18 October, 2024
Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee
Former head of the National Security Agency, retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, will join OpenAI’s board of directors, the AI company announced Thursday afternoon. He will also sit on the board’s “security and safety” subcommittee.
The high-profile addition is likely intended to satisfy critics who think that OpenAI is moving faster than is wise for its customers and possibly humanity, putting out models and services without adequately evaluating their risks or locking them down.
Nakasone brings decades of experience from the Army, U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA. Whatever one may feel about the practices and decision-making at these organizations, he certainly can’t be accused of a lack of expertise.
As OpenAI increasingly establishes itself as an AI provider not just to the tech industry but government, defense and major enterprises, this kind of institutional knowledge is valuable both for itself and as a pacifier for worried shareholders. (No doubt the connections he brings in the state and military apparatus are also welcome.)
“OpenAI’s dedication to its mission aligns closely with my own values and experience in public service,” Nakasone said in a press release.
That certainly seems true: Nakasone and the NSA recently defended the practice of buying data of questionable provenance to feed its surveillance networks, arguing that there was no law against it. OpenAI, for its part, has simply taken, rather than buying, large swathes of data from the internet, arguing when it is caught that there is no law against it. They seem to be of one mind when it comes to asking forgiveness rather than permission, if indeed they ask either.
NSA is buying Americans’ internet browsing records without a warrant
The OpenAI release also states:
Nakasone’s insights will also contribute to OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how AI can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats. We believe AI has the potential to deliver significant benefits in this area for many institutions frequently targeted by cyber attacks like hospitals, schools, and financial institutions.
So this is a new market play, as well.
Nakasone will join the board’s safety and security committee, which is “responsible for making recommendations to the full Board on critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations.” What this newly created entity actually does and how it will operate is still unknown, as several of the senior people working on safety (as far as AI risk) have left the company, and the committee is itself in the middle of a 90-day evaluation of the company’s processes and safeguards.
Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee
Former head of the National Security Agency, retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, will join OpenAI’s board of directors, the AI company announced Thursday afternoon. He will also sit on the board’s “security and safety” subcommittee.
The high-profile addition is likely intended to satisfy critics who think that OpenAI is moving faster than is wise for its customers and possibly humanity, putting out models and services without adequately evaluating their risks or locking them down.
Nakasone brings decades of experience from the Army, U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA. Whatever one may feel about the practices and decision-making at these organizations, he certainly can’t be accused of a lack of expertise.
As OpenAI increasingly establishes itself as an AI provider not just to the tech industry but government, defense and major enterprises, this kind of institutional knowledge is valuable both for itself and as a pacifier for worried shareholders. (No doubt the connections he brings in the state and military apparatus are also welcome.)
“OpenAI’s dedication to its mission aligns closely with my own values and experience in public service,” Nakasone said in a press release.
That certainly seems true: Nakasone and the NSA recently defended the practice of buying data of questionable provenance to feed its surveillance networks, arguing that there was no law against it. OpenAI, for its part, has simply taken, rather than buying, large swathes of data from the internet, arguing when it is caught that there is no law against it. They seem to be of one mind when it comes to asking forgiveness rather than permission, if indeed they ask either.
NSA is buying Americans’ internet browsing records without a warrant
The OpenAI release also states:
Nakasone’s insights will also contribute to OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how AI can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats. We believe AI has the potential to deliver significant benefits in this area for many institutions frequently targeted by cyber attacks like hospitals, schools, and financial institutions.
So this is a new market play, as well.
Nakasone will join the board’s safety and security committee, which is “responsible for making recommendations to the full Board on critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations.” What this newly created entity actually does and how it will operate is still unknown, as several of the senior people working on safety (as far as AI risk) have left the company, and the committee is itself in the middle of a 90-day evaluation of the company’s processes and safeguards.
Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee
Former head of the National Security Agency, retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, will join OpenAI’s board of directors, the AI company announced Thursday afternoon. He will also sit on the board’s “security and safety” subcommittee.
The high-profile addition is likely intended to satisfy critics who think that OpenAI is moving faster than is wise for its customers and possibly humanity, putting out models and services without adequately evaluating their risks or locking them down.
Nakasone brings decades of experience from the Army, U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA. Whatever one may feel about the practices and decision-making at these organizations, he certainly can’t be accused of a lack of expertise.
