r/ProfessorFinance

> Sam Altman, chief executive of the ChatGPT maker, has argued that giving the public a financial stake in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI and has suggested a stake of this size in early conversations with the administration, according to two people familiar with the talks.

> Giving the government an ownership stake could help secure good relations with the administration and would mark an attempt to address political blowback by sharing the wealth generated by AI with the public.

> AI labs have faced an increasingly challenging environment in Washington as the American public and politicians grow more concerned about vast data centre construction and the implications of AI for jobs and cyber security.

> Altman and other OpenAI executives have suggested that each of America’s leading AI developers allot 5 per cent of their equity to a vehicle like the Alaska Permanent Fund, a sovereign fund that invests the state’s oil wealth into stocks and pays dividends to the state government and residents.

> The OpenAI chief has also spoken to Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders in recent weeks. Sanders has pushed for public ownership of closer to half of each US AI company through a sovereign wealth fund.

Europe’s rearmament drive is sustaining 195,000 US defence jobs through $300bn in arms orders, Nato’s top official has said, making an economic case for Donald Trump to remain committed to the alliance ahead of next week’s summit.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s demand for Europe to spend more on arms or risk losing US military protection has spurred a surge in defence spending, even as the president’s mercurial attitude to Nato has made many European capitals wary of relying on Washington for their security.

US officials have warned European capitals of severe delays to weapons shipments as the war against Iran dramatically reduces American stockpiles and redirects production to Washington’s Gulf allies.

“[For] some key capabilities . . . Europe can basically only acquire, or at that level of quality, acquire from the United States,” said Rutte. “There is a strong defence industrial base in Europe, which is also ramping up its production, but still the US defence industrial base is extremely important for the overall deterrence of Nato.”

“But . . . there is an issue in terms of the production capacity. And this is a problem both in Europe and in the United States,” he added. “The good news is that the extra production lines, the extra shifts, are being built . . . [arms producers] are getting the message that when it comes to the shift in mindset, that the money is now there, the budgets are there, and they should not increase prices, but they should increase production.”

I’m collecting honest opinions from beginner investors.

When you first started, what was the hardest part:

• Getting started.
• Deciding what to buy.
• Understanding risk.
• Staying disciplined.

A short reply is enough. I’m trying to understand what actually confuses beginners the most.