The topic of AI played an important role in the news again this week.

On Friday’s episode of the TechCrunch Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Becca Szkutak kick off the show by analyzing a bill that aims to regulate AI at the model level. Of course, some VCs and founders, as well as students and professors, are outraged by this. But we have to ask: Is regulation in the name of safety really a bad thing? Short answer: It depends.

The trio then dived into the week’s deals, including OpenAI’s potential new investment in webcam maker Opal. We also discussed some major leadership changes at OpenAI and what that might mean for internal operations. Becca mentioned a new startup called why?!, founded by former Clubhouse employees, that aims to be a networking, messaging and dating app rolled into one. And Kirsten touched on electric vehicle maker Lucid’s new $1.5 billion capital injection from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

Then we changed the subject and talked about how many new unicorns have been born in the US so far this year. Our conclusion: This new group of unicorns was surprisingly diverse, spanning several industries. Lastly, we looked at some notable M&A deals in the fintech space, including one where Payoneer acquired a five-year-old Singaporean startup called Skuad for $61 million in cash this week, as well as the recent purchase of Stripe.

We had a lot of fun making this episode, so check it out!

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and is published every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Covered, Spotify and all casts.

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