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After famed investor Marc Andreessen met with government official about the future of tech last May , he was “ very scared ” and discover the coming together as “ utterly horrifying . ” These meeting play a key role on why he endorsed Trump , he told journalist Bari Weiss this week on her podcast .
What scared him most was what some said about the political science ’s role in AI , and what he described as a young staff who were “ radicalize ” and “ out for blood ” and whose insurance ideas would be “ damaging ” to his and Silicon Valley ’s interests .
He walk away believing they endorsed having the government control AI to the point of being market place makers , allowing only a couple of companies who cooperated with the government to boom . He felt they discouraged his investments in AI . “ They actually suppose flat out to us , ‘ do n’t do AI startup like , do n’t fund AI startups , ” he said .
patently , we do n’t know how the other folks in the meeting would echo such discussion , or even who he met with . But we can translate why such thought would be frightening for Andreessen in particular : His firm has backed AI startups like Elon Musk ’s xAI , Mistral AI , and Character . AI .
It ’s deserving noting that in June 2023 , long before these meetings , Andreessen publishedan AI pronunciamento call “ Why AI will save the humankind ” in which he admonish against AI regulation . So this is an area that ’s been on his mind for a while .
in public , the presidential term has act out less drastic measures around AI than what Andreessen return . In October 2023 , President Joe Biden issued an executive order that contained a series of voluntary commitment for AI company to stick to . This included ask companies to share safety exam results with the authorities and called upon Congress to evaluate how AI companies were gathering datum .
The order catch mixed reviews from Silicon Valley at the fourth dimension . OpenAI ’s Sam Altman tweeted that , while there were “ some great parts ” to the opening , “ it will be important not to slow down down design by smaller companies / research team . ”
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The next administration is , so far , indicating its design to wreak especially nicely with AI startups . to begin with this month , Trump declare that investor VCDavid Sacks would be his AI and crypto tsar , after which both Altman and Perplexity confirmed they would donate $ 1 million to Trump ’s inaugural stock . “ President Trump will precede our state into the age of AI , and I am eager to support his efforts to secure America remain ahead , ” Altman said in a instruction toBloomberg News .
Andreessen himself has spent about half his time in Mar - a - Lago since the election . He confirmed to Weiss the speculation thathe was involved in Elon Musk ’s DOGE initiative , describing himself as an “ an unpaid unpaid worker . ” He also said that , at Mar - a - Lago , he ’s “ been involved in some of the interviewing mental process for some of the officials coming in . ”
Andreessen said he felt hopeful about Trump ’s approach shot to tech , enounce Trump told him , “ I do n’t bang much about tech , but I do n’t necessitate to , because you guy cable recognise a lot about it . You guys should go make tech caller . The American tech society should bring home the bacon . ”
