Big Tech Gets AI. BlackRock Gets Bitcoin. You Get Prosecuted | Zack Shapiro

<p>Mentor Sessions Ep 096: Zack Shapiro explains AI existential risk, AI regulation, the Clarity Act, Samurai Wallet, and open source AI policy for Bitcoin.</p><p><br></p><p>The Clarity Act just failed on the Senate floor, and the fight over whether writing Bitcoin code can be treated as a crime is now heading to 70-year-old federal judges. Zack Shapiro breaks down what that means for self-custody, open source software, and the Samurai Wallet developers still behind bars.</p><p><br></p><p>In this conversation you&#39;ll learn why Zack separates AI existential risk (recursive self-improvement, the orthogonality thesis, instrumental convergence) from the ordinary risks of AI — job displacement, regulatory capture by frontier labs, and cyber attacks like the Cold Card hack. You&#39;ll see why he thinks open source AI is not the existential threat, why the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) matters more than most Bitcoiners realize, and how the &#39;two clocks&#39; of AI capability vs enterprise adoption will define the next decade. You&#39;ll also get the legal reality behind white hat recovery of hacked Bitcoin, why the liquid hacker is in a bad spot, and what happened when the Clarity Act died on the vine.</p><p><br></p><p>⏱️ Timestamps:</p><p>0:00 - Intro</p><p>0:51 - Amodei, Musk and Altman urge AI slowdown</p><p>1:38 - Ordinary risks versus existential AI threats</p><p>2:26 - Politics warping the AI safety debate</p><p>3:20 - Bostrom, AGI and intelligence explosion risks</p><p>5:01 - Orthogonality thesis and instrumental convergence</p><p>5:59 - Hugging Face attack shows AI covering tracks</p><p>6:58 - No easy policy fixes for AI risks</p><p>8:08 - Can&#39;t stop AI progress or open source China</p><p>9:32 - Separating x-risk concerns from anti-AI populism</p><p>12:22 - Regulatory capture and Anthropic IPO timing</p><p>14:21 - Keeping open source AI legal and available</p><p>16:39 - Trezor self-custody sponsor read</p><p>17:43 - One shot parallel between Bitcoin and AI</p><p>19:37 - Where real AI productivity gains appear</p><p>20:47 - Two Clocks: capability versus enterprise adoption</p><p>24:22 - Is AI coming for your job?</p><p>25:28 - Electrification analogy and 30-year lag</p><p>28:34 - Jevons Paradox and future of work</p><p>30:42 - White hat recovery of Cold Card hacked funds</p><p>34:02 - Legal precedent for white hat bounties</p><p>36:56 - Why the Liquid hacker faces trouble</p><p>38:55 - What&#39;s actually in the Clarity Act</p><p>43:4