Elon Musk set for Downing Street talks with Rishi Sunak today after AI safety summit

Published

1 year ago

November 2, 2023

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Elon Musk will head to Downing Street for talks with Rishi Sunak today following the prime minister’s AI safety summit.

The billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla jetted in for the event at Bletchley Park, which began on Wednesday with attending countries backing an agreement on the need to manage risks posed by the technology.

Follow updates from the summit in the Politics Hub

China and the US, the world’s leading AI powers, were among 28 countries to endorse the Bletchley Declaration.

It said nations should work together to research the safety of so-called frontier AI models, which some experts – including Musk – believe could one day threaten humanity.

“It’s a risk,” he told Sky News on day one of the summit.

PM’s AI balancing act

The Bletchley Declaration said any threats are “best addressed through international cooperation”, and also set out plans for more global summits next year.

Mr Sunak said the agreement was a “landmark achievement”.

But there was little sign of a concrete approach to regulation or any suggestions of a pause in AI’s development, which experts including Musk called for earlier this year.

It also did little to satisfy critics who warned the prime minister ahead of the summit he was too focused on hypothetical future threats, rather than present dangers like job losses and misinformation.

In a joint statement after the declaration was published, leading AI experts and civil society organisations warned politicians were not showing enough urgency to regulate.

Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan has defended the government’s approach at the summit, saying more hypothetical risks were still ones “we shouldn’t take lightly”.

She said the government was seeking to “strike the right balance” between safety and innovation.

Leading AI firms Anthropic and ChatGPT maker OpenAI have opened international offices in the UK, she added, proving the government was taking the right approach.

China keeps close control of its AI companies, will the West be able to do the same?

Tom Clarke

Science and technology editor

@aTomClarke

Elon Musk might have brought some stardust to this summit, but a more quietly significant presence was the Chinese government.

Although AI safety has been discussed in places like the UN, this is the first time China has sat round a table to discuss the issue with their American and European counterparts.

The UK government faced criticism from some of its own MPs for inviting China. The truth is, any honest effort to mitigate the risks of AI has to be a global one.

If, as some have suggested, super-intelligent AIs of the future might represent the same existential risk as nuclear weapons did in the 20th century, only a similar level of international agreement can keep us safe.

According to Professor Yi Zing, an AI researcher at the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences, China has already developed AIs equally as powerful – and potentially as problematic – as GPT4 and its rivals in the West.

The major difference of course, is that the Chinese state keeps close control over its AI companies – and can ensure it benefits from any advances they make.

For regulators in the West it’s not so easy. Can they persuade increasingly powerful AI firms to allow them meaningful access to their AI models to ensure they are safe? And what can they do if they conclude they are not? Progress on that is a key objective of the second day of this summit.

When is the Sunak-Musk meeting?

The meeting between the prime minister and Musk will take place after the summit has officially closed.

Thursday will see Mr Sunak convene a small group of governments, companies, and experts, while the technology secretary will meet again with her international counterparts.

It’s not known who the PM will be meeting, but the summit has welcomed the likes of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, and US vice president Kamala Harris.

His talks with Musk will take place in Downing Street, and be livestreamed on X (formerly Twitter).

Musk has hosted politicians on the platform before, notably a glitch-filled discussion with Ron DeSantis when the Florida governor launched his US presidency bid.

Musk and Mr Sunak have been divided on the need for AI regulation, with the former telling the US Congress in September there was “overwhelming consensus” for it.

Mr Sunak on the other hand has expressed caution, saying too much oversight would stifle innovation.

But Musk – the world’s richest man – changed his tune somewhat ahead of his UK trip, voicing his opposition to sweeping safeguards unveiled by US President Joe Biden earlier this week.

It included requiring AI companies to share safety data with the government before releasing their models publicly.

Speaking at the UK summit, Musk suggested he would prefer a “third-party referee” to regulate the sector.

Politics

Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Published

10 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Stablecoins are the single best tool for the United States government to maintain the US dollar’s hegemony in global financial markets, according to LayerZero Labs CEO and founder Bryan Pellegrino.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, the CEO of LayerZero Labs, which created the LayerZero interoperability protocol recently chosen by Wyoming to be the distribution partner for the Wyoming stablecoin, said that the cross-border accessibility of dollar-pegged tokens makes them an obvious choice to drive US dollar demand. Pellegrino added:

“Stablecoins for the US dollar are the single best tool — the last Trojan Horse or vampire attack on every single other currency in the world — whether it is Argentina, whether it is Venezuela, whether it is all of the countries that have massive inflation.”

The CEO said he expects support for stablecoins on both the federal and state levels to grow because of the obvious boost stablecoins give to the US dollar in foreign exchange markets and the financial moat stablecoin-driven demand will create around the US dollar’s global reserve currency status.

