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☆ A Sequoia partner announced he's backing Donald Trump following his felony conviction, highlighting a political shift in Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. While Silicon Valley has long been a liberal hub, Trump has been courting the big-pocketed tech executives and venture capitalists there. Others, like venture capitalist Marc Andreeson and Rabois, have not announced their support for Trump but have criticized Biden. The members of the monied West Coast class throwing their support behind Trump are mirroring some Wall Street counterparts. AdvertisementOf course, the growing number of influential Silicon Valley voices supporting Trump — Sacks and Palihapitiya have their popular podcast, Musk has his an entire social media platform — are not representative of many of the area's wealthy inhabitants.

Persons: —, Shaun Maguire, Donald Trump —, Maguire, Hilary Clinton, David Sacks, Elon Musk, Keith Rabois, Trump, Chamath, Sacks, week's Trump, Biden, Musk, Marc Andreeson, Steve Schwarzman, he'd, Bill Ackman, Trump — Sacks, Palihapitiya, Marissa Mayer, Vinod Khosla Organizations: Service, Trump, Business, Silicon Valley, Big Tech, Blackstone, Biden Locations: Sequoia

☆ News outlets are collapsing as advertisers flock to social media platforms, with major implications for society
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Social media companies are soaking up the billions in advertising dollars that once flowed to legacy media companies — a trend that continues to accelerate despite an ever-growing mountain of evidence indicating the Silicon Valley titans govern their ballooning kingdoms with little regard for how their products negatively impact society. Time and time again, companies like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and others have been caught allowing harmful content to exist on their platforms. The committee heard testimony from the heads of the largest tech firms on the dangers of child sexual exploitation on social media. To be fair, brands would likely prefer to advertise on the platforms of responsible media actors versus the risky world of social media. But Big Tech offers these brands much more effective targeting, while boasting a larger and younger audience than legacy news organizations.

Persons: BuzzFeed, You’re, It’s, Meta, ”, Jeff Horowitz, Katherine Blunt, Mark Zuckerberg, Anna Moneymaker Organizations: New York CNN, Social, Media, New York Times, CNN, YouTube, Times, Meta, Dirksen, Facebook, Big, Big Tech, News Locations: New York, Snapchat, Washington ,

☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went on an 18-month, $85 million real-estate shopping spree — including a previously unknown Hawaii estate
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Katherine Long | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

AdvertisementYears before the recent drama at OpenAI turned CEO Sam Altman into a household name, the former Y Combinator president went on an extraordinary 18-month, $85 million real-estate shopping spree, according to records reviewed by Business Insider — including a previously unreported $43 million Hawaii estate on land that locals describe as historically significant. AdvertisementSam Altman's Hawaii estate is immediately adjacent to the reconstruction of the royal temple of King Kamehameha I. Maxar TechnologiesA $43 million estate in HawaiiIn July 2021, Altman bought a twelve-bedroom estate in Kailua-Kona, on the big island of Hawaii, for $43 million. Altman's purchase of the Hawaii property has not been previously reported. AdvertisementAnnie had been unaware that her oldest brother owned property in Hawaii until Business Insider asked her about it, she said. A $27 million San Francisco homeAltman's weekday residence is a home on San Francisco's Russian Hill that was once described — inaccurately — as the most expensive home in San Francisco.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, —, OpenAI, he's, He's, Sam Altman's, King Kamehameha I, King Kamehameha, Jennifer Serralta, Serralta, Jack, Max, — Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Annie Altman, Annie, Sam's, Napa Altman, Cade Metz, Bob Dickinson Organizations: Service, Business, Bloomberg Tech Summit, Wall Street Journal, YouTube, Altman, LinkedIn, Apollo, Opportunity Fund, Silicon Valley, Business Insider, San, SEC, 9Point Ventures, Uncommon Ventures, New York Times, Capital Management, San Francisco Chronicle, New Yorker, Israeli Defense Force, Tesla Locations: San Francisco, Napa, Hawaii, Napa , California, Sam Altman's Hawaii, Kailua, Kona, wakesurfing, Kauai, Lanai, San, Russian, California, Hollywood, Big Sur