As OpenAI increasingly establishes itself as an AI provider not just to the tech industry but government, defense and major enterprises, this kind of institutional knowledge is valuable both for itself and as a pacifier for worried shareholders. (No doubt the connections he brings in the state and military apparatus are also welcome.)
“OpenAI’s dedication to its mission aligns closely with my own values and experience in public service,” Nakasone said in a press release.
That certainly seems true: Nakasone and the NSA recently defended the practice of buying data of questionable provenance to feed its surveillance networks, arguing that there was no law against it. OpenAI, for its part, has simply taken, rather than buying, large swathes of data from the internet, arguing when it is caught that there is no law against it. They seem to be of one mind when it comes to asking forgiveness rather than permission, if indeed they ask either.
NSA is buying Americans’ internet browsing records without a warrant
The OpenAI release also states:
Nakasone’s insights will also contribute to OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how AI can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats. We believe AI has the potential to deliver significant benefits in this area for many institutions frequently targeted by cyber attacks like hospitals, schools, and financial institutions.
So this is a new market play, as well.
Nakasone will join the board’s safety and security committee, which is “responsible for making recommendations to the full Board on critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations.” What this newly created entity actually does and how it will operate is still unknown, as several of the senior people working on safety (as far as AI risk) have left the company, and the committee is itself in the middle of a 90-day evaluation of the company’s processes and safeguards.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins board of Mastodon's new US nonprofit
Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, is among those who have joined the board of directors of Mastodon’s new U.S. nonprofit, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced over the weekend. Mastodon’s service, an open source, decentralized social network and rival to Elon Musk’s X, has gained increased attention following the Twitter acquisition as users sought alternatives to X’s would-be “everything app” that felt more like the old Twitter of days past.
Mastodon only somewhat fits that bill. Though the service resembles Twitter in many ways, it’s underpinned by different infrastructure. As part of the “fediverse” — or the open social web made up of interconnected servers communicating over the ActivityPub protocol — Mastodon benefits users who no longer want to be locked into a centralized social network that can be bought and sold to new billionaire owners, like Musk.
Though Mastodon was already established as a nonprofit in Germany in 2021, the creation of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the U.S. will allow the company to receive tax-deductible donations and other financial support. The change also comes as Mastodon has inexplicitly lost its nonprofit status in Germany.
“…we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn,” wrote Rochko on the Mastodon blog. “This came with no advance warning or explanation. Earlier this year we went through a successful tax audit, which in fact resulted in some favourable adjustments as we’ve been paying too much tax. Our tax advisor immediately submitted an appeal to the decision, but so far, we have no new information,” he said.
Mastodon’s day-to-day operations were unaffected by this change, as most of its income comes from the crowdfunding platform Patreon. It also received donations from Jeff Atwood and Mozilla at $100,000 apiece, which allowed the company to hire a third full-time developer this year.
However, being established as a nonprofit enables Mastodon to communicate how it differs from other social media businesses. While becoming a nonprofit in the U.S. will help Mastodon regain its status, it wants to remain based out of the EU.
In addition to Biz Stone, other board members include Esra’a Al Shafei, a human rights advocate and founder of Majal.org; Karien Bezuidenhout, an advocate for openness and experienced board member across sustainable social enterprise; Amir Ghavi, a partner at law firm Fried Frank, where he’s the co-head of the Technology Transactions Practice; and Felix Hlatky, the chief financial officer of Mastodon since 2020, who originally incorporated the project as a nonprofit LLC in Germany and helped it raise additional funds.
1991 Ventures in London joins the growing list of VCs aimed at Ukrainian startups
U.K.-based limited partners Venrex and Samos Investments are this week backing the launch of a new VC primarily aimed at investing in startups led by Ukrainians inside and outside the war-torn country. The LPs are better known for being early institutional investors in the successful early stage startup funds Seedcamp and Entrepreneur First.
1991 Ventures is the brainchild of Ukrainian brothers Denis and Viktor Gursky, who are better known for running incubation and accelerator programs inside Ukraine.
The U.K.-based VC is launching with a £15 million ($18.8 million) fund to invest in both Ukrainian and Central Eastern European (CEE) startup talent.
