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Peter Thiel has been a major Trump supporter and spent big to help elect JD Vance to the Senate.
He said he’s not interested in working in Trump’s new administration — at least full-time.
He said politics is important but he’d be « depressed and crazy » if he thought about it all the time.
Peter Thiel was one of President-elect Donald Trump’s first major supporters in Silicon Valley, donating more than $1 million to groups that supported Trump’s 2016 campaign.
However, that doesn’t mean he’s interested in actually serving full-time in Trump’s second administration.
« I’m not going to do anything on a full-time basis, » Thiel said on « Piers Morgan Uncensored, » an online talk show. « You can’t go full-time into government if you’ve been in a tech position like I have. It’s just — the sort of things you have to be realistic about, what you can and can’t do. »
As Trump has begun staffing his new administration, he’s plucked a handful of figures from tech world. They include entrepreneur and investor David Sacks, who’s set to serve as an AI and crypto czar in the new administration, and Jacob Helberg, who works at Palantir and was recently nominated to a role at the State Department.
Elon Musk is perhaps the biggest tech-world figure who’s working with Trump these days. Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk is set to co-lead the « Department of Government Efficiency, » a new initiative to root out wasteful spending in the federal government. It isn’t a full-time role for Musk, and DOGE won’t have any formal authority on its own.
As Thiel offered cautious praise for DOGE, Morgan asked him whether he might consider an « Elon-style role » with Trump.
« It’s just not my area of comparative advantage, » Thiel said. « I think politics is very important… I enjoy going on your show, thinking about it every now and then. If I spent my whole life thinking about this, man, I’d be depressed and crazy. »
Despite Thiel’s apparent lack of interest in working in the government himself, he’s had a significant impact on politics in recent years.
Thiel was instrumental in the political rise of Vice President-elect JD Vance, pouring millions of dollars into a super PAC that supported the Ohio senator’s 2022 campaign.
Another close associate of Thiel, Blake Masters, is reportedly in the running to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) under Trump.
Andrej Karpathy recently suggested AI could enhance e-book reading with interactive features.
Amazon may already be thinking about this for its Kindle e-books.
The company is looking for an applied scientist to improve the reading and publishing experience.
The AI pioneer and OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy thinks AI can significantly improve how people read books. Amazon may already be thinking about how to do this for its Kindle e-books business.
In a series of posts on X this week, Karpathy proposed building an AI application that could read books together with humans, answering questions and generating discussion around the content. He said it would be a « huge hit » if Amazon or some other company built it.
One of my favorite applications of LLMs is reading books together. I want to ask questions or hear generated discussion (NotebookLM style) while it is automatically conditioned on the surrounding content. If Amazon or so built a Kindle AI reader that “just works” imo it would be…
A recent job post by Amazon suggests the tech giant may be doing just that.
Amazon is looking for a senior applied scientist for the « books content experience » team who can leverage « advances in AI to improve the reading experience for Kindle customers, » the job post said.
The goal is « unlocking capabilities like analysis, enhancement, curation, moderation, translation, transformation and generation in Books based on Content structure, features, Intent, Synthesis and publisher details, » it added.
The role will focus on not just the reading experience but also the broader publishing and distribution space. The Amazon team wants to « streamline the publishing lifecycle, improve digital reading, and empower book publishers through innovative AI tools and solutions to grow their business on Amazon, » the job post said.
3 phases
Amazon identified three major phases of the book life cycle and thinks AI could improve each one.
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First up is the publishing part where books are created.
Second is the reading experience where AI can help build new features and « representation » in books and drive higher reading « engagement. »
The third stage is « reporting » to help improve « sales & business growth, » the job post said.
An Amazon spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
‘I love this idea’
There seems to be huge demand for this type of service, based on the response to Karpathy’s X post.
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison wrote under the post that it’s « annoying » to have to build this AI feature on his own, adding that it would be « awesome when it’s super streamlined. »
Reddit’s cofounder Alexis Ohanian wrote, « I love this idea. »
Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip?
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Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, was found dead on Nov. 26 in his apartment, reports say.
Balaji, 26, was an OpenAI researcher of four years who left the company in August.
He had accused his employer of violating copyright law with its highly popular ChatGPT model.
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher of four years, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26, according to multiple reports. He was 26.
