StarShield’s malfunctioning, writing, “This is not under SpaceX control.” reported that the request to throttle the service in Ukraine came from the White House. Responding to the claim, Trump said: “I don’t know if it was anybody because it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon. And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.” US secretary of state Marco Rubio said “no one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down the internet.” Read more: What is Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade Starlink system, and how will its restriction affect Ukraine?
Musk’s denial has been met with skepticism given his close ties with the administration. It is impossible to disentangle him and SpaceX from the Trump administration. He has realigned himself with the White House in recent months, patching up his explosive feud with the president from a year ago and appearing with Trump at major events.
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