Mark Cuban worries algorithms will decide the president in 2024

Billionaire Mark Cuban said it's not "policy and personalities" but algorithms that'll sway voters this election year.

• Mark Cuban warned that social media algorithms could determine the president.
• "This is the first AI driven election season where policy and personalities mean nothing," he wrote.
• He also called the impact of algorithms on children "terrifying."

Will social media decide who becomes president? That's what Mark Cuban is worrying about.

The billionaire "Shark Tank" investor warned about social media's outsized influence this election cycle.

"This is the first AI driven election season where policy and personalities mean nothing and algorithms drive everything," Cuban wrote on X on Monday.

Cuban argued that "narratives delivered by the algorithms" — whether factual or not — are now more important to voters than "actual events."

This means employees at social media companies who design algorithms have "the most influential positions in politics," Cuban said — followed by campaign staffers "who can figure out how to reverse-engineer the algos."

Cuban outlined his argument on X, but said the thesis applies to all social platforms "that are tuned to maximize engagement and or revenue."

Beyond politics, he called the impact of unpredictable algorithms on children today "terrifying" — and even more influential than their parents.

So how does Cuban think we should solve the problem?

"Any site that doesn't fully publish their algorithms, with complete source code, shouldn't allow minors on the site," Cuban told Business Insider.

If they do, Cuban said "there should be an option for each parent to get a text history file, showing links to all the videos, emailed to them daily."

Cuban similarly warned of social media's ills Sunday after the attempted assassination of former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Cuban warned users to watch out for scammers and grifters like people creating fake fundraisers. He also wrote he hoped the former president was okay, and thanked the Secret Service for putting themselves in harm's way.

The famed entrepreneur has previously voiced his support for President Joe Biden in November's election.

Cuban's also publicly feuded with Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the X platform itself — as well as CEO of SpaceX and Tesla — who endorsed Trump for president after the former president was shot during a campaign rally on Saturday.

Bloomberg also reported that Musk sent money to a pro-Trump group even before the attempted assassination.

Musk had previously said he wasn't donating to any candidate in the 2024 election.