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After the renowned investor Marc Andreessen engaged in discussions with government officials regarding the future of tech last May, he expressed deep unease and characterized the meetings as truly terrifying. These interactions played a crucial role in his endorsement of Trump, as he disclosed to journalist Bari Weiss during her podcast this week.

What Scared Andreessen the Most

What alarmed him the most was the perspectives shared about the government's role in AI. He described a young staff that seemed "radicalized" and "out for blood," whose policy ideas he believed would be detrimental to his and Silicon Valley's interests. He left the meetings with the impression that they advocated for the government to have significant control over AI, to the extent of becoming market makers, favoring only a few companies that cooperated with the government. This led him to feel that his investments in AI were being discouraged. He recounted, "They actually said outright to us, 'don't do AI startups like, don't fund AI startups.'"Obviously, the details of these discussions from other participants' perspectives remain unknown, and even the identities of those he met with are unclear. However, we can comprehend why such thoughts would be particularly frightening for Andreessen. His firm has been a backer of AI startups such as Elon Musk's xAI, Mistral AI, and Character.AI.It is worth noting that in June 2023, long before these meetings, Andreessen published an AI manifesto titled "Why AI will save the world," in which he cautioned against AI regulation. This indicates that this is an area that has been on his mind for some time.

Public Measures and Reactions

Publicly, the administration has implemented less extreme measures regarding AI compared to what Andreessen remembered. In October 2023, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that included a series of voluntary commitments for AI companies to adhere to. This involved asking companies to share safety test results with the government and calling on Congress to assess how AI companies were gathering data.The order received mixed responses from Silicon Valley at that time. OpenAI's Sam Altman tweeted that while there were "some great parts" to the initiative, "it will be important not to slow down innovation by smaller companies/research teams."

Next Administration's Plans

So far, the next administration has signaled its intention to have a particularly cooperative approach with AI startups. Earlier this month, Trump announced that investor VC David Sacks would serve as his AI and crypto czar. Subsequently, both Altman and Perplexity confirmed their donations of $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. Altman stated in a statement to Bloomberg News, "President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead."Andreessen himself has spent approximately half of his time at Mar-a-Lago since the election. He confirmed to Weiss the speculation that he was involved in Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, describing himself as an "unpaid volunteer." He also mentioned that at Mar-a-Lago, he has been involved in the interviewing process for some of the incoming officials.Andreessen expressed hope about Trump's approach to tech, stating that Trump told him, "I don't know much about tech, but I don't need to, because you guys know a lot about it. You guys should go build tech companies. The American tech companies should win."