During a meeting with science and technology advisers on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden raised concerns about the safety of artificial intelligence (AI) and urged technology companies to prioritize safety when developing and releasing AI products. While acknowledging the potential benefits of AI in tackling issues such as disease and climate change, Biden stressed the need to address possible risks to society, national security, and the economy.
“It is yet to be determined. There is a possibility,” Biden replied when asked about the potential hazards of AI. He cited the negative impact that powerful technologies can have in the absence of appropriate measures to protect against them, citing social media as an example. “Absent safeguards, we see the impact on the mental health and self-images and feelings and hopelessness, especially among young people,” he said.
Biden emphasized the importance of technology companies ensuring their products are secure before releasing them to the public. He called for the U.S. Congress to approve non-partisan privacy laws that limit the personal data gathered by technology firms, prohibit child-targeted advertising, and give priority to health and safety in product development.
In recent years, there has been growing concern about the potential risks associated with the development and use of AI. While AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries and address complex global issues, it also poses significant risks to society, including job displacement, bias, and the potential for unintended consequences.
The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy, a technology ethics organization, recently urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to prevent OpenAI from releasing new commercial versions of GPT-4, a language model that has both impressed and alarmed users due to its human-like capacity to create written responses to prompts.
The debate over the safety of AI is likely to continue as technology continues to advance at a rapid pace. Biden’s call for technology firms to prioritize safety and for Congress to enact privacy laws that prioritize health and safety in product development is an important step towards ensuring that the benefits of AI are realized while minimizing the risks.
United States President Joe Biden has slammed Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter Inc claiming the social media site was a culprit in spreading false information across the globe.
President Biden made this statement in passing during a fundraiser in Chicago earlier this week, as he cautioned contributors about the impact the upcoming elections would have in the years to come.
Recall that Jack Dorsey’s formerly owned media platform Twitter was purchased for $44 billion by Elon Musk, who describes himself as a defender of free expression. However, since the acquisition, Musk has commenced a plan to fire around half the company’s 7,500 personnel after removing the majority of top executives and the board.
Based on the development, the Biden government has already made clear its position in favor of encouraging the censorship of offensive speech and falsehoods on social media sites. Nevertheless, the president emphasized the absence of oversight on Twitter, adding:
“There are no editors anymore. There are no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake.”
Musk’s objectives to reform Twitter’s content regulation have alarmed advertisers. These include Pfizer Inc. and General Mills Inc., which say they will for the time being halt their advertising campaign spending on the site while they wait to see how Musk proposes to revamp Twitter.
Civil Rights Groups Begin to Mount Pressure on Twitter’s Advertisers
Furthermore, civil rights organizations are increasing their pressure on advertisers to demand that Musk upholds action to prevent the site from serving as a platform for inciting hate speeches or misinformation.
Musk confirmed earlier this week that reservations regarding content filtering on Twitter had contributed to a considerable loss in sales, as advertisers clamp down on budgets. Meanwhile, he insisted that nothing has been altered with content regulations.
In October after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter reports suggested several ways that Musk, who is one of the most significant crypto influencers globally, might bring more cryptocurrency into twitter.
The United States Treasury Department has delivered a crypto framework to President Joe Biden as instructed in the Executive Order (EO) issued back in March.
The Treasury Department said the framework sent to the President was created in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the heads of other relevant agencies.
According to the Treasury, the framework calls on the United States’ core allies to collaborate on creating international standards for regulating crypto assets.
Harmonizing Crypto Regulations Across Borders
The Treasury highlights the need to harmonize approaches that can help to nip in the board regulations in combating crimes emanating from the crypto ecosystem which often spills to foreign jurisdictions.
“Uneven regulation, supervision, and compliance across jurisdictions creates opportunities for arbitrage and raises risks to financial stability and the protection of consumers, investors, businesses, and markets,” the framework reads, adding, “Inadequate anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulation, supervision, and enforcement by other countries challenge the ability of the United States to investigate illicit digital asset transaction flows that frequently jump overseas, as is often the case in ransomware payments and other cybercrime-related money laundering.”
Also, the Treasury wants the US to take the charge in leading talks with respect to the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) frameworks.
