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David Sachs

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
1067 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

So every government employee, whether you're a full-time or SG, files disclosures with the government.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

And my ethics letters basically contained these pages and pages of all these different

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

Now, in that ethics letter, they said that I had divested, I had initiated or completed divestment of over 99% of the positions that could pose a conflict for AI.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

It's in there.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

This is where I think, again, they were very deceptive.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

It was the OGE, the Office of Government Ethics, the career civil servants, the lawyers, the accountants at OGE who approved that letter and all the contents of that letter, who reviewed all those disclosures.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

And they're the ones who concluded that I did not have any conflicts.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

So really what the New York Times is beef is with the career civil servants at OGE.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

So on the blind trust,

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

So it's kind of funny.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

One of the New York Times reporters was talking about this on a podcast, which is where I think Newsom picked it up from.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

My ethics lawyer, who teaches a course on conflicts of interest at Harvard, said that that reporter should really take his course because he would actually learn something about the conflicts laws.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

The blind trust idea is rarely used.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

And in my case, it would not have worked because I have minor children.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

You can only use a blind trust to have your kids be beneficiaries if they're adults.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

That's the way the conflict laws work.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

So it just wasn't even applicable in my case.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

And what I did instead of creating a blind trust is I divested the positions that OGE said were a conflict.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

At a discount to their fair market value in the case of my LP interest and all these funds, I divested almost 100 funds that I had invested in, venture funds, things like that, angel funds, at roughly a 50% discount to their fair market value because- That's insane.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?

Because, well, they're private investments, right?