Balaji had recently criticized OpenAI over how the startup collects data from the internet to train its AI models. One of his jobs at OpenAI was gather this information for the development of the company’s powerful GPT-4 AI model, and he’d become concerned about how this could undermine how content is created and shared on the internet.
A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department told Business Insider that « no evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation. »
David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the city’s office of chief medical examiner, told the San Jose Mercury News « the manner of death has been determined to be suicide. » A spokesperson for the city’s medical examiner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
« We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time, » an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to BI.
In October, Balaji published an essay on his personal website that raised questions around what is considered « fair use » and whether it can apply to the training data OpenAI used for its highly popular ChatGPT model.
« While generative models rarely produce outputs that are substantially similar to any of their training inputs, the process of training a generative model involves making copies of copyrighted data, » Balaji wrote. « If these copies are unauthorized, this could potentially be considered copyright infringement, depending on whether or not the specific use of the model qualifies as ‘fair use.’ Because fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, no broad statement can be made about when generative AI qualifies for fair use. »
Balaji argued in his personal essay that training AI models with masses of data copied for free from the internet is potentially damaging online knowledge communities.
He cited a research paper that described the example of Stack Overflow, a coding Q&A website that saw big declines in traffic and user engagement after ChatGPT and AI models such as GPT-4 came out.
Large language models and chatbots answer user questions directly, so there’s less need for people to go to the original sources for answers now.
In the case of Stack Overflow, chatbots and LLMs are answering coding questions, so fewer people visit Stack Overflow to ask that community for help. This, in turn, means the coding website generates less new human content.
Elon Musk has warned about this, calling the phenomenon « Death by LLM. »
The New York Times sued OpenAI last year, accusing the start up and Microsoft of « unlawful use of The Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it. »
In an interview with Times that was published October, Balaji said chatbots like ChatGPT are stripping away the commercial value of people’s work and services.
« This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole, » he told the publication.
In a statement to the Times about Balaji’s accusations, OpenAI said: « We build our A.I. models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by longstanding and widely accepted legal precedents. We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness. »
Balaji was later named in the Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI as a « custodian » or an individual who holds relevant documents for the case, according to a letter filed on November 18 that was viewed by BI.
If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or has had thoughts of harming themself or taking their own life, get help. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations. Help is also available through the Crisis Text Line — just text « HOME » to 741741. The International Association for Suicide Prevention offers resources for those outside the US.
Michael Jordan has sold his mansion in the Chicago suburbs after 12 years on and off the market.
Jordan, who hasn’t lived there in years, listed it for $29 million in 2012. It sold for $9.5 million.
The massive home has custom nods to Jordan throughout, which might be why it took so long to sell.
Michael Jordan‘s mansion in the suburbs of Chicago, which has sat abandoned for years, has a new owner.
The legendary basketball star has officially sold the nine-bedroom home, which has been on the market on and off since 2012, for $9.5 million, according to property records.
Fourteen years ago, the former Chicago Bulls shooting guard listed the Highland Park, Illinois, mansion for $29 million. In 2015, he reduced the price to $14.855 million — whose digits add up to 23, the number on his Bulls jersey.
The mansion’s sale price is a 67% discount from its original asking price.
Listing agent Katherine Malkin, of Compass, told The Wall Street Journal that after buying the property in 1991, he spent about $50 million building the home.
The house is full of nods to Jordan’s basketball career, including the 23 on the front gate. His famous Air Jordan logo adorns the full-size indoor basketball court, and flag sticks on the putting green.
Even after various gimmicks, like offering a complete set of Air Jordans with purchase and marketing the home via videos in Mandarin to Jordan’s fans in China, the house sat abandoned.
Jordan splits his time between his home state of North Carolina and Jupiter, Florida.
Mike Judge’s film « Idiocracy » became a cult hit despite initial studio neglect.
Like Judge’s previous film « Office Space, » DVD rentals helped « Idiocracy » gain popularity.
Luke Wilson told Business Insider he has a sequel idea he’s pitched to Judge.
Since its release almost two decades ago, Mike Judge’s « Idiocracy » has become a beloved comedy, even and perhaps especially as people have begun drawing similarities between its plot and real-life events.