“Such international work should continue to address the full spectrum of issues and challenges raised by digital assets, including financial stability; consumer and investor protection, and business risks; and money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, sanctions evasion, and other illicit activities,” the Treasury noted.
While the United States is now doing all it can to focus on the nascent crypto industry, the European Union is already ahead. The EU agreed on its own comprehensive framework for Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) in the past week, with full implementation barely a few years away.
It is not immediately clear how the US and EU will harmonize strategies moving forward but on CBDCs, more work is still ahead and the collaboration may be more meaningful this way.
The White House has officially tapped former Fed governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to serve as the vice chair for supervision for the Federal Reserve, as well as economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to fill two empty seats on its board of governors.
In a Friday announcement, U.S. President Joe Biden said he had nominated Cook, an Obama-era economic adviser and Michigan State University faculty member, as well as Jefferson, a former research economist for the Fed, to the board of governors in addition to Raskin. Jefferson and Cook will take two of the vacant seats in the group of seven governors, with Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard nominated to serve as chair and vice chair, respectively.
According to the U.S. President, the three nominees have the “experience, judgement, and integrity to lead the Federal Reserve and to help build our economy back better for working families.” He cited Jefferson’s and Cook’s decades of experience working on economic issues, while saying Raskin was “among the most qualified nominees ever” for the vice chair for supervision.
The vice chair for supervision, as opposed to the vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, is a relatively new role within the government agency. Randal Quarles was the first to hold the position for the full four-term year from 2017 to 2021 shortly before resigning as a Fed board member in December. According to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in 2010, the vice chair for supervision “shall develop policy recommendations for the Board regarding supervision and regulation of depository institution holding companies and other financial firms supervised by the Board and shall oversee the supervision and regulation of such firms.”
Many vacancies at the Federal Reserve, the result of terms expiring and board members resigning, have given President Biden the opportunity to shake up the agency’s leadership. This week, his picks for the Fed chair and vice chair — Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard, respectively — testified before the Senate Banking Committee in advance of a vote before the full Senate. Should they receive more than 50 votes, Powell, Brainard, and Raskin would serve as the Fed board’s leadership until 2026, with Cook and Jefferson serving 14-year terms.
Related:US lawmaker hints at upcoming crypto legislation as Jerome Powell says Fed will release report on digital currency soon
A significant change in leadership of some of the top financial regulators in the United States could have an impact on how the government looks at both crypto and blockchain. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will likely see a shakeup in 2022, with the expected departure of SEC commissioners Elad Roisman this month and Allison Lee in June. In addition, President Biden has not suggested he intends to re-nominate CFTC commissioner Dawn Stump prior to her term expiring in April.
With the addition of Caroline Pham’s and Summer Mersinger’s names sent to the Senate for confirmation, the U.S. President has the opportunity to completely reshape the CFTC leadership.
The White House is reportedly considering an Obama-era economic adviser and former Fed economist to fill the empty seats on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2022.
According to a Wednesday report from the Washington Post citing people familiar with the matter, U.S. President Joe Biden is still considering Duke University law professor Sarah Bloom Raskin to take one of the vacancies in the group of seven governors serving at the Federal Reserve this year, in addition to economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson. Cook teaches at Michigan State University and has previously worked as a member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, while Jefferson was a research economist for the Federal Reserve Board.
The report comes as the White House officially announced on Tuesday it had sent Jerome Powell’s and Lael Brainard’s nominations to the Senate to await confirmation before serving as the next Fed chair and vice-chair, respectively. Powell has served as the chair since 2018, while Brainard has been a board member since 2014. Confirmation from the Senate would allow Powell and Brainard to act as two of the top leaders of the Fed until 2026, while Raskin, Cook, and Jefferson would likely serve 14-year terms, should their names be put forward.
Vacancies at the Federal Reserve open to Biden’s picks are the result of board member Randal Quarles resigning his position effective as of the end of December 2021, while current vice-chair Richard Clarida is expected to leave in January 2022. A significant change in the makeup of one of the top financial regulators in the United States could have an impact on how the government looks at cryptocurrencies. Though Biden has not officially announced his picks to fill the empty seats, he said in November he planned to nominate replacements with a focus on “improving the diversity in the Board’s composition.”
