Following his firm’s 44th annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son made headlines after saying his past investments were “just a warm-up” for his pivot into artificial intelligence, and “this is what I was born to do, to realize ASI.” While fundamentally a funny thing to say given the most important projects in the space were started a decade back or more, it’s important to note, given Masayoshi’s record, this is still a serious threat. His $100 billion Vision Fund catalyzed one of the greatest periods of irrationality in tech history. Bloat and grift ultimately doomed the last run, and billions in (mostly SoftBank’s) dumb money was lit on fire. With AI already overhyped and overfunded, we are entering the age of singularity for sure — though not only for AI, the dawn of which most investors missed, but waste and fantasy in quantities never before seen. And in this, there’s room for everyone.

On last week’s episode of All-In, Trump promised automatic green card status to all foreign graduates of American universities — with any kind of degree — because, as he put it, “we need brilliant people.” Tech insiders, long frustrated by our country’s inverted immigration system, were thrilled, and I agree we need to make it easier for the truly talented to stay here post-graduation. But why pretend the average college grad is more likely to be a top-flight engineer than a comms major from Bumfuck U? Sorry, but I’m not convinced we need an asylum program for sociology grads. That said, it’s fascinating we’re even having this conversation while pundits like Will Stancil concurrently argue Trump is going to “ethnically cleanse” immigrants through mass deportation. A refreshing reminder, I guess, that no one — including maybe Trump himself — has a clue what the man actually believes.

Friday, capping a bizarre month of media appearances and puff pieces, Melinda Gates gave her first-ever presidential endorsement to Joe Biden, saying Trump’s time in office “endangered the health of women,” and she simply “can’t stay quiet.” The CNN op-ed comes less than a month after announcing her departure from the Gates Foundation, a move which frees her to spend her $12 billion fortune with abandon, and symbolizes her post-divorce reinvention. Melinda’s billions were already funding every left-wing buzzword charity in the book — see: ‘The Black Feminist Fund’ or ‘Female Founders Fund’ (?) — and now, given her endorsement of Biden, it’s likely she’ll spend heavily on his campaign. While it’s her money to burn (god bless America), the story once again highlights our growing billionaire-ex-wife-to-leftist-megadonor pipeline. My only plea: if you're a future billionaire reading this, please, for the love of God, stay in your lifeless marriage. Our future depends on it.

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this week, the crew discusses breaking the trump crypto coin news and the crazy aftermath. plus: john coogan joins to discuss the ‘right wing vibe shift’ in silicon valley, and patrick blumenthal joins to give us a live update from ukraine

we looked at thousands of silicon valley power broker political donations over the last decade and compared them to this year — here’s what the data says

an interview with paul buchheit, the man who built gmail: the story behind his revolutionary product, the gatekeepers’ war against insurgents, and conquering our national decay

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