*By Michael Teich*
Music artist and producer Wyclef Jean is a three-time Grammy winner, cannabis entrepreneur, and a former presidential candidate of Haiti.
Now, he's looking to create the world's first hip-hop guitar.
"It's a whole new instrument," Jean said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar. "It's software-based with actually real strings."
When Jean isn't piloting his latest projects, he's acting as a mentor for up-and-coming artists. The music mogul recently partnered with Fiverr, a digital marketplace for freelancers, and will offer his advice to users of the company's new platform, Fiverr Pro Music and Audio.
Freelancing is a delicate balance –– one that many Americans are forced to strike in a gig economy. A recent study from the [Department of Labor](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm) found that 10.1 percent of workers earn their keep in "alternative environments," like temp agencies or freelance industries.
And the music business isn't exactly hospitable: In 2017, recording artists only earned [12 percent](https://www.businessinsider.com/musicians-received-12-percent-43-billion-generated-by-music-industry-study-2018-8?utm_source=reddit.com) of the income produced by the industry, a marginal piece of a $43 billion market in the U.S.
His latest partnership with Fiverr allows Jean to help artists and enter a classroom, albeit a virtual one.
“If I wasn’t going to be famous, I was going to be a teacher.”
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/wyclef-jean-2).
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index as its stock rides higher on a cryptocurrency wave.
Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics, dives into their $63.3M acquisition of Vayu Robotics and how it's accelerating the future of autonomous delivery systems.
