FinTech Weekly - AI Ups & Downs - Issue #415

During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger shared their skepticism about AI, following a question related to the possible impact of AI on the stock market and society as a whole. “Old-fashioned intelligence works pretty well”, Munger said. Buffett compared AI to the atom bomb, adding that AI “can change everything in the world except how men think and behave”.

Russia may gather up to 18% of global Bitcoin mining according to analysts. This might be the result of the increasing regulatory pressure and costs of energy in countries like Kazakhstan and the United States.

The US Fed revealed that over 700 banks are reporting significant unrealized losses – that is, the losses they would experience if they sell their assets right now. Unrealized losses exceed 50% of the capital of these banks, signaling the effects of rising interest rates.

Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, said that the US needs to solve the banking crisis soon, because there’s no time. The failures that hit the banking system might not be the last, and that there’s the need for a “systemwide deposit guarantee regime now”.

Stripe, the popular internet payment processor, found a solution to solve the main problem faced by many Web3 companies. The “cold start problem” is a common condition for this type of company, since not every person interested in their services might have cryptos – or crypto wallets. That’s why Stripe launched a fiat-to-crypto on ramp that doesn’t require coding skills, and that will allow customers to instantly convert their fiat currencies.

During the WOW Summit Neil Tan, chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, affirmed that the regulatory progress with regulation is just a natural progression. Hong Kong is actually becoming an interesting legal hub for crypto businesses and enthusiasts.

The White House, on May 4, listed eight emerging technologies, including DLT – distributed ledger technology. The technologies listed are now included in the national strategy aimed at creating international standards for all these emerging technologies.

African fintech constantly thrives, and also for what concerns regulation it might lead the progress towards a legal framework for blockchain. Nigeria is one of the African countries more curious about this technology, and it recently approved a national blockchain policy.

People and businesses are increasingly interested in DLT and AI. So, why over 1,000 tech professionals asked to pause AI development? In this article FinTech Weekly analyzed a pivotal topic in this phase of the development of artificial intelligence – AI ethics.