Washington:
Continuing his pattern of compensating donorship with political power, President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday announced podcaster and former PayPal chief operating officer David Sacks as White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar.
Since it is a new role, it is unclear as of now how the vertical would function with the government and what authority David Sacks would have to make or implement changes.
“In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness,” Trump had said on Truth Social when he made the announcement.
He added that Sacks has the “knowledge, business experience, intelligence, and pragmatism to MAKE AMERICA GREAT”.
The latter had hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his mansion in San Francisco, with tickets that cost as much as $300,000 to attend. More than $12m was secured from this which beat the initial goal of $5m. This event was also co-sponsored by Sacks’ co-host Chamath Palihapitiya.
Interestingly enough, Sacks and Palihapitiya, over an informal dinner suggested Trump to pick J D Vance as his VP. Apart from this, Sacks is also closely associated with Elon Musk and backed his decision of taking Twitter over.
It is expected that Sacks and Musk will work together on the AI front since the latter has an AI company xAI and an AI chatbot called Grok. However, both of them will be special government employees which means they can serve a maximum of 130 days a year without publicly divesting their assets.
Apart from this Trump has also designated Sacks to head the council of advisors for science and technology. The work involved ranges in sectors like energy, environment, public health and national security.
“He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the US” Trump said, talking about Sacks’ role in the administration.
And for the first time in its 15 year history, Bitcoin blasted the $100 barrier, ahead of Trump’s pick of Sacks, in anticipation of a friendly regulatory environment for the digital currency.