With President Joe Biden dropping out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris could grow to be the Democrats’ new nominee.
In saying his plans, Biden provided his “full assist and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our get together this yr,” whereas Harris said her “intention is to win and earn this nomination.” That stated, it’s not clear whether or not different Democratic politicians will problem her for the nomination at an open conference, or by another choice course of.
If Harris is chosen, the Democrats can have a presidential nominee with roots within the Bay Space — she was born in Oakland — and a protracted relationship with the tech trade. (Donald Trump’s operating mate JD Vance can be deeply related to Silicon Valley.) She was San Francisco’s district legal professional, then California’s legal professional normal, earlier than being elected to the Senate in 2016.
VCs like John Doerr and Ron Conway had been amongst her early supporters, and as a presidential candidate, she was shortly endorsed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Different trade figures, together with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, have been extra circumspect or referred to as for an open conference.
A few of the trade’s critics have complained that she didn’t do sufficient as legal professional normal to curb the ability of tech giants as they grew.
On the similar time, she has been keen to criticize tech CEOs and name for extra regulation. As a senator, she pressed the large social networks over misinformation. Throughout the 2020 presidential marketing campaign, when rival Elizabeth Warren was calling for the breakup of massive tech, Harris was requested whether or not firms like Amazon, Google, and Fb must be damaged up. She as an alternative stated they need to be “regulated in a approach that we will make sure the American client might be sure that their privateness just isn’t being compromised.”
As vice chairman, Harris has additionally spoken concerning the potential for regulating AI, saying that she and President Biden “reject the false selection that implies we will both defend the general public or advance innovation.”
Biden had issued an government order calling for firms to set new requirements across the growth of AI, and Harris stated these “voluntary commitments are an preliminary step towards a safer AI future with extra to come back, as a result of, as historical past has proven, within the absence of regulation and powerful authorities oversight, some expertise firms select to prioritize revenue over the wellbeing of their prospects, the protection of our communities, and the steadiness of our democracies.”
Enterprise capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz lately pointed to considerations that the Biden Administration will “overregulate” AI as certainly one of their causes for supporting Donald Trump.
On one other sizzling button subject, a current invoice that may ban TikTok if its father or mother firm ByteDance doesn’t promote it, Harris stated, “We have to take care of the proprietor, and we’ve got nationwide safety considerations concerning the proprietor of TikTok, however we’ve got no intention to ban TikTok.”
Harris has been much less vocal on the problems round cryptocurrency, although she would presumably assist the Biden Administration’s crypto laws.