Although some might say investing in Ukrainian startups is crazy when the country is in the battle of its life against a brutal invasion by Russia, as we covered recently, two years after the invasion, Ukrainian-born startups are still faring well.
The Gursky brothers previously backed more than 200 startups between 2016 and 2024, via their incubator Social Boost and their 1991 Accelerator.
Many of those were out of their hometown of Mariupol, made famous after its heroic battle against Russia and from where its team managed to relocate to safety. Startups backed to date include legal tech startup AXDRAFT, European toll payment app eTolls and cybersecurity company Osavul.
Over an interview Denis Gursky, founding partner of 1991 Ventures, told me: “There is a wealth of untapped talent in Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe… My brother, Viktor, and I want to create a pipeline of high-quality dealflow to that.”
He said the LP backers of the fund, “are very interested to tap into Eastern European and Ukrainian specifically.”
Gursky also said: “It’s very hard for Ukrainian founders to tap into London. So we would like to provide them with pre-seed or seed funding so that they can… access larger rounds in the future and understand how the U.K. can be a springboard to global funding.”
But 1991 Venture won’t be the only Ukrainian-born fund vying for the attention of their brethren founders.
There is also Ukrainian VC fund Roosh Ventures, which has previously backed Reface AI, a face swap app with 250 million-plus downloads, and Deel, a payroll solution that enables companies to pay people in 150+ countries.
Additionally, SID Venture Partners was launched by the co-founders of outsourcing companies Sigma Software and IdeaSoft and the Datrics product.
SMRK — launched in 2013 by Oleksandr Kosovan, founder of MacPaw, and Andrii Dovzhenko — has invested in Osavul, Deus Robotics, Aspichi and Prengi.
Then there is Flyer One Ventures, which has backed Vochi, Allset and PromoRepublic, among others.
Finally, TA Ventures is perhaps the best known and most active Ukrainian VC internationally, headed up by the almost-ubiquitous Viktoriya Tigipko.
It has invested in more than 200 startups, including 15 Ukrainian ones, and made 42 exits, according to Crunchbase.
Many of the tech companies Ukraine will produce in the forthcoming years are likely to be either “dual-use” or related to defense. For instance, almost 200 companies produced drones in Ukraine last year, up from seven in 2022.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins board of Mastodon's new US nonprofit
Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, is among those who have joined the board of directors of Mastodon’s new U.S. nonprofit, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced over the weekend. Mastodon’s service, an open source, decentralized social network and rival to Elon Musk’s X, has gained increased attention following the Twitter acquisition as users sought alternatives to X’s would-be “everything app” that felt more like the old Twitter of days past.
Mastodon only somewhat fits that bill. Though the service resembles Twitter in many ways, it’s underpinned by different infrastructure. As part of the “fediverse” — or the open social web made up of interconnected servers communicating over the ActivityPub protocol — Mastodon benefits users who no longer want to be locked into a centralized social network that can be bought and sold to new billionaire owners, like Musk.
Though Mastodon was already established as a nonprofit in Germany in 2021, the creation of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the U.S. will allow the company to receive tax-deductible donations and other financial support. The change also comes as Mastodon has inexplicitly lost its nonprofit status in Germany.
“…we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn,” wrote Rochko on the Mastodon blog. “This came with no advance warning or explanation. Earlier this year we went through a successful tax audit, which in fact resulted in some favourable adjustments as we’ve been paying too much tax. Our tax advisor immediately submitted an appeal to the decision, but so far, we have no new information,” he said.
Mastodon’s day-to-day operations were unaffected by this change, as most of its income comes from the crowdfunding platform Patreon. It also received donations from Jeff Atwood and Mozilla at $100,000 apiece, which allowed the company to hire a third full-time developer this year.
However, being established as a nonprofit enables Mastodon to communicate how it differs from other social media businesses. While becoming a nonprofit in the U.S. will help Mastodon regain its status, it wants to remain based out of the EU.
In addition to Biz Stone, other board members include Esra’a Al Shafei, a human rights advocate and founder of Majal.org; Karien Bezuidenhout, an advocate for openness and experienced board member across sustainable social enterprise; Amir Ghavi, a partner at law firm Fried Frank, where he’s the co-head of the Technology Transactions Practice; and Felix Hlatky, the chief financial officer of Mastodon since 2020, who originally incorporated the project as a nonprofit LLC in Germany and helped it raise additional funds.