Dollar, US Government, Stablecoin — *Stablecoin market overview. Source:* *RWA.XYZ*

US government looks to stablecoins to protect US dollar

Pellegrino cited Tether’s emerging role as one of the largest buyers of US Treasury bills in the world as evidence of the demand for US debt instruments from stablecoin issuers.

Tether recently became the seventh-largest holder of US Treasuries, beating out Canada, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to extend US dollar hegemony and indicated this would be a top priority for officials in 2025.

According to a 2023 report from Chainalysis, over 50% of all the digital asset value transferred to countries in the Latin American region, including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Venezuela was denominated in stablecoins.

The low transaction fees, relative stability, and near-instant settlement times for dollar-pegged stablecoins make these real-world tokenized assets ideal for remittances and stores of value for residents in developing countries suffering from high inflation and capital controls.

Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins

Politics

CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

Published

12 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will likely see a reduced role in crypto regulations as other federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state-level regulators assume a bigger role in crypto policy, according to Ethan Ostroff, partner at the Troutman Pepper Locke law firm.

“I think with the current administration, my sense is, we are highly likely to see a significant pullback by the CFPB in the context of the activity by other regulators,” Ostroff told Cointelegraph in an interview.

State regulators also have the authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) to assume some of the regulatory roles of the CFPB, the attorney said but also added that some regulatory functions will continue to fall within the purview of the CFPB as a matter of established law.

Ostroff cited the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) as regulators to keep an eye on as potential leaders of crypto regulations at the state level.

However, the attorney clarified that while the CFPB may see a diminished role during the Trump administration, the agency would not be outright dismantled during the current regime due to “statutorily mandated obligations and requirements” that require acts of Congress to change.

Trump administration targets CFPB in efficiency push

The Trump administration targeted the CFPB as part of a broader push by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash government spending and reduce the federal debt.

Russell Vought, the recently appointed head of the CFPB, announced major funding cuts to the agency and scaled back operations within days of assuming the helm at the CFPB in February 2025.

Bitcoin Regulation, US Government, United States, Donald Trump — *Source:* *Russell Vought*

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Elon Musk for dismantling the CFPB, which the US senator co-founded back in 2007.

Warren characterized Musk as a “bank robber” and claimed that the Trump administration dismantled the CFPB to undo consumer protection rules and have greater control over the financial system.

In a February 12 interview with Mother Jones, the senator stressed that the Executive Branch of government does not have the statutory authority to fully dismantle the CFPB, which can only be done through Congressional approval.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Politics

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments

Published

19 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing .5 billion in repayments

Nearly 400,000 creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX risk missing out on $2.5 billion in repayments after failing to begin the mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

Roughly 392,000 FTX creditors have failed to complete or at least take the first steps of the mandatory Know Your Customer verification, according to an April 2 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

FTX users originally had until March 3 to begin the verification process to collect their claims.

“If a holder of a claim listed on Schedule 1 attached thereto did not commence the KYC submission process with respect to such claim on or prior to March 3, 2025, at 4:00 pm (ET) (the “KYC Commencing Deadline”), 2 such claim shall be disallowed and expunged in its entirety,” the filing states.

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments — *FTX court filing. Source:* *Bloomberglaw.com*

The KYC deadline has been extended to June 1, 2025, giving users another chance to verify their identity and claim eligibility. Those who fail to meet the new deadline may have their claims permanently disqualified.

According to the court documents, claims under $50,000 could account for roughly $655 million in disallowed repayments, while claims over $50,000 could amount to $1.9 billion — bringing the total at-risk funds to more than $2.5 billion.

The next round of FTX creditor repayments is set for May 30, 2025, with over $11 billion expected to be repaid to creditors with claims of over $50,000.

Under FTX’s recovery plan, 98% of creditors are expected to receive at least 118% of their original claim value in cash.

How FTX users can complete KYC

Many FTX users have reported problems with the KYC process.

However, users who were unable to submit their KYC documentation can resubmit their application and restart the verification process, according to an April 5 X post from Sunil, FTX creditor and Customer Ad-Hoc Committee member.

Impacted users should email FTX support (support@ftx.com) to receive a ticket number, then log in to the support portal, create an account, and re-upload the necessary KYC documents.

FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, processed the first round of repayments in February, distributing $1.2 billion to creditors.

The crypto industry is still recovering from the collapse of FTX and more than 130 subsidiaries launched a series of insolvencies that led to the industry’s longest-ever crypto winter, which saw Bitcoin’s (BTC) price bottom out at around $16,000.

While not a “market-moving catalyst” in itself, the beginning of the FTX repayments is a positive sign for the maturation of the crypto industry, which may see a “significant portion” reinvested into cryptocurrencies, Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.