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The European Union is considering an AI ban |
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Salesforce’s Vala Afshar said it best: “In the last 20 years, software ate the world. In the next 20 years, AI will eat software.” Artificial Intelligence (AI) may well chomp away, but not without first being put on a diet. The EU is considering a partial AI ban that will be formally announced April 21, according to a draft proposal picked up by Politico. The proposed ban is the first of its kindEurope’s legislative body will likely focus on “high risk” AI systems and could fine companies up to €20m or 4% of revenue if they don’t comply. “High risk” refers to things like mass surveillance and social credit scores that can impact safety and privacy. AI for things like manufacturing and energy would likely be good to go. The regulations include:
The catch: Experts say the rules are vague and leave room for loopholes. The rules also come as AI investment in the US is hotter than ever:
US companies could likely be subject to the EU’s new rules. Though the draft could change come April 21, we have a feeling few companies will be big fans. |
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Ethereum’s co-founder snags $65m to help modernize financial infrastructure |
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Blockchain studio ConsenSys closed a $65m round of funding this week. While the funding is sizable, the investors are the real prize. Leading the round are banking heavyweights UBS and JPMorgan Chase. The latter previously sold its enterprise blockchain tech Quorum to ConsenSys in a deal last August — now, they own a lil’ bit of ConsenSys. AKA the full-circle back scratch is complete. Not to be outshined by its banking big bros… … Mastercard is getting in on the action, tooMC ponied up cash in the funding round and inked a partnership deal with ConsenSys to develop enterprise blockchain applications. The funding and partnership announcement comes on the heels of a general legitimization of blockchain technology among investment circles — *cough* Coinbase IPO *cough*. The wrinkle is ConsenSys dabbles in EthereumAKA ETH, the No. 2 cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. Founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys’ work has centered around 2 Ethereum-based blockchain technologies: NFTs and DeFi, or decentralized finance. Notably, ConsenSys is the team behind MetaMask, a popular browser extension for interacting with NFTs and Ethereum wallets. If you were dropping dimes on CryptoPunks last month, you probably used it. |
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Source: Synthesis School |
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Meet Synthesis, the edtech startup scaling Elon Musk’s Ad Astra school |
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Elon Musk is well known for many things. PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX… and even a monkey using brain implants to play pingpong. Less publicized: Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”), a private school started by Musk and educator Josh Dahn. Musk laid out his goals for a new school program…… in a 2015 interview:
But only a few SpaceX families had access to the programOver the past few years, Dahn has been working with Chrisman Frank — a veteran engineer from edtech startup ClassDojo — to bring Ad Astra to the masses. Frank is CEO of Synthesi School, an online games-based academy launched last November (Musk is not involved with the startup). It offers a weekly virtual enrichment program that teaches Ad Astra-inspired problem-solving. In a few short months, Synthesis has reached a 7-figure run rate (~1k subscribers paying $180 per month)… but the school has much larger plans. The Hustle recently spoke with Frank to find out more (full Q&A here). |
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| Podcast |
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How to make millions hosting eventsEveryone knows The Hustle started as an events business. What they don’t know is that back then there was no email list, we had no money, and we had no experience. But our first event made 100s of thousands in sales and had an 80% margin. How did we pull it off? We break it down on the pod. 👇 |
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🎧 Listen below:
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“You, yeah you… read my annual letter” (Source: Alex Wong / Getty Images) |
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Jeff Bezos drops knowledge on us |
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Since Amazon went public in 1997, Jeff Bezos has penned a much read annual letter to the company’s shareholders. With plans to hand over reins of the company to AWS head Andy Jassy later this year, Bezos dropped his final annual letter. After processing the emotions of never reading a Bezos annual letter again, our Jacob Cohen highlighted some key takeaways:
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| AI-related tweet of the day |
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Source: Reddit |
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