Though star Luke Wilson says it’s the movie that fans still bring up to him the most, he calls its eventual success « the biggest surprise. » When the film was initially released by 20th Century Fox in 2006, the studio had no faith in it.
« I’ll never forget I was reading the LA Times before the movie opened, and I saw a small ad that said ‘Idiocracy,’ and only three theaters were listed, » Wilson told Business Insider in his interview for our Role Play series. « So I called Mike Judge, and he told me the studio dumped the movie. I was bummed out. »
Judge had been through this before. His previous movie, « Office Space, » opened in 1999 with zero notice, though it would go on to become a pop-culture sensation once it hit DVD and cable in the early 2000s.
« Idiocracy » had the same post-theatrical success. In 2007, it took in $9 million in DVD rentals, 20 times its domestic gross.
In the comedy, Wilson plays Joe, who agrees to an experiment that, due to unforeseen events, results in him being in hibernation for 500 years. He awakes in a future where the population is illiterate and obsessed with big-box stores and the president is a former professional wrestler.
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The movie gained pop-culture notoriety during Donald Trump’s first run for president. At the time, « Idiocracy » screenwriter Etan Cohen tweeted, « I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary. »
Wilson has always been game to do a sequel, and told BI he often pitches Judge on the idea.
« I’ve always told him, how about me and Terry Crews and Dax Shepard coming back to the present day, » Wilson said. « We see Terry’s Camacho character become president, Dax’s character runs a movie studio. I’m always pitching that to Mike. He gets a kick out of it. »
Business Insider contacted Mike Judge for comment but didn’t receive a response.
GM has bowed out of the robotaxi race for now, halting its investment in Cruise.
Only a few companies have made significant strides in the autonomous taxi space.
Tesla and Waymo are the two frontrunners due to the progress they’ve made with self-driving.
General Motors‘ white flag in the robotaxi race on Tuesday just made the autonomous ride-sharing competition much smaller in the US, showing how challenging it can be for companies, even with the capital, to compete if they haven’t already made significant headway in autonomy.
Eight years and more than $10 billion in investment later, GM said that the resource-intensive nature of Cruise and an increasingly competitive market has pushed the company to shift away from its robotaxi dreams. The company said in a statement that GM will be focusing on building up its advanced driver assistance systems for « personal vehicles. »
The decision was seen by many analysts as an implicit ceding of the robotaxi race to a few companies who are already far ahead in the game, namely Tesla and Waymo.
« We believe GM’s move also potentially implies that other companies (Tesla & Waymo) have better tech and/or that the market may not be appealing for later entrants, » BofA analyst John Murphy wrote in a note. « Waymo is already offering a robotaxi service across several US cities and Tesla plans to launch its service in 2025. »
While Chinese companies continue to make strides in autonomous ride-sharing services, including Baidu’s Apollo, Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, told Business Insider that he believes autonomous vehicles in the western world will be « powered by two or three companies. »
Part of the reason is because delivering robotaxis requires solving the autonomous driving equation and only a few companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Amazon have the resources — and shown the goods, to varying degrees — to do so, Munster said.
« We look at 2,000 companies a year that are cutting-edge tech companies, and we never see anybody trying to solve for autonomy, » said Munster, who follows the autonomous vehicle industry. « The reason why is that this ship has basically sailed. It’s going to be one of those three. »
That GM has decided to pull back its Cruise operations is not an indictment against the business opportunity robotaxis itself presents — GM likely made a prudent move to shift its priorities, Tom Narayan of RBC Capital Markets wrote in an analyst note.
Safety incidents involving Cruise’s fleet however kept putting the company at odds with regulators.
The company was stripped of its permit to operate in California after a woman was dragged underneath one of its vehicles last October, essentially paving a clear path for Waymo to get ahead of GM in the state.
Waymo began offering ride-sharing services to a few major cities this year and announced plans to expand to the Miami public in 2026. As of October, the Alphabet-owned company said it now provides more than 100,000 paid rides per week.
A Waymo spokesperson declined to provide comment.
Amazon’s Zoox is gearing up to offer public rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco in 2025, differentiating itself from competitors through its unique carriage-style vehicles that don’t come with a steering wheel. The company also recently hired a key Tesla autopilot executive.
