With President Joe Biden dropping out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris could turn into the Democrats’ new nominee.
In asserting his plans, Biden provided his “full assist and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our celebration this yr,” whereas Harris mentioned her “intention is to win and earn this nomination.” That mentioned, it’s not clear whether or not different Democratic politicians will problem her for the nomination at an open conference, or by way of 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 business. (Donald Trump’s operating mate JD Vance can be deeply related to Silicon Valley.) She was San Francisco’s district lawyer, then California’s lawyer basic, earlier than being elected to the Senate in 2016.
VCs like John Doerr and Ron Conway have been amongst her early supporters, and as a presidential candidate, she was shortly endorsed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Different business figures, together with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, have been extra circumspect or referred to as for an open conference.
A number of the business’s critics have complained that she didn’t do sufficient as lawyer basic to curb the facility of tech giants as they grew. Throughout the 2020 presidential marketing campaign, when rival Elizabeth Warren was calling for the breakup of huge tech, Harris was requested whether or not firms like Amazon, Google, and Fb ought to be damaged up. She as a substitute they need to be regulated on privateness.
On the similar time, she has been prepared to criticize tech CEOs and name for extra regulation. As a senator, she pressed the large social networks over misinformation, and through her 2016 run for president, she instructed the New York Occasions, “Tech firms have gotten to be regulated in a approach that we are able to make sure the American client may be sure that their privateness just isn’t being compromised.”
As vp, Harris has additionally spoken concerning the potential for regulating AI, saying that she and President Biden “reject the false selection that means we are able to both shield the general public or advance innovation.”
Biden had issued an govt order calling for firms to set new requirements across the improvement of AI, and Harris mentioned these “voluntary commitments are an preliminary step towards a safer AI future with extra to return, as a result of, as historical past has proven, within the absence of regulation and robust authorities oversight, some know-how firms select to prioritize revenue over the wellbeing of their clients, the security of our communities, and the steadiness of our democracies.”
Enterprise capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz just lately pointed to considerations that the Biden Administration will “overregulate” AI as considered one of their causes for supporting Donald Trump.
On one other scorching button concern, a latest invoice that will ban TikTok if its mum or dad firm ByteDance doesn’t promote it, Harris mentioned, “We have to cope with the proprietor, and we now have nationwide safety considerations concerning the proprietor of TikTok, however we now have 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.
