Donald Trump has announced his intention to appoint venture capitalist and lawyer David O. Sacks to be “White House A.I. and Crypto Czar,” where he will lead policy in the two emergent tech spaces.
Sacks is reportedly a close confidant of Elon Musk, who will also hold a special advisory role to the White House on cutting government spending.
Sacks founded a venture capital firm in 2017 called Craft Ventures. He was also a pivotal player at PayPal in the early 2000s. Sacks is a lawyer by training and hosts the weekly podcast “All In” about the technology industry.
Brigham Hyde, AI startup founder of Atropos Health, said he expects Sacks to take a thoughtful approach to AI regulation because of his legal background.
“He sort of takes a constitutional, sort of legal approach to thinking through these problems when it comes to regulation, which I think is good because he’s thoughtful about the pros and cons of different types of legislation affect they can have so he’s a very strong legal mind. That’s why he’s not gonna rush in in my opinion and insert some broad base regulation you know because he’ll understand how those playoff in court,” Hyde said.
Because Sacks is a venture capitalist, Hyde said he expects Sacks to favor innovation and startup businesses. In Trump’s post on Truth Social announcing the intent to appoint Sacks, he said Sacks will move the government away from “big tech bias.”
Trump also said artificial intelligence is critical to the future of American competitiveness, and started he wants the U.S. to be “the clear global leader” in AI and crypto. Trump emphasized a framework of “free speech” in AI. Trump promised a legal framework for the crypto industry but made no such claims about AI.
“I am pleased to announce that David O. Sacks will be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,” Trump wrote Thursday night on his social media platform, Truth Social. “In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas. He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S. David will also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology…” the post said.
He joined what became PayPal in 1999 and became the company’s first product officer and chief operating officer.
With Craft Ventures, Sacks has invested in Affirm, AirBnB, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish, according to the Craft Ventures website.
“I think in general he’s a really thoughtful guy, really knowledgeable about the topics I think we’ll probably do smart things. I’d say with a little bit of a tilt towards less regulation rather than more,” Hyde said.
Sacks has been openly supportive of far-right Republicans and hosted fundraisers over the last several years for candidates HHS Secretary nominee and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and president-elect Donald Trump.
Sacks officially endorsed Trump in June in a post on X. In his endorsement post, Sacks wrote: “My reasons rest on four main issues that I think are vital to American prosperity, security, and stability — issues where the Biden administration has veered badly off course and where I believe President Trump can lead us back.”
Publisher: Source link
