Robert Ta argues that FINRA-style AI regulation will create bureaucratic barriers protecting incumbent banks while handicapping fintech startups, handing China a strategic advantage. He warns that American distrust of AI, fueled by fears of job loss and data centers, combined with government incompetence, risks losing the AI race to China unless leaders craft a positive narrative around solving alignment and preserving freedom.
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Speaking of David Sachs, he had this really good quote on in response to the FINRA-like proposal of self-regulation. And he basically said, look, we all know FINRA is just protecting the main banks and it makes it very hard for fintech companies, startup companies in the portfolios of like VCs that they know to actually crack any wedge in that market. And he believes from what I heard on the podcast that this is going to be more like a DMV for the AI. And I thought that was such a strong take, which is shit, if this is the DMV for the AI, China's going to win. Like they're not DMVing their AI. They're like, go, let's go. And over here, we're sort of in this place where I don't see great AI leadership. I think Jensen is maybe one of the strongest ones. Funny enough, I think Mark Zuckerberg's kind of coming out of hiding and being like, oh wait, Sam Altman, Dario's not doing great in terms of public perception. The American public don't like data centers. And it makes sense because Sam Altman and Dario both said, oh, all knowledge workers coming outta undergrad are going to lose their jobs or people are not going to have jobs. Then Elon had this take of, well, it's going to be more abundant. You don't need a job. You know, it's a bit more positive. There's a few threads here, which are what is the public's perception of AI? And my own take is when I tell people I do AI stuff in SF, people are like, yeah, that's cool. When I tell people that are not in AI or tech, they kind of like have a bit of a bias against me. And that's in the Bay Area. I can't even imagine somewhere out in the Midwest where, what is somebody's opinion of AI? Like they were talking about more recently on the news. Everybody's hating on data centers. Everybody's fearful of AI. My thinking here is I really hope that the AI leaders in America, because it's not going to be our government that does this right, because they don't know what they're doing either. Like they don't know what to do with this technology. They're like the DMV, right? They're like dinosaurs. I really hope they paint a positive vision of change because I really think there could be, especially if we focus on things that are real, like the alignment problem or how do we beat China? And there's also this pouching of if China wins, does democracy stay? And if America wins, democracy stays and freedom and agency for humans, there's going to be a higher chance for that. And I think that's all the informed sort of takes that I'm hearing across industry.
