Incoming President Donald Trump has appointed former PayPal COO David Sacks as the new “czar” for cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). Trump announced Sacks’ appointment on Thursday via a post on Truth Social, his social networking platform. “David Sacks will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the US,” Trump wrote.
David Sacks, a prominent member of the “PayPal Mafia,” is well-known for his entrepreneurial ventures. He co-founded Yammer, an internal communications tool that Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion in 2012. Additionally, Sacks is the founder of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund that has invested in notable startups such as SpaceX, Reddit, and ClickUp.
In a 2017 interview with CNBC, Sacks expressed his belief that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum align with the “original vision” of PayPal, which aimed to create a “database of money” where payments remain within the system. While Sacks’ specific views on AI and AI policymaking are less well-documented, his general policy stance is known to be right-leaning and deregulatory. This suggests that his approach to AI regulation may be less stringent than that of the outgoing Biden administration.
