As the Minister of Finance for the Marshall Islands, David Paul is overseeing an initiative to administer universal basic income via blockchain. Launched in December, USDM1 is a sovereign bond that’s disbursed to citizens’ digital wallets. Paul talks to us about why the Marshall Islands can’t rely on traditional banks, and how crypto UBI will help the country.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What’s one underrated big idea?
Replacing a fragile physical banking infrastructure with a transparent digital protocol to deliver foundational services like universal basic income. By turning sovereign bond bonds into digital assets, we bypass the banking desert to send instant financial support to our citizens, regardless of geography.
What’s a technology you think is overhyped?
The most overrated idea is that technology alone, without the sound legal and [infrastructural] framework, can solve social problems — like the issue of financial exclusion. When you look at the geographical setting of the Marshall Islands, we’re very spread apart. If you look at the conventional technologies and infrastructure to actually provide services, it is pretty much cost prohibitive.
Blockchain technology and Starlink really enables us to be able to provide this [UBI] service to our people. We see many flashy digital assets that lack real-world stability. That is why we built USDM1, with the backing of New York commercial laws and the U.S. Treasury, prioritizing regulatory substance over technical hype.
What could the government be doing regarding technology that it isn’t?
As a small island country, we shouldn’t wait for banks. Banks generally operate based on low risk and high rewards, and it boils down to scale. When they have scale, they’re able to absorb risk.
But when you look at small island economies like the Marshalls, the scale is not there. So risks are high because [banks] are not able to spread them. The profitability isn’t attractive. We didn’t wait for banks to modernize, and instead built our own digital plumbing, like USDM1. Instead of just regulating fintech as a government, our government can use a cutting-edge technology protocol to ensure that even the most remote citizens have the same financial access as those in major metropolitan areas.
What book most shaped your conception of the future?
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman. It kind of talks about the old world and then the new world as we were transitioning into globalization. It talks about the globalization and democratization of finance and technology. If you really look at it, this is really exactly what we’re doing. This book is actually talking about how we came up with USDM1 and the technology behind it, and the push behind it.
What has surprised you the most this year?
How quickly a theoretical technology like USDM1 moved from a policy white paper to a live tool providing universal basic income to our citizens. There are a lot of prototypes that are hyped from time to time. Then it doesn’t really pan out. Either the market doesn’t embrace it, or it just flames out because it lacks substance or a meaningful purpose.
USDM1 is actually built for purpose, and provides a service that is desperately needed, especially for a country like the Marshall Islands. This is a vehicle that makes it a lot easier for people to conduct commerce. It really moves away from the traditional way that money’s been moved. Peer-to-peer really makes it more efficient, more affordable.
OpenAI has vowed to make changes to its safety protocols after it chose not to report a ChatGPT user who police allege went on to commit a mass shooting in Canada, POLITICO’s Mickey Djuric reports.
Ann O’Leary, OpenAI’s vice president of global policy, outlined the changes in an open letter sent to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet on Thursday. According to the letter, OpenAI will establish direct points of contact with Canadian police to share information in cases where there is the “potential for real world violence,” and expand its commitment to directing users in distress to relevant support resources.
The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Jesse Van Rootselaar, the person suspected of killing eight people in a British Columbia school shooting earlier this month, had discussed gun violence scenarios with ChatGPT over the summer. O’Leary further revealed in the letter that Van Rootselaar created a second account after her first one was banned for problematic behavior. OpenAI is now adjusting its detection systems to make it harder for users to evade safeguards.
U.S. Olympic hockey player Brady Tkachuk expressed his displeasure with a deepfake that the White House posted on social media, POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy reports.
Over the weekend, the White House released a TikTok video in which a deepfake of Tkachuk taunts Canadians by stating, “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating f—-s a lesson.” The video is labeled on TikTok as containing AI-generated media.
“It’s not my voice. It’s not what I was saying,” Tkachuk told reporters on Thursday. “I would never say that. That’s not who I am, so yeah, I guess I don’t like that video because that just would never come out of my mouth.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though this isn’t the first time it’s faced controversy over digitally altered media. Last month, the White House posted an image of a protester who was arrested for disrupting a Minnesota church service, which was modified to make it appear that she was sobbing.
* South Korea reverses a policy so that Google Maps will work in the country.
* Government agencies question the use of Grok in classified settings.
* Anthropic and the Pentagon quarreled over a hypothetical nuclear attack.
* Barcelona’s government deploys robots to dance with senior citizens.
* Jack Dorsey cuts nearly half of Block’s workforce due to AI.
Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak ([email protected]); Bob King ([email protected]); Nate Robson ([email protected]); John Hewitt Jones ([email protected]).