Tesla has yet to provide commercial rides through its recently debuted Cybercab, but analysts are giddy about the company’s timeline. CEO Elon Musk said during an earnings call in October that a $25,000 Cybercab will reach volume production by 2026.
Munster noted another advantage Tesla has is its potential to scale autonomous services, given that there are millions of Tesla vehicles on the road today. Those vehicles also provide large amounts of data to help Tesla fine-tune its Full Self-Driving feature.
« My sense is that this is a big data, large language model type of problem, » Munster said. « I think that the advantages that Tesla will gain in data will outpace the disadvantage that they have in hardware. »
Representatives for Zoox and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
New shows like « No Good Deed » and « Dexter: Original Sin » are also premiering.
Buzzy movies like « Conclave » and « Maria » are now streamable.
It’s the end of an era: « Yellowstone » takes its final bow this weekend. (Or maybe not, depending on how those Beth and Rip spinoff rumors shake out.)
There are also some TV premieres this week, including the « Dexter » prequel series, « No Good Deed, » from « Dead to Me » creator Liz Feldman, and a new reality show featuring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
Over on the film side, there are documentaries like « Elton John: Never Too Late, » acclaimed dramas like « Conclave, » and buzzy-for-the-wrong-reasons movies like « Joker: Folie à Deux. »
Here’s a complete rundown of all the best movies, shows, and documentaries to stream this weekend, broken down by what kind of entertainment you’re into.
UnitedHealth Group’s CEO eulogized his slain colleague, Brian Thompson, in a New York Times op-ed.
Thompson’s shooting sparked a nationwide debate about the state of the health insurance industry.
Witty’s op-ed faced fierce online criticism from people who said it didn’t offer solutions.
The head of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, is responding to the « vitriol » that’s been lodged — both on- and offline — against the health insurance industry and its workers.
In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Friday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty expressed his grief over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, as well as his appreciation for the « outpouring of support » for Thompson. He then condemned the mounting rhetoric that he said has glorified violence against health insurance workers.
« We also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats, » Witty wrote.
« No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety, » he wrote.
Witty acknowledged growing criticism that the healthcare industry is flawed and defended his company’s place within it.
« We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it, » Witty wrote, adding that his company’s mission is to build a system that works better for everyone.
And Thompson, he added, advocated for ideas « aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human. »
The fatal shooting of Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel last week sparked a nationwide conversation about the state of the US health insurance industry, with many criticizing the system’s ability to provide lifesaving care.
Witty’s op-ed in the Times had received more than 2,400 comments as of Friday afternoon, many of which ridiculed his statement and condemned what they said were UnitedHealth Group’s practices of denying insurance claims.
A number of commenters called out Witty for saying the system is flawed without providing any tangible solutions to fix it. Others criticized the for-profit health insurance system as a whole, with some acknowledging that businesses are meant to make a profit and others advocating for nonprofit healthcare.
UnitedHealth didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Trump took over the family real estate business in 1971 and used it to build his business brand.
As the family’s businesses expanded, they faced lawsuits and financial volatility.
Here’s everything to know about the Trump businesses and increasingly complicated ethical questions.
When President-elect Donald Trump was growing up, he worked in the offices and on the construction sites of his father’s real estate business, Elizabeth Trump & Son. By 1973, he had taken over the company and given it a now well-known name: The Trump Organization.
In the decades since, Trump has pursued global real estate development, reality television shows, a media conglomerate, cryptocurrency, and branded products like Bibles. His signature company has faced financial and legal turmoil throughout the years, but has become synonymous with his trademark brand of business success.
When Trump took office in 2017, he handed formal control of the Trump Organization to his two elder sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Some questioned whether conflicts of interest persisted for the then-president, who had simultaneous political and professional power. Now that Trump has won a second term in the White House, the Trump Organization will again have to navigate a murky business landscape.
Here’s everything to know about the Trump Organization and the family’s business ventures, including financial volatility, lawsuits, and an increasingly complicated web of ethical questions.
Company history
Fred Trump was born in New York City in 1905. He started building and selling homes in Queens when he was 19, eventually developing properties in Brooklyn and Staten Island as well.
The president-elect was involved with the business since childhood and began officially working for his father shortly after graduating college. He took over the company in 1971 and renamed it in 1973.
