Sam Bankman-Fried

 At a New York City dive bar on a recent December night, Pitbull blared from the sound system, and a gathering of like-minded young people had passionate debates about morals and the future of humanity. The local community of effective altruists was holding its “end of year celebration.”It seemed like EAs had little to celebrate. Because for the second time in as many years, a guy named Sam was the subject of an extraordinary tech story and an apparent indictment of the EA philosophy. This time it wasn't crypto criminal…

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its debtors on Friday said they have entered into a settlement agreement with founder Samuel Bankman-Fried and others to resolve some claims related to its acquisition of stock trading platform Embed.The settlement agreement is between Bankman-Fried, and former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang.Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill CoursesOffering CollegeCourseWebsiteNorthwestern UniversityKellogg Post Graduate Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIIM LucknowIIML…

The sense of doom that gripped crypto markets at the end of 2022 following a $1.5 trillion wipeout has 12 months later given way to a very different sentiment: avarice. Bitcoin stormed back with a more than 160% advance this year that added some $530 billion to its market capitalization. In its wake, myriad smaller tokens ranging from Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Solana to dog- and frog-themed memecoins took off as investors embraced risk again. An investor who bought $100,000 of Solana at the start of 2023 would now be…

‘Tis the season for my annual 10 predictions for the worlds of media, entertainment and tech for the coming year. Here are what I expect to be 2024’s headline stories. Prediction #1: AI is the headline story, and nothing else comes close Talk of AI will continue to dominate, as it should given the immense transformation we will see AI take in our industry from this point forward. AI is poised to disrupt lives across the creative community – which means disruption to the meaning of art itself.  Expect a…

Life got interesting for Anthropic two weeks ago when OpenAI nearly lit itself on fire. Anthropic had been operating comfortably in OpenAI’s shadow, collecting billions in investment from Amazon, Google, and others as it developed similar technology with an increased focus on safety. Then, as OpenAI’s chaos rolled on, companies that built entirely on GPT-4 looked for a hedge. And Anthropic was there waiting for them.  Anthropic is now in prime position to take advantage of OpenAI’s misstep, but it has its own…

The US Justice Department seeks $4 billion from Binance to end a years-long investigation into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to Bloomberg. Negotiations are reportedly underway that could subject Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ) to criminal charges in the US.Why Should Crypto Currencies be Called Securities? | Gizmodo InterviewBloomberg cites “people familiar with the discussions” as saying that the Justice Department alleges money laundering, bank fraud, and sanctions violations…

The music switches from soft elevator tunes to Usher, signaling that the day’s events are about to begin. Brother Sinclair Skinner, the Summit’s cofounder, enters the auditorium, and the stragglers in the room snap to order. Skinner is one of those people who’s never met a stranger in his life. He’s wearing his usual “I ♥️ Black People” T-shirt—it’s his version of a black turtleneck. His cat-eye glasses, lenses tinted pink, are giving Clark Kent meets P-Funk Mothership. He says a few words of welcome, and we stand up to…

OpenAI rode a hype-fueled rocket to business leadership over the last year. CEO Sam Altman managed to put a consumer-friendly wrapper on a years-old technology and capture the world’s attention. And now, for better or worse, OpenAI is better positioned than anyone to build the tools that will save or destroy the world. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the prize, what Altman recently called “magic intelligence in the sky.” If we ever get there, it may be OpenAI’s six-member board that decides if we’ve reached the…

For many who trade cryptocurrencies for a living, the events of a year ago are forever etched in memory.  “The worst day of my career, and one of the worst days of my life — the day FTX froze withdrawals,” is how Travis Kling, who runs Ikigai Asset Management, described it in a series of tweets on Nov. 7. Four days later, Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange filed for bankruptcy, ushering in arguably the darkest days in crypto's history. “The first weeks were incredibly brutal. I didn't sleep much at all. Feelings of terror,…

SBF has allegedly made more than 100 calls to a New York Times reporter before handing over snippets of his ex-partner Caroline Ellison’s diary.Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)Federal prosecutors want to once again take hold of the frizzy-haired ex-FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried and put him back in jail. Reports from inside pre-trial court hearings say the Department of Justice has had it up to here with the once-crypto kingpin leaking sensitive material to the press, alleging he’s trying to discredit witnesses.Sam…