Have you ever had the desire to see Sam Altman and Palmer Luckey square off over a moderately suspenseful card game? If so, you are in luck.

Silicon Valley’s leaders are rushing to embrace the power of media for the purposes of marketing and political capital. Now, in a sign of the times, Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has launched its own game show.

“MAFIA the GAME,” will apparently be an ongoing thing, where prominent tech luminaries get together and face off over a game of cards (the show is named after the party-game favorite).

The spectacle is moderated by Pirate Wires editor Mike Solana (who is also the chief marketing officer at Founders Fund). The debut episode includes a who’s who of players — Sam Altman; Palmer Luckey; Bryan Johnson, the famed biohacker who will (according to him) live forever; and Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of encrypted chat app Signal.

“I’m so f*cking bored with VC content,” Solana told Newcomer, which originally reported the show’s existence. “There has to be a more interesting way to get to know someone, and I think that this is a way more interesting way to get to know someone.”

TechCrunch reached out to Founders Fund for more information on the program.

In many ways, having a reality-TV-esque platform is just good business these days. The internet has turned the world into a population of chronic media consumers, and the average American spends around 2.5 hours on social media per day. Much of that time is spent scrolling through an endless flood of advertising-laced memes and videos.

In the modern era, the road to power and influence is paved with infotainment.

Companies and executives have sought to take advantage of this new reality in different ways. OpenAI recently raised some eyebrows when it procured TBPN, the buzzy founder-led podcast. Meanwhile, a number of tech’s most prominent players have leveraged virality to their advantage. Johnson, for instance, has managed to grow his following through a very active (and quite bizarre) social media presence. Elon Musk, meanwhile, has also managed to leverage his public persona to go viral (although arguments could be made that his online presence has sometimes hurt rather than helped his businesses).

This trend has also spread to the startup space, where people like Cluely CEO Chungin “Roy” Lee have demonstrated the power of being a one-man viral hype machine.

The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, says Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have risen to 344 confirmed infections, with 60 deaths recorded so far.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Ghebreyesus said the backlog of suspected Ebola cases had dropped significantly from more than 1,000 to 116 as laboratory testing capacity improved across affected areas.

The WHO chief gave the update after returning from the outbreak epicentre in Ituri Province, where he met political leaders, frontline health workers and community groups involved in the response.

According to him, WHO’s latest risk assessment remains very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low globally, despite ongoing efforts to contain transmission and strengthen surveillance.

He said confirmed cases had been reported across 24 health zones in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, underscoring the scale of the outbreak and challenges facing response teams.

“Treatment capacity has expanded with three centres and 80 beds now open in Bunia, plus units in Mongbwalu, Rwampara, Beni, Goma and Bukavu,” he said.

“Six people have recovered in DRC and two in Uganda, but contact tracing still lags at 45 per cent against the 90 per cent target needed to control spread.”

Mr Ghebreyesus said the outbreak had crossed international borders, with Uganda recording 15 confirmed cases and one death, including a Congolese resident who travelled through the United Arab Emirates.

He added that a US citizen infected in DRC remained under treatment in Germany, while WHO continued coordinating with Ugandan and UAE authorities on contact tracing and exposure-risk assessments.

The WHO Director-General identified five major challenges slowing response efforts and emphasised the urgent need for stronger surveillance systems, community engagement and improved operational access in affected regions.

“First, testing delays persist, so WHO is decentralising labs to Mongbwalu, Beni, Aru, Nyakunde and Tchomia. Second, only 45 per cent of contacts are being followed in DRC due to insecurity and displacement.

“Third, blanket travel restrictions are disrupting supply chains despite the WHO recommending exit screening instead.

“Fourth, community mistrust remains high, with some leaders still doubting Ebola is real. Building trust is now a core priority and Fifth, there are still no approved vaccines or therapeutics,” he said.

According to him, WHO has convened its Medical Countermeasures Network to accelerate trials and diagnostics, stressing that leadership, community ownership and trust remained essential to ending the outbreak successfully.

READ ALSO: WHO prioritises clinical trials for Bundibugyo Ebola treatments, vaccines

“Our ultimate measure of success is not whether we stop this outbreak. We will. DRC has stopped 16 previous Ebola outbreaks,” he said.

“The real measure is what we do to prevent the 18th and 19th, if communities survive Ebola only to die from malaria, malnutrition or other diseases,

“We have not really helped them.

“WHO pledged to stay after the outbreak ends to help build stronger health and humanitarian services under government leadership,’ he said. (NAN)