Shiba Inu's shib created a $1 billion AI policy war chest — and Vitalik regrets it

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin detailed how an unsolicited donation of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens, which ballooned to over $1 billion in value, led to unintended consequences. After liquidating his holdings, he donated half to the Future of Life Institute (FLI), expecting them to raise $10-$25 million. However, FLI liquidated roughly $500 million and subsequently pivoted its strategy toward large-scale political and cultural action to counter AI lobbying, a shift Buterin worries could lead to "authoritarian and fragile" outcomes.

Buterin criticized FLI's focus on embedding guardrails into AI models as "very fragile" and warned that this approach could logically lead to calls to ban open-source AI and establish global dominance by a single company. He also noted structural issues with regulation-first strategies, where government exemptions for national security organizations create risks. While he acknowledged some positive work by FLI, Buterin's core concern is that the substantial funds from the meme coin donation are now being deployed in ways that make him uncomfortable, despite having shared his concerns privately with FLI beforehand.

(Source：CoinDesk)