Key business areas
Real estate
After taking over, Trump helped expand the business, buying properties in Manhattan and outside of New York. He developed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in 1976, despite not having enough money to buy the property (this is among the early plot points in ‘The Apprentice,‘ a 2024 movie about Trump’s business rise).
By the 1980s, Trump had established himself as a real estate mogul, boasting properties like Trump Tower and beginning to pursue casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Trump Organization faced financial challenges in these years, with multiple Trump-owned properties filing for bankruptcy in the early 1990s. The president-elect used bankruptcy protections to restructure the company’s debts and maintained his image as a successful businessman.
Today, the Trump Organization’s website lists eight hotels, five of which are in the U.S. It also lists residential properties across the country and globe, with a focus on New York. In addition to the real estate holdings, the organization lists 18 golf courses it owns or is developing.
Entertainment ventures
In 1996, Trump bought the Miss Universe Organization, which included Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. He sold the company in 2015, after NBC dropped the show due to remarks he made about Mexican immigrants during his 2016 presidential campaign. The beauty pageant has been awash in controversy in recent years, and some contestants have said that Trump would look at them as they changed backstage.
Trump starred as himself in a reality show, ‘The Apprentice,’ which he hosted from 2004 to 2015. Aspiring business leaders battled each other in challenges and Trump served as the judge, telling a contestant each week, « You’re fired! » The show and its spinoff, ‘The Celebrity Apprentice,’ helped expand Trump’s national reach. NBC cut Trump’s ties with the program in 2015.
After leaving the White House in 2017, Trump formed Trump Media & Technology Group and its flagship product, Truth Social. He founded the company after being kicked off of many mainstream social media sites for his actions on January 6 and now owns a majority stake. Trump Media’s financial health shifts with the president-elect’s political prospects. Many consider it a « meme stock, » since its share price doesn’t correlate to its profitability.
Trump Media’s stock soared after Trump won the 2024 election. The president-elect’s stake in the company is his most valuable asset, valued at around $3.5 billion in December, 2024.
Trump-branded products
Since his earliest business days, Trump has profited from branded products, starting with his buildings themselves. During his reality television days, he attached his name to everything from board games to steaks.
Trump has continued to sell branded products as a political figure, and financial disclosures released in August reveal that he made more than $12 million off of NFTs and books alone. He also sells sneakers, cologne, and a Trump Bible.
Leadership and ownership
The Trump Organization is a collection of around 500 privately held companies. Trump ran the day-to-day operations of the company prior to becoming president, but handed control over to his two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, when he moved into the White House in 2017.
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The company’s leadership is composed largely of family loyalists. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are currently the executive vice presidents.
Since the 1970s, most presidents have put their assets into blind trusts, a financial arrangement whereby an independent trustee controls the holdings. During the 2016 campaign, Trump put his assets into a trust controlled his older sons and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer at the time. The arrangement was not as extensive as a blind trust structure.
Trump resigned but didn’t sell his stake in the company, which promised not to make any new foreign deals while Trump was president. The Trump Organization also hired an outside ethics advisor at the time and said it would donate any profits from foreign governments to the Treasury Department.
Various parties sued Trump over alleged violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prevents presidents from receiving payments or gifts from foreign governments. International governments with interest in US policy decisions spent money at various Trump properties during his term. Three cases about the clause were dismissed without resolution after Trump left office.
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Controversies and legal challenges
The company’s legal troubles predate Trump’s time in the White House, stretching back to the era of Fred Trump’s leadership.
In 1973, the Justice Department sued Fred and Donald Trump for alleged racial discrimination. The parties settled and the Trumps didn’t admit any wrongdoing. The company’s business practices continued to receive scrutiny throughout the rest of the 20th century, especially as it faced financial difficulties.
Trump borrowed money to fund new projects like hotels and casinos, and in 1990 his dad bought more than $3 million worth of casino chips to help a venue make an interest payment. Later, the state of New Jersey found that the transaction was an illegal loan and levied a fine of $65,000.
Over the past three decades, Trump and his companies have been engaged in many lawsuits, ranging from bankruptcy proceedings, to fights with gambling patrons, to personal defamation suits. Recently, the company has been entangled in both a civil and criminal fraud trial in New York.
