Andreessen warns any AI ‘deceleration’ will ‘cost lives’

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen warned Monday that “deceleration” of artificial intelligence (AI) development could “cost lives.”

“We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives,” Andreessen said on a web page titled “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” on the Andreessen Horowitz website. “Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.”

Andreessen also railed against bureaucracy, monopolies, socialism and regulatory captures in the manifesto, which is centered on progress through technology. 

“Our present society has been subjected to a mass demoralization campaign for six decades — against technology and against life — under varying names like ‘existential risk’, ‘sustainability’, ‘ESG’, ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, ‘social responsibility’, ‘stakeholder capitalism’, ‘Precautionary Principle’, ‘trust and safety’, ‘tech ethics’, ‘risk management’, ‘de-growth,’ ‘the limits of growth,’” Andreessen said. 

The venture capitalist’s comments come amid mounting debate over the regulation of AI, especially with the rise of technologies like ChatGPT. Last week, House and Senate Democrats recommended that President Biden turn nonbinding safeguards on AI into policy via an executive order.

A letter signed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), among other lawmakers, advised that the president’s administration use the AI Bill of Rights as guidance for policy throughout the federal government by way of executive order. The AI Bill of Rights uses a framework of five key principles for the design, use and deployment of the technology.

“By turning the AI Bill of Rights from a non-binding statement of principles into federal policy, your Administration would send a clear message to both private actors and federal regulators: AI systems must be developed with guardrails,” the Democrats wrote.

“Doing so would also strengthen your Administration’s efforts to advance racial equity and support underserved communities, building on important work from previous executive orders.”