Yesterday afternoon, Marc Andreessen dropped a massive 5,200-word manifesto-type piece about the world of AI. He rages about everything being said against AI, such as even the very idea that AI might not be good. Social responsibility — scoff! — Safety measures, tech ethics, AI could take jobs, hurt the environment, or find ways to corrupt children? — double and triple scoff.
“Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential.” –Marc Andreessen
Andreessen wants all skeptics to step aside and let technology transform the world –and that skeptics need to step aside and let technology transform the world. Andreessen doesn’t take too kindly to regulation, mentioning that “our enemy is corruption, regulatory capture, monopolies, cartels.”
I have heard Marc Andreessen, cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, speak many times — and loved these conferences and speeches. This “manifesto” made me wonder if his writings are what he really thinks — or, more likely, Andreessen has billions invested in AI.
Having massive investments in something, as Andreessen does, tends to make one “pro-whatever” the investment is in.
Andreessen lit into the “lies” that all society is saying about technology. Fortune noted that Andreessen wrote much of the piece like his writing were a poem, with frequent line breaks — and called this writing a “Techno-Optimist Manifesto.” We are all “Techno-Optimists,” aren’t we? The world hopes for the best and is cheering on all the beautiful options technology has brought us.
Fortune also said that on the Andreessen Horowitz’s website, he says “We believe” 113 times and published it on Substack. And this manifesto discusses every topic on the technology spectrum. He discussed chatbots, the energy sector — and even the meaning of life. He addresses that the free market will lift all people from poverty and that centralized systems don’t care for or look out for the individual (mainly because they don’t have to.)
Here is another quote from the Andreessen manifesto:
“We believe the techno-capital machine of markets and innovation never ends, but instead spirals continuously upward.” Of course, as Fortune’s Rachel Jones writes — “Andreessen never mentions the hundred of years’ worth of market crashes — except to mention the “COVID disruption” as if that has been the world’s only issue.
Featured Image Credit: Photo from the Andreessen Horowitz web site; Thank you!