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden and other global leaders have spent the past few days melding minds with Silicon Valley titans in San Francisco, their discussions frequently focusing on artificial intelligence, a technology expected to reshape the world, for better or worse. “The world is at an inflection point — this is not a hyperbole," Biden said Thursday at a CEO summit held in conjunction with APEC. None were more bullish than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose software company has invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI, the startup behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT. That is, we finally have a technology that understands us, not the other way around,” Nadella said at the CEO summit. Musk had been scheduled to discuss his hopes and fears surrounding AI during the CEO summit with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, but canceled Thursday because of an undisclosed conflict.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, Satya Nadella, ChatGPT, Nadella, “, ” Nadella, Sundar Pichai, ” Pichai, we’ve, Pichai, ”, State Condoleezza Rice, ” Robert Moritz, Moritz, Elon Musk, Musk, Marc Benioff Organizations: FRANCISCO, Valley titans, Economic Cooperation, APEC, Microsoft, Google, Inc, State, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, “, PricewaterhouseCoopers Locations: San Francisco, Asia, OpenAI

From crypto wunderkind to felonIt took jurors just four-and-a-half hours yesterday to reach a verdict in the monthlong fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the fallen cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The result was unanimous: guilty on all counts. Bankman-Fried has now completed a narrative arc from whiz-kid founder of a crypto empire to fraudster who stole billions in customer funds. Prosecutors moved to paint the FTX founder — who appeared on magazine covers and hobnobbed with former world leaders — as a scammer who repeatedly lied about his business and profited from illegal use of investor and customer funds. “This was a fraud that occurred on a massive scale,” Nicolas Roos, a prosecutor, said in closing arguments.

Persons: Sam Bankman, Fried, fraudster, —, ” Nicolas Roos Organizations: Stanford, Prosecutors

☆ What if We Could All Control A.I.?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Kevin Roose | More About Kevin Roose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If Collective Constitutional A.I. works — and Anthropic’s researchers believe there are signs that it might — it could inspire other experiments in A.I. governance, and give A.I. In a nutshell, Constitutional A.I. works by using a written set of rules (a “constitution”) to police the behavior of an A.I.

Persons: Claude Organizations: Valley titans, United Nations, Human Rights

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Airbnb's Montana smackdown, Microsoft whining, Salesforce worrying, and Reddit rage
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Insider's global tech editor Alistair Barr, and I've been missing people a lot lately. Airbnb Montana smackdown: Life in the town of Bozeman is harder thanks to short-term rentals. That sparked a boom in Airbnb and Vrbo properties in the town, causing rents and property prices to surge. They are concerned about retaining talented colleagues, their future at Salesforce, and how leadership decisions adhere to the company's core values. Submit your nomination for Insider's 5th annual list recognizing first-time and newly named top marketers at consumer brands.

Persons: Alistair Barr, I've, I'd, we're, let's, Brian Chesky Mike Segar, Airbnb Montana, Dan Latu, Justin Sullivan, Read, Nassim Taleb, SoftBank, it's, that's, Bowties, India Narendra Modi, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kevin Dietsch, Dana White, Lisa Ryan, Jack Sommers Organizations: Bozeman Tenants United, Getty, Microsoft, Silicon Valley titans, White House, UFC, Insider's Locations: Bozeman, Airbnb, Seattle, Washington, Salesforce, Silicon, India, China, Silicon Valley, New York, London

☆ Silicon Valley's Hail Mary moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Silicon Valley has entered the Hail Mary phase of its business cycle — a desertic part of a tech-industry downturn where desperation can turn into recklessness. Don't fear the robotsTo understand the Hail Mary moment, it's important to understand the actual capabilities of technology these tech titans are touting. Again, what Musk is describing is AI general intelligence — something much more advanced than the generative AI OpenAI is building on at the moment. During the pandemic when governments were handing out cash and people were stuck at home, the world bought everything Silicon Valley was selling. But those are exactly the types of workers getting laid off in Silicon Valley right now.

☆ The 5 best leadership books I read this year — and what they taught me about running a company
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( David Siegel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For a roadmap for effective, kind leadership and smart decision-making, he shares 5 book recommendations. Publishing a leadership book gave me a newfound perspective on the genre. Here are the top five leadership books I read in 2022 and why I found each one particularly enriching. After reading The Promise of a Pencil, I learned how seemingly small acts can make a world of difference in communities. For anyone considering executive coaching or looking to find a coach, this book is a must-read.

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