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VC David Sacks Named as the White House AI and Crypto Czar

On Thursday, December 5, President-elect Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that David Sacks, co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures and former COO of PayPal, will guide the incoming administration on AI and cryptocurrency. Sacks will also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST).

This is a newly created position and demonstrative of Trump’s aims to bolster the U.S.’s supremacy in the AI sector and deregulate the cryptocurrency sector. According to Bloomberg, Sacks’s future “role is expected to provide cryptocurrency advocates a direct line to the White House and serve as a liaison between Trump, Congress and the federal agencies that interface with digital assets.” Regarding AI, the czar will be instrumental in “determining how the federal government both adopts AI and regulates its use.” For Sacks under the President-elect’s administration, this likely means rolling back safeguards like President Biden’s executive order on AI, which intends to encourage innovation and the responsible development of AI while protecting citizens’ privacy and civil rights.

Sacks has been a vocal supporter of Trump and a big donor to his 2024 re-election campaign. He aligns with the president-elect on a more laissez-faire approach to crypto, and will likely go against Big Tech as Trump intends to. Because this role will designate him as a “special government employee,” Sacks will not be required to “divest or publicly disclose his assets.” However, he must follow conflict of interest rules, meaning he “will have to recuse himself from matters that could impact his holdings.”

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📚 Dive A Bit Deeper 📚

🪞 VANITY DOESN’T PAY — Put the mirror down. Your vanity metrics are showing. In all seriousness, as much as vanity metrics look good on paper, they don’t show much value for investors. So, startup founders, you should show off metrics demonstrating the traction your company is gaining.

✈️ PRIMED FOR TAKEOFF? — Climate tech startups and corporations are frequent collaborators, but how often does the collaboration actually happen? Differing conceptions of work culture, product timelines, and more contribute to these prolonged periods of infrequent communication. Here are some ways to fix that.

😨 PRO-NO-TYPES — What if startup founders didn’t develop a prototype of their product before launching? As wild as it sounds, this is not such a bad idea. Depending on the industry, it may better serve founders to do some research on the ecosystem they’re building in (i.e. talking to potential customers).