Sen. Maria Cantwell calls for an ‘AI Bill for education’

Speaking about artificial intelligence at a Tech Alliance event in Seattle on Friday, Sen. Maria Cantwell drew comparisons to the G.I Bill that helped train World War II veterans as they entered the workforce. "Instead of a G.I. Bill, we need an AI Bill for education," said Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee. Read more from the event.

On the way home from the event, we spotted a billboard for Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot that was interesting not just for its message but for its location. Check it out here.

Enough with the zebra deepfakes: So says one Seattle TV station.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: 

• A new book details Amazon's efforts to compete with Trader Joe's; and the FTC probes Amazon's internal use of Signal's disappearing messages feature.

• A newly disclosed email shows how Microsoft scrambled to catch up in artificial intelligence, and a new report says that Bill Gates is still a highly influential figure inside the company, especially when it comes to AI strategy.

• Finally, we go inside the Seattle courtroom where a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency world, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, received a controversial prison sentence this week.

Read more and listen here, and subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Upcoming events: Tech and startup community gatherings on our radar next week in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

• May 4: Space for All STEM Festival

• May 5: Pickleball and funding: Fitness for founders

• May 7: Seattle Data, AI & Security

• May 8: Startup advisor lunch & learn: Corporate responsibility

• May 9: GeekWire Awards

• May 10: 2024 Opportunity Talks Luncheon

Check out the GeekWire Calendar for more.

Hot Links:

• Venture capitalist Martin Tobias does the math to explain why investing isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, even when the valuations look great. (X)
• Can you tell this music video was made by AI? Washed Out, a musician working with Seattle label Sub Pop Records, released a video produced with OpenAI’s new Sora tool. (Sub Pop; LA Times)