Related:Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he isn’t concerned about crypto disrupting financial stability in the US
Leadership at other government agencies responsible for digital asset regulation in the United States, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will likely see a shakeup in 2022. SEC commissioner Elad Roisman is expected to leave the agency by the end of January and Allison Lee’s term is set to expire in June.
Only two commissioners out of the normal five are currently serving at the CFTC. In the same announcement from the White House yesterday, Biden sent Kristin Johnson’s and Christy Goldsmith Romero’s names to the Senate to fill two of the CFTC commissioner seats. However, with the expected departure of Commissioner Dawn Stump in February, the U.S. President will likely have more opportunities to pick financial experts who could have an impact on crypto-related policy.
The US government is close to postponing its federal default for at least a year after Congress finally approved a debt limit increase by a whopping $2.5 trillion.
With the potentially growing debt ceiling above $30 trillion and the enhanced mass printing of US dollars, which already causes surging inflation, the question arises – what about Bitcoin?
US Debt Ceiling Raised (Again)
The US House of Representatives approved the previous debt ceiling raise in October 2021 with a more “modest” $480 billion increase, which brought the borrowing limit to $28.9 trillion. Although the Republicans initially tried to oppose the bill’s acceptance due to the Democrats’ plans to enhance social and climate spendings, the legislation was quickly signed by President Joe Biden and came to effect.
It was known at the time that this particular limit increase won’t do any good for the country in the long run, as the next hearing was expected to be in December. As December arrived, the scenario repeated to a large extent, with Republicans seemingly trying to fight the bill but the Democrats emerging with the upper hand.
With a 221-to-209 vote, the bill passed Congress and is now in the hands of President Biden, who is expected to sign it soon. If he does, the bill will increase the federal government’s debt limit by $2.5 trillion to $31.4 trillion. More importantly for the world’s most powerful economy, though, it will delay the threat of a federal default until at least early 2023.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California praised the bill’s acceptance, saying, “the full faith and credit of the United States should never be questioned. The health of our economy should never be threatened.”
In contrast, Republican Representative Jodey Arrington was disappointed in the end result, noting that the country’s debt level will be at its highest level since World War II and “we ain’t in a war” now.
US Congress. Source: Yahoo
How Does Bitcoin Fit Into This?
With the US printing excessive amounts of its national currency in the past two years and the frequent raising of its debt limits, the consequences are already more than evident. The US inflation rates, which have historically been increasing by 3.24%, have grown by significantly larger percentages in the past six months.
This led to a 6.8% surge in November – the highest in approximately 40 years. Even the people behind some of the most crucial decisions – Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – stopped referring to the rapidly increasing inflation as “transitory.”
On the other shore lies Bitcoin. It has pre-programmed inflation rates, which actually decline every roughly four years. It doesn’t have a central authority behind it to decide whether the amount of newly created bitcoins should nearly double in a few years as the dollar did. It has a limited supply, which can’t be increased by a signature from a president.
Somewhat expectedly, all of these features started to attract prominent investors from outside the cryptocurrency industry. Names like Paul Tudor Jones III, Stan Druckenmiller, Thoma Bravo, Anthony Scaramucci, and others started to pour money into BTC and frequently praise it as an investment tool against rising inflation.
$2.5 Trillion Bitcoin Ad
With the new $2.5 trillion debt limit increase awaiting just the signature of President Biden, who is a Democrat, CryptoPotato decided to reach out to some crypto insiders and experts to check out their opinion on the potential effects on BTC.
Max Keiser, the host of the Keiser report and a well-known BTC proponent, said this bill has created the “perfect conditions for Bitcoin” as the US government has “capitulated to the ravenous, insatiable dogs of hyperinflation.”
“I hate to see America collapse, but I don’t own more than a few USD, so I don’t care.” – he added.
Scott Melker, known as the Wolf of All Streets, indicated that Bitcoin is an uncorrelated asset that offers “idiosyncratic risk for a savvy investor with a long time horizen.”
“Short-term news like the inevitable increase in the debt ceiling is a small blip on the radar for Bitcoin. Everyone knows that the government will continue to print money and raise the debt ceiling whenever necessary, which is largely priced in to Bitcoin’s importance and use case – as a hedge against this very nonsense.” – he concluded.
Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini co-founder and early BTC adopter, believes the Senate’s approval will actually work as a “$2.5 trillion advertisement for Bitcoin.” Michael Saylor shared a similar opinion, replying, “it would appear that Bitcoin has government support.”
It would appear that #bitcoin has government support…
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) December 14, 2021
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The White House recently released a first-of-its-kind, 38-page report detailing new efforts to fight state and financial corruption. It breaks down the effort into five strategic pillars, one of which bears mention of a new “National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team”.
Prosecuting Crypto Criminals
The Biden Administrationreleasedthe document through a statement from the White House’s website on Monday. As reads the statement, the strategy places particular emphasis on reducing “the ability of corrupt actors to use the U.S. and international financial systems to hide assets and launder the proceeds of corrupt acts.”
Under pillar III, titled “Holding Corrupt Actors Accountable,” it states that the DOJ will combat the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit finance through a new, dedicated task force:
“DOJ will utilize a newly established task force, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, to focus specifically on complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.”
Money laundering is a persistent concern among regulators regarding cryptocurrencies – especially stablecoins. From Gary Gensler to Jerome Powell, fiat-pegged digital assets areperceivedas unregulated avenues for global payment that can scale rapidly across illegal payment networks, due to their high liquidity.
Illicit Uses of Cryptocurrencies
That wasn’t the only mention of crypto in the strategy: pillar II titled “Curbing Illicit Finance” re-states the United States’ efforts to review risks posed by digital assets, and to cooperate with other nations in developing a central bank digital currency.
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While recognizing the efficiencies and conveniences created by the technology, it names numerous illicit activities for which crypto is purportedly used, including narcotics trafficking and sanctions evasion.
Cryptocurrencies are also an increasingly popular tool for ransomware attacks. The non-reversible nature of crypto transactions leaves victims with no recourse to get their money back from cybercriminals that extort them for money. Earlier this year, John OlivertargetedMonero for marketing itself as a tool for such bad actors.
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US President Joe Biden has officially renominated Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, with competitor Dr. Lael Brainard as Vice President. That puts Powell in office for another 4 years, allowing his agenda for addressing inflation to be put to the test.
Four More Years for Jerome Powell
Biden unveiled his nominations in a white house statement earlier today. Justifying his decision, he credits the US economy’s falling unemployment and relatively fast recovery to Powell’s “decisive action”.
“Chair Powell has provided steady leadership during an unprecedently challenging period, including the biggest economic downturn in modern history and attacks on the independence of the Federal Reserve,” reads the statement.
The president also showed appreciation for Powell and Brainard’s “shared belief” that climate change’s economic impact ought to be addressed. While the Fed’s traditional mandates are to maintain low unemployment and low inflation, he said the two have “refocused” its objectives.
Powell assumed the position of Fed chairman in February 2018. Brainard became a member of the board in 2014, after serving as undersecretary for the US Department of the Treasury.
In the wake of the pandemic and worldwide lockdowns, Powell’s response has invoked unprecedented government stimulus to cushion the US economy. As such, 40% of US dollars currently in circulation were printed in the last 12 months, under his leadership. Many speculate that this has largely contributed to rising inflation in the country, which reached a 30-year high last month.
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Powell has since announced plans to taper its $120 billion monthly bond purchase program to deal with the rising prices.
Jerome Powell. Source: Barrons
Powell on Bitcoin
Last month, Powell confirmed that he has no intention to ban cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. However, he shared SEC chairman Gary Gensler’s belief that stablecoins need regulation.
Earlier this year, the chairman recognized Bitcoin as a potential substitute for gold, but not the US dollar. He calls it “speculative” and a “failed currency” due to its alleged inability to serve as a store of value or medium of exchange.
Bitcoiners disagree, however. In fact, Senator Cynthia Lummis recently suggested using Bitcoin to ‘stabilize’ the otherwise unstable US dollar, which she says has been in a ‘tailspin’ under Powell’s leadership. Meanwhile, Anthony Pompliano – a Bitcoin Youtuber that regularly covers inflation – told his followers to “buckle up” following Powell’s renomination.
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