Rishi Sunak wanted to impress Elon Musk as he giggled along during softball Q&A

Published

2 years ago

November 2, 2023

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Mid-interview with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Elon Musk began speculating that AI “friends” might be better than real-life ones.

Musk‘s proposition in front of an invited audience of business leaders was that supercomputers that use advanced algorithms to mimic human contact might present more attractive future companionship model for humanity than real-life living, breathing friends.

For some this might seem bleak, perhaps even worthy of challenge: yet Sunak – in his sharp suit and tie – laughed along Musk, in the jeans and T-shirt.

Politics latest: Musk criticises AI conference hours before Sunak meeting

Both men agreed that, given what they had seen in the Terminator movies, an off-switch for robots that have gone wrong were a good idea.

This was not a moment for difficult questions.

“We feel very proud, very excited to have you,” said Rishi Sunak at the start of the event, which Downing Street has been speaking about in hushed tones for days.

Having Musk at the AI summit was undoubtedly a coup, lending an important significance to an event that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was heavily invested in.

But whether it was wise to allow Sunak to interview Musk on Thursday night – a 40-minute softball event where the PM seemed intent on impressing one of the most powerful unelected individuals in the globe – is an altogether different question.

Musk is a controversial figure for a reason – his particular business interests – internet connectivity, space and manufacturing – mean his decisions can be inextricably intertwined – and can conflict – with Britain’s domestic and foreign policy goals.

Musk can offer internet services to Gaza that Israel has denied, via his Starlink satellite system. He can intervene in the Ukraine war to help or restrain Ukraine’s efforts against Russia. He has strong views on migration and the mainstream media.

Yet the power balance at the event in Lancaster House did not suggest this. Rishi Sunak looked like the one wanting to impress, selling low-tax Britain, espousing the need to embrace failure more readily, giggling along.

Sunak clearly wanted Musk’s blessing for the AI summit and its achievements: why?

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One tech company executive told a civil servant they see “time zones, not countries” now.

Sunak did little to dispel Elon of this impression.

Politics

Gensler separates Bitcoin from pack, calls most crypto ‘highly speculative’

Published

3 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Gensler separates Bitcoin from pack, calls most crypto ‘highly speculative’

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler renewed his warning to investors about the risks of cryptocurrencies, calling most of the market “highly speculative” in a new Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.

He carved out Bitcoin (BTC) as comparatively closer to a commodity while stressing that most tokens don’t offer “a dividend” or “usual returns.”

Gensler framed the current market backdrop as a reckoning consistent with warnings he made while in office that the global public’s fascination with cryptocurrencies doesn’t equate to fundamentals.

“All the thousands of other tokens, not the stablecoins that are backed by US dollars, but all the thousands of other tokens, you have to ask yourself, what are the fundamentals? What’s underlying it… The investing public just needs to be aware of those risks,” he said.

Gensler’s record and industry backlash

Gensler led the SEC from April 17, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025, overseeing an aggressive enforcement agenda that included lawsuits against major crypto intermediaries and the view that many tokens are unregistered securities.

The industry winced at high‑profile actions against exchanges and staking programs, as well as the posture that most token issuers fell afoul of registration rules.

*Gary Gensler labels crypto as “highly speculative.” Source:* *Bloomberg*

Under Gensler’s tenure, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for operating as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, and for offering an unregistered staking-as-a-service program. Kraken was also forced to shut its US staking program and pay a $30 million penalty.

The politicization of crypto

Pushed on the politicization of crypto, including references to the Trump family’s crypto involvement by the Bloomberg interviewer, the former chair rejected the framing.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said, arguing it’s more about capital markets fairness and “commonsense rules of the road,” than a “Democrat versus Republican thing.”

He added: “When you buy and sell a stock or a bond, you want to get various information,” and “the same treatment as the big investors.” That’s the fairness underpinning US capital markets.

ETFs and the drift to centralization

On ETFs, Gensler said finance “ever since antiquity… goes toward centralization,” so it’s unsurprising that an ecosystem born decentralized has become “more integrated and more centralized.”

He noted that investors can already express themselves in gold and silver through exchange‑traded funds, and that during his tenure, the first US Bitcoin futures ETFs were approved, tying parts of crypto’s plumbing more closely to traditional markets.

Gensler’s latest comments draw a familiar line: Bitcoin sits in a different bucket, while most other tokens remain, in his view, speculative and light on fundamentals.

Even out of office, his framing will echo through courts, compliance desks and allocation committees weighing BTC’s status against persistent regulatory caution of altcoins.

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