Marc Andreessen Says Pumping The Brakes On AI Development Is 'A Form Of Murder'

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen recently ripped into those cautioning against the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

A slowdown in AI advancement is akin to murder, Andreessen said.

Embracing AI: In a 5,200-word "tech-optimist manifesto" published on Oct. 16, the general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, touted AI as a universal problem solver.

The billionaire called out AI skeptics and equated the technology to a "philosopher's stone" that can cure illness and prevent deaths caused by everything from "car crashes to pandemics to wartime friendly fire."

"We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder," Andreessen said.

Andreessen's views differ greatly from other tech leaders like Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk, who founded X.ai to "understand reality" and has warned that AI development should be paused for the sake of humanity.

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In an open letter signed by more than 1,000 tech leaders, Musk among others warned that AI tools present "profound risks to society" and said not even the creators of these tools can "understand, predict or reliably control" the technology. 

This isn't the first time Andreessen has expressed extreme optimism about the development of AI. In a blog post from earlier this year, he expressed the belief that "AI will save the world."

In the tech-optimist manifesto, he argues that AI will help to expand human capabilities to unimagined heights.

"Intelligence makes everything better. Smart people and smart societies outperform less smart ones on virtually every metric we can measure. Intelligence is the birthright of humanity; we should expand it as fully and broadly as we possibly can," Andreessen said.

Just this week, reports suggested the EU is planning to propose stricter rules for AI development in what would mark the first Western government to put mandatory rules on AI. If measures are put in place, it could set the stage for other government bodies to take similar actions. 

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Photo: Inha Pekhava from Pixabay.