In the civil case, the state’s attorney general accused the Trump Organization of misleading banks and insurers about property values. A Manhattan judge found Trump guilty in February 2024 and ordered the company to pay almost $364 million before interest, with Trump personally responsible for nearly $355 million of the penalty. By March, judges had lowered Trump’s bond to $175 and the president-elect has appealed the case. As part of this case, Weisselberg, the company’s former CFO, was sentenced to jail time after admitting to perjury.
On the same day the AG first filed the civil fraud case, Trump formed « Trump Organization II » in an apparent attempt to protect his holdings. Anticipating that Trump might try to move his holdings to a company that isn’t being sued, the judge made him tell a court-appointed monitor about « any corporate restructuring, disposition or dissipation of any significant assets. »
New York’s criminal suit against Trump ended in 34 convictions, making him the first former president convicted of a felony. A 12-person Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star. The judge in the case has indefinitely postponed Trump’s sentencing and the president-elect is now arguing that the case should be thrown out entirely because he has presidential immunity. In July, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are broadly immune from prosecution, and Trump’s legal team is arguing the same should be true for presidents-elect.
Next steps for the Trump Organization and other businesses
Now that Trump is headed back to the White House, the Trump Organization once again finds itself in a thicket of legal and ethical questions. The company may or may not reinstate its ban on foreign deals once Trump is sworn in for a second term and has business in countries central to America’s foreign policy agenda, like Saudi Arabia.
In addition to the Trump Organization, Trump Media is another ethical gray area, as people with a vested interest in policy decisions could buy advertisements on Truth Social or shares of stock. Doing so would raise Trump’s net worth, given that he owns a majority stake in the company.
In September, Trump announced a family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. The platform is marketed as a way for traders to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies. Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Barron Trump are all involved in the venture. A document from the company lists all four of them as part of the team, but says no Trump family members are employees or officers. Ethics experts have said that World Liberty Financial could also pose conflicts of interest since Trump will oversee crypto regulations as president.
The Trump Organization, Trump Media, and World Liberty Financial did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
OpenAI published Elon Musk’s old emails in a blog post on Friday.
The AI company released its version of a timeline of events amid a brewing legal feud with Musk.
In a 2015 email, Musk said OpenAI’s nonprofit structure didn’t seem « optimal. »
OpenAI responded to co-founder Elon Musk on Friday with a new legal filing and a pointed blog post featuring the billionaire’s old emails in which he pushed for the AI startup to be for-profit.
The emails and filingare the latest blows thrown in the legal feud between OpenAI and Musk. Last month, Musk asked a federal court to stop OpenAI from moving to a for-profit business structure. In the last year, Musk has twice sued OpenAI in an effort to stop the startup from adopting a more traditional business structure.
In a Friday afternoon legal filing, OpenAI accused Musk of trying to hobble the AI startup while he perfects his competitor, xAI.
The company also detailed its version of a timeline of events in a post titled « Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for profit, » saying that the Tesla CEO « not only wanted, but actually created a for-profit » structure in 2017.
The emails stand in contrast to Musk’s more recent public stance against OpenAI transitioning from a not-for-profit company to a for-profit organization.
Musk did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
In one image of a November 2015 email, Musk wrote to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that the startup’s then-non-profit structure « doesn’t seem optimal, » according to the post.
OpenAI wrote in the blog that the company and Musk both agreed that a for-profit was the next step for the startup in the fall of 2017. But when Musk failed to win majority equity, OpenAI accused him of walking away and saying the company would « fail. »
Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018, but his lawyers have said he continued contributing to the company until 2020.
« Now that OpenAI is the leading AI research lab and Elon runs a competing AI company, he’s asking the court to stop us from effectively pursuing our mission, » OpenAI wrote this week.
Musk announced xAI, his competitor to OpenAI, last year and has since released the Grok chatbot.
In a November 2015 email published earlier this year, Musk said the company should say it was starting with a funding commitment of $1 billion, promising to cover « whatever anyone else doesn’t provide. »
OpenAI also accused Musk at the time of wanting the startup to merge with Tesla and be its « cash cow. »
Musk’s most recent filing is his fourth attempt in less than a year to « reframe his claims, » OpenAI said in the blog post.
« You can’t sue your way to AGI, » the company wrote in the blog post. « We have great respect for Elon’s accomplishments and gratitude for his early contributions to OpenAI, but he should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom. »