Why Marc Andreessen was ‘horrified’ after meeting with Biden administration about AI

After famous investor Marc Andreessen met with government officials about the future of technology last May, he was “very nervous” and described the meetings as “very dangerous.” These meetings played a big role in Trump’s endorsement, he told reporter Bari Weiss this week on his podcast.

What scared him the most was what others said about the government’s role in AI, and what he described as young workers who were “flexible” and “bloodless” and whose policy ideas would be “destructive” to his interests and those of Silicon Valley.

He came away convinced that he would allow the government to control AI to the point of creating markets, and allow the few companies that have cooperated with the government to succeed. He felt that he was limiting his investment in AI. “They’ve clearly told us, ‘don’t do AI startups like, don’t fund AI startups,'” he said.

Obviously, we don’t know how some people in the meeting can remember such discussions, even those he experienced. But we can understand why such an idea would be dangerous for Andreessen in particular: His company has backed AI startups like Elon Musk’s xAI, Mistral AI, and Character.AI.

It is important to note that in June 2023, before these meetings, Andreessen was published an AI exhibition called “Why AI will save the world” in which he warned against the rules of AI. So this is an area that has been on his mind for a while.

In general, regulators have put in place fewer measures around AI than Andreessen remembered. In October 2023, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that contained several provisions for AI companies to comply. This includes asking companies to share the results of security tests with the government and asked Congress to review how AI companies collect information.

The order got mixed reviews from Silicon Valley at the time. OpenAI’s Sam Altman wrote on Twitter that, although there were “some great aspects” of the initiative, “it will be important not to limit the creativity of small companies/research groups.”

The next administration, so far, is showing its intentions to play nice with AI startups. Earlier this month, Trump announced that the VC David Sacks will be his AI and crypto czarlater Altman and Perplexity confirmed that they would donate $1 million to Trump’s campaign fund. “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to move America forward,” Altman said in a statement. Bloomberg news.

Andreessen himself has spent about half his time at Mar-a-Lago since the election. He confirmed to Weiss the speculation that participated in Elon Musk’s DOGEhe describes himself as an “unpaid volunteer.” He also said that, at Mar-a-Lago, he “participated in discussions with some of the incoming officials.”

Andreessen said he feels optimistic about Trump’s technology approach, saying that Trump told him, “I don’t know much about technology, but I don’t have to, because you know a lot about it. You guys need to go build the tech industry. The American tech industry needs to succeed.”