Binance judgement cements US crypto approach

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) handed down a record fine of $4.3bn (£3.2bn) to the Binance crypto exchange yesterday, 21st November, for “consistent and egregious” violations of US laws and financial regulations. Founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) stepped down with immediate effect to be replaced as CEO by Richard Teng, former Head of Regional Markets…

Read More

AI: Can we build it? Should we?

AI: Can we build it?

This week BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, called on the Prime Minister to make ethics a priority at the upcoming AI safety summit. As AI explodes into the public consciousness, ethics has to be front and centre – and proactive. We can’t snooze on the job. Around 2015 I heard DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis…

Read More

FTX Bankruptcy News

FTX logo and generic financial reports and calculator

The newly-appointed CEO of the complex FTX group of companies has made his first filing in the bankruptcy court for the district of Delaware. It makes grim reading for anyone who has run a business, from startups with a handful of customers to listed companies. An unprecedented failure of trust and governance The administrator, John…

Read More

Live from the FTX meltdown

An exploding planet and FTX logo

*** Originally published Friday 11th November, edited for latest developments*** Where are we now? Thursday 17th November: The first filing is made in the bankruptcy court of the state of Delaware. You can read the key takeaways here. Saturday 12th November, 3am UTC: A reported hack starts to drain funds from FTX under the nose…

Read More

Diversity across a decade

With eleven days left of a turbulent ten years, I’m following the fashion of reflection but looking ahead to the promise of the impending Twenties. In January 2010 I was comfortable in a senior financial position with a FTSE 100 subsidiary. Today, I’m in the process of writing my fifth book (fiction) and awaiting publication…

Read More

Who can be trusted with our personal data?

There are shivers in Silicon Valley as the data protection winter approaches. Hard on the heels of the May 2018 implementation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) covering personal data, the California Consumer Privacy Act 2018 (CCPA) passed through the state legislature in August. The long and difficult labor which preceded the birth of…

Read More

Initial Coin Offerings – Snake Oil or Saviour?

2017 was the year that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) hit the technical business press, and cryptocurrency stepped out of the shadows. It’s been a remarkable ride: in June, when finalising details of my novel Bitcoin Hurricane, the publisher asked whether Bitcoin was well enough known for the book to sell. By Christmas, at every signing…

Read More

Who takes ethical responsibility for social media influence? | Center for Digital Ethics & Policy

There’s a storm brewing, and social media is at its eye. For a decade, businesses and politicians have increasingly used both Twitter and Facebook as convenient mouthpieces. Twitter’s values declare: “We believe in free expression and think every voice has the power to impact the world.” Facebook’s mission is to “bring the world closer together.”…

Read More

Will big business compromise the ethics of artificial intelligence – Center for Digital Ethics and Policy | Loyola University Chicago

Will big business compromise the ethics of artificial intelligence? We are entering a new era of technology adoption. We have passed the point of using new tools to perform old tasks, and our behavior is changing. I grew up with a 1970s television that had four push-buttons on it; these were laboriously and manually tuned…

Read More