Latest news with #SevenSevenSix
The Star
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Soccer-Ohanian says wife Serena Williams was wary of investing in women's soccer
FILE PHOTO: Alexis Ohanian, founder of Seven Seven Six and co-founder and former executive chairman of Reddit, speaks at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo (Reuters) -Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said his wife, 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, had initially tried to talk him out of investing in women's soccer due to what she saw as a lack of infrastructure in women's sports. Ohanian acquired a 10% stake in Women's Super League champions Chelsea last week. His investment of 20 million pounds ($26.89 million) values the London-based club at about 200 million pounds. Ohanian was also the largest shareholder in U.S. National Women's Soccer League side Angel City, which he helped launch to great fanfare in 2020, before it was sold for $250 million in 2024. "Serena actually tried to talk me out of it (starting a women's soccer team in U.S.), because I think she had been so exposed to the infrastructure around women's sports," Ohanian told CNN on Thursday. "Because of her lived experience ... because she had to kick down a lot of doors." Ohanian said there was huge growth potential for Chelsea, who completed a treble of domestic trophies last week following their sixth straight WSL title. "I think a lot of well-intentioned people historically have supported women's sports in a way that ... actually held it back because it was viewed too much as charity. They led with things like, 'Oh, I'm doing this because I have a daughter," he added. "I'm glad the discourse has now shifted ... but there's still so much more work to be done, and I really believe that this club could and should be the first billion dollar club in women's sports." ($1 = 0.7437 pounds) (Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
Business Insider
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he wants his 7-year-old to use AI every day, calling it a 'superpower'
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he's all in on AI — especially when it comes to his 7-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. "I wholeheartedly want Olympia using it every day," he said on an episode of the podcast "Possible" published Wednesday. "I genuinely am so awed by the fact that super intelligence will be a commodity for her," he added. Ohanian, who is married to tennis superstar Serena Williams, described how he's already using AI to fuel their daughter's creativity. The investor and entrepreneur dug up some of his own childhood pencil sketches — even half-finished ones — and ran them through ChatGPT with Olympia to bring them to life. The AI turned his drawings into "full-color illustrations." "It was just so wild to see her reaction to it," said Ohanian. He and Williams also have a one-year-old daughter, Adira River Ohanian. Olympia still draws the old-fashioned way — with markers on paper — but now, they can "level up" that art together using AI. The pair can "make it fly through space," he said. "I want her to understand that this is a superpower that she should have," he added. The founder of VC firm Seven Seven Six also said he encourages parents to use educational AI tools like Synthesis to help with homework, which has been "going pretty well" for Olympia. "I still need her to know the fundamentals of reading and writing and arithmetic," he said. "But I want her to know that the raw intelligence part has been solved for her." "Now, it's going to be about her agency and her grit and her creativity," he added. AI for children Not every tech exec shares Ohanian's tech enthusiasm for their kids. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for one, has said he doesn't want his baby son to form a best-friend bond with an AI chatbot. He said earlier this month that children should have "a much higher level of protection" than adults when it comes to using AI tools. Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt also said last year that AI could shape a child's identity and culture. He called on tech leaders to set safety standards. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has said he doesn't want his three young kids "sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time." Still, AI is quickly becoming part of everyday life — even for children. Companies are rushing to add AI chat elements to their consumer apps and services, including ones for kids and teens. Tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have also promoted how their AI tools can support learning. Some educators told Business Insider last year that they welcome the use of AI in classrooms. "Children in the future will only know a world with AI in it," Altman said in January.
Al Jazeera
24-02-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Future of AI in focus at Web Summit Qatar 2025
The future of artificial intelligence (AI) has been the focus of tech entrepreneurs and financial backers gathered in Doha for the second annual Web Summit hosted by Qatar. The four-day digital technology and emerging innovation summit kicked off its second day on Monday, with attendees eyeing an AI environment being transformed rapidly. Leading entrepreneurs from around the world, including Alexander Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and general partner at Seven Seven Six, took centre stage at the event on the opening day. Reporting from Doha, Al Jazeera's Colin Baker said the summit is grappling with questions over the future of AI amid 'companies and investors that are changing that landscape more rapidly than we expected'. The United States and China are leading in preparedness for AI, said Wang of US company Scale AI. DeepSeek demonstrated that it is a relatively close race between the two countries and that others will have to follow suit soon. 'Nearly every country in the world, or nearly every company in the world, will ultimately likely build AI technology on top of either the US technology stack or that of the Chinese technology stack,' Wang said. Qatar is seeking to use its gas wealth to help it become a regional AI leader amid rising competition from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The government in Doha announced on Sunday that it had signed a five-year deal with Scale AI to deploy AI-powered tools and training in a push to improve government services in the Gulf Arab state. Initially started in Dublin in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit began as a small 150-person tech conference. At last year's event, Qatar focused on attracting early-stage tech companies by offering incentives such as free visas, tax exemptions, business licences, office space, and funding for promising firms. The Web Summit Qatar 2025 features more than 25,000 attendees from 124 countries and some 1,520 start-ups, over 600 investors, and about 380 speakers, alongside 180 industry partners.
