Andrew Yang, a former candidate for United States president and New York City mayor as well as founder of the Forward Party, had sobering observations about the uses of blockchain, or its lack of use, in the United States and U.S. regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) when he spoke Nov. 16 at the North American Blockchain Summit (NABS) in Fort Worth, Texas.
Yang, who described himself as an “enormous believer in smart money, smart currencies,” said he saw blockchain and Web3 technology in a sorry state, especially in the United States, which creates the risk of firms fleeing overseas. Part of the problem is public perception, Yang said:
“The way to avoid this fate is to have positive use cases for blockchain in solving problems for the American people. […] Unfortunately, what they see in the news is just Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.”
“We have not scratched the surface of what these tools can do to combat poverty,” Yang said. He saw other potential applications of blockchain technology in civic life as well. “Something I’m super passionate about, why is it that we can’t vote on our mobile phones?” he asked.
Yang raised concerns about AI, too, saying U.S. policy on AI is “fairly limited, maybe even incoherent.” Yang was among the 2,600 tech leaders and researchers who signed an open letter calling for a moratorium on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. He reiterated at NABS, “We may be getting ahead of ourselves with the development of these generative models.”
Andrew Yang at NABS on Nov. 16. Source: Turner Wright, Cointelegraph
AI is intimately tied to politics, Yang said, because of the effect it could have on campaigning and public life in general. He said:
“You saw a deep fake of the Pentagon on fire, and the markets moved on that.”
The U.S. regulatory approach — “Let’s wait until the fiasco happens, and then we’ll have hearings about it afterwards,” Yang called it — and the “winner-take-all” economy is part of the problem, according to Yang. In that atmosphere, the benefits of technological advances will be divided highly unevenly, making the existing divisions in U.S. political life worse, he said.
An IPR special correspondent attended the recent kickoff of the Florida Forward Party, where Andrew Yang stated he is backing Rep. Dean Phillips over President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. Follow IPR for more! #flapolhttps://t.co/7jl6oR3lsv
Social media is governed by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Yang said, but Facebook didn’t even exist in 1996. So, while legislation on AI is expected to pass soon in the European Union, “we’re in danger of falling right into space because our legislative body is not functioning at a high level.”
“Shy” Reform voters in Labour areas led to Nigel Farage’s party winning the Runcorn by-election by just six votes, Labour peer Harriet Harman said.
The Runcorn and Helsby seat, created in 2024, went to Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin who defeated Labour candidate Karen Shore by six votes.
Reform overturned a 34.8% majority gained by former Labour MP Mike Amesbury last year before he stood down earlier this year after he punched a constituent on a night out.
It is the closest by-election result since records began in 1945.
“So, there’s a real level of frustration and I’m sure there’ll be a post-mortem, but I think there’s a lot of talk about shy Reform voters in Labour areas.”
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In the local elections, running at the same time, the Conservatives lost control of all 18 councils it was contesting, with Reform taking eight of those.
Image: Harriet Harman on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast
Baroness Harman said Labour now has “got to get on with delivering on the health service” and pointed out the minimum wage increase and breakfast clubs are only just being rolled out.
But she said the government also needs “more of a story” instead of just telling people to “bear with us” while it fixes what the Conservatives did.
“It seems to be that Farage has got no delivery, as yet, and all the story, whereas the government is really getting on with delivery, but it hasn’t got a big enough story about what that fits,” she said.
Image: An installation represents a bus stop during Reform UK’s local elections campaign launch in Birmingham. Pic: Reuters
She added that “Blue Labour” MPs – a socially Conservative wing of the Labour Party – “will be emboldened to press for further action” on issues like immigration, which they want to see a tougher stance on.
“There’s been grumbling about the big salience of the concerns of the winter fuel payment, but I don’t see there being any change on that,” she said.
Baroness Harman said she does not think the by-election and local election results were “utterly predictable” and will not lead to any splits or instability within the party.
Kemi Badenoch has apologised to Tory councillors who lost their seats after Reform made massive gains at the Conservatives’ expense in Thursday’s local elections.
The Conservative leader said she knew it was “disappointing” and that she was “sincerely sorry”, but added: “We are going to win those seats back – that is my job now.”
The Tories lost overall control of all 18 councils they had been in charge of that were up for election. There were 23 councils in the race in total.
A particularly bad loss was Buckinghamshire, which has been under Tory control since 1973 when local government was reorganised. The Conservatives lost overall control by just one seat after losing 29 seats.
Reform, which has never run in local elections before, gained eight councils from the Tories, one that had no overall control previously and one from Labour – the only Labour council up for grabs in this election.
Image: Nigel Farage with the new Runcorn and Helsby MP Sarah Pochin. Pic: Reuters
The Lib Dems won Shropshire from the Tories, as well as Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire – both of which had no overall control before.
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The Conservatives had one win, with Paul Bristow being voted in as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor, previously held by Labour.
Reform’s first major win of the election was the Runcorn and Helsby by-election where Labour lost to Reform by six votes. It was triggered by ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury resigning after his conviction for punching a constituent.
Sir Keir Starmer said he “gets” why his party suffered defeat there and the results show “we must deliver that change ever more quickly, we must go even further”.
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3:05
Tories suffer heavy defeats
Addressing the Conservatives’ abysmal results, Ms Badenoch said: “Other parties may be winning now, but we are going to show that we can deliver and that we are on course and recovering.
“But they [the public] are still not yet ready to trust us,” she added.
“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public.
“That’s the job that the Conservative Party has given me, and I’m going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place where we are seen as being a credible alternative to Labour.”
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4:47
Farage: ‘This is Reform-quake’
Ms Badenoch said Labour’s election results showed Sir Keir Starmer “is on course to be a one-term prime minister”.
However, when asked if she would still be leader at the next general election, Ms Badenoch dodged the question and said: “I’m not playing all these questions that the media loves to ask about my future.
“This is not about me.”
She insisted she was the right person to lead the Conservatives, as she was chosen by the party’s members.
“I told them it wouldn’t be easy, I told them it would require a renewal and rebuilding of our party,” she said.
“That doesn’t happen in six months. I’m trying to do something that no one has ever done before, which is take their party from such a historic defeat back into government in one term.”
Beth Rigby, Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson assemble for an elections debrief.
Beth’s been following a very happy Nigel Farage after Reform gained an MP in Runcorn, took the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty and seized control of several councils.
But, how does the party promising change in its very name prove itself with greater power and responsibility?
They also discuss how Sir Keir Starmer reacts to Labour’s losses (Harriet says he needs to deliver on what he’s promised).
And what Kemi Badenoch has to do after a terrible set of results for the Conservatives (Ruth reckons it’ll be worse for the 2026 set of elections).