Crypto News: Rishi Sunak takes on an existential threat

The world has been on such high alert for the moment Israel begins its ground invasion of Gaza that it was a shock to learn this morning that the US military has struck two Syrian facilities believed to be linked to Iran.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that American and coalition forces acted in response to a series of attacks on them in Iraq and Syria.

But today Bloomberg Opinion's Andreas Kluth tells us the real factor determining the progression of this war is the use of one of the "oldest tactics in human warfare" — hostage taking. The fact that the 200 or so hostages are a mix of Israelis and people from 25 other countries "may decide whether the conflict spreads," he writes.

People kidnapped by Hamas Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

"What is the value of a life? In 2006, Hamas captured a 19-year-old Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit, and held him for five years before trading him for 1,027 Palestinians, many of whom had killed Israelis," Kluth writes. "What did that 1-to-1,000 ratio teach Hamas then? What is today's hostage crisis teaching other terrorists, state or non-state, now?"

The response to the events of Oct. 7 could risk reinforcing the awful message that hostage taking works.

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Next week is significant for Rishi Sunak — he's hosting an international summit on AI, a topic that feels like it should be in his wheelhouse.

Can you think of an agenda more distinctively Sunak-ian than navigating between the thrill and threat of machine learning? Geographically, it's a chance to straddle continents. Politically, it's a chance to reap a Brexit benefit. And narratively, it's about striking the fine balance between increased efficiency and…the hastening of the endtimes. These are all chances rather than definites — and it will not be easy.

Meanwhile his predecessor-but-one, Boris Johnson, has today announced he's got yet another new job, this time presenting a show on GB News. Just in time for next year's general election where Johnson's 2019 majority is up for grabs, it's a dead cert the show will comment on where the present lot are going wrong. Sunak will probably find it easier to focus on sorting AI than sorting former PMs.

The AI summit next week has certainly got the British media scratching their heads. The potential advantages of AI are well rehearsed: hospitals could process health data faster, teachers won't need to spend all evening marking schoolbooks, and lawyers will no longer waste time digesting reams of case law.

But then there's the doomster scenarios that AI could be an existential threat worse than a nuclear war. There is also the issue of prejudice — in a job application, what's to stop AI from taking an unfair stance? (As a side note — if you'd like to know more about either the utopian or dystopian visions of the future, I recommend Bloomberg's Exponentially podcast.)

Into this debate steps Sunak.

The government's view is that the UK has a strong hand: many big AI companies are either based here or heading our way, and we're third globally for venture capital investment in the sector behind the US and China.

Photographer: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP

So what can the UK government do to further the agenda? The "guardrails" Sunak has talked about so far include setting up an institute with international academics to study how to police the tech.

But this will require collaboration and intervention by big tech. Do we have any evidence these companies are prepared for their search engines to say "I won't answer that"? As Bloomberg's Nate Lanxon puts it, the recent history of social media companies agreeing to regulation suggests this will be hard.

Next year, both the US and UK have elections that could see deep fakes play a role. There could be faked videos of politicians saying anything you can imagine — Joe Biden wanting to repeal the right to bear arms, Starmer stating he doesn't care about Palestine. Things could get strange, even more so. Really soon.

Castles in the air. Bloomberg's The Secret Agent lifts the lid on London's fickle high-end property market.

Trick or treat? Everything Apple plans to launch at Oct. 30 "Scary Fast" Mac event.

Licking their lips. Britain's food inflation brings a big opportunity to BuzzFeed's food network Tasty UK.

$141 million

The value of the one million JPMorgan shares that Jamie Dimon is planning to sell.

One key story, every weekday

Taylor Swift's Eras tour has generated as much money as the economies of small countries. The movie version is ruling the box office. Her new recording of a nine-year-old album, 1989, is expected to be one of the hottest-selling records of the year.

Swift, as even the most casual pop-culture watchers can attest, is everywhere. And in one of the biggest years of her nearly two-decade career, she's entered into even more rarefied status: billionaire.

Read The Big Take.

Allegra Stratton worked for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor and runs an environmental consultancy, Zeroism.

Please send thoughts, tips and feedback to readout@bloomberg.net. You can follow Bloomberg UK on X.

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