Marc Andreessen

And sitting here today, China took the lead last week in having the best open system. They've kind of done a judo move. They're kind of using our strengths against us. It's net good for the world because everybody gets to download and use their stuff. And like, it's fantastic for all the reasons I described. And so this is far from a hostile act on their standpoint.

And sitting here today, China took the lead last week in having the best open system. They've kind of done a judo move. They're kind of using our strengths against us. It's net good for the world because everybody gets to download and use their stuff. And like, it's fantastic for all the reasons I described. And so this is far from a hostile act on their standpoint.

It's much more of a generous act, but it's the kind of generous act that you would expect the West to do, not communist China to do. And then in the U.S., we have to decide how we're going to respond to that. AI policy in the West has been very screwed up because we have not been clear eyed on this.

It's much more of a generous act, but it's the kind of generous act that you would expect the West to do, not communist China to do. And then in the U.S., we have to decide how we're going to respond to that. AI policy in the West has been very screwed up because we have not been clear eyed on this.

And the way I describe it is over the last several years, I got very involved in the AI policy debates in the US and in the UK, and then from a distance in the EU. And what I would describe as very fuzzy, confused thinking where you had a lot of people in power basically thinking, oh, yes, if it's a competition with China, we have to win.

And the way I describe it is over the last several years, I got very involved in the AI policy debates in the US and in the UK, and then from a distance in the EU. And what I would describe as very fuzzy, confused thinking where you had a lot of people in power basically thinking, oh, yes, if it's a competition with China, we have to win.

But if it's not a competition with China, then we can adopt a Chinese model and we can lock it down in our own societies. And we can use AI as an instrument of control and censorship in our own society. So as long as China is not a challenge, essentially the US, the UK, the EU are going to become more Chinese.

But if it's not a competition with China, then we can adopt a Chinese model and we can lock it down in our own societies. And we can use AI as an instrument of control and censorship in our own society. So as long as China is not a challenge, essentially the US, the UK, the EU are going to become more Chinese.

They're going to have more centralized control, more restrictions, more lockdowns, more censorship. The Chinese are doing us a favor in an ironic way, which is they're kicking us in the butt and basically saying, I'm going to impute something to them they haven't said. But basically the message is you Westerners are basically betraying your core principles.

They're going to have more centralized control, more restrictions, more lockdowns, more censorship. The Chinese are doing us a favor in an ironic way, which is they're kicking us in the butt and basically saying, I'm going to impute something to them they haven't said. But basically the message is you Westerners are basically betraying your core principles.

You're letting us do this the way that it should be done as opposed to you guys doing it. And if you in the West don't adapt and actually return back to your core principles of freedom and democracy and openness, China's not going to just let the world coast along. China's going to go ahead and seize that mantle. And I think it would be ruinously destructive for the West if that's what happens.

You're letting us do this the way that it should be done as opposed to you guys doing it. And if you in the West don't adapt and actually return back to your core principles of freedom and democracy and openness, China's not going to just let the world coast along. China's going to go ahead and seize that mantle. And I think it would be ruinously destructive for the West if that's what happens.

I think we need policies and companies and products that respond to that in the right way.

I think we need policies and companies and products that respond to that in the right way.

Yeah, so there's some real issues here. There is an irony to the line of argument, and you do hear that line of argument. There's an irony to it, which, of course, is OpenAI did not invent the transformer. The core algorithm of a large language model is something called the transformer. It was not invented at OpenAI. It was invented at Google.

Yeah, so there's some real issues here. There is an irony to the line of argument, and you do hear that line of argument. There's an irony to it, which, of course, is OpenAI did not invent the transformer. The core algorithm of a large language model is something called the transformer. It was not invented at OpenAI. It was invented at Google.

Google invented it and published a paper on it and then, by the way, didn't pursue it. They continued to do research on it, but they didn't productize it. And they didn't productize it because of quote unquote safety. They were like, ah, this could be unsafe. And so let's not do it. So they let it sit on the shelf for five years.

Google invented it and published a paper on it and then, by the way, didn't pursue it. They continued to do research on it, but they didn't productize it. And they didn't productize it because of quote unquote safety. They were like, ah, this could be unsafe. And so let's not do it. So they let it sit on the shelf for five years.

And then the OpenAI guys figured it out, picked it up and ran with it. And Anthropic is a spinoff of OpenAI. Anthropic also did not invent the transformer. And so both of those companies and every other American lab, by the way, working on large language models and every other open source project is built on something that none of them actually created and developed themselves.

And then the OpenAI guys figured it out, picked it up and ran with it. And Anthropic is a spinoff of OpenAI. Anthropic also did not invent the transformer. And so both of those companies and every other American lab, by the way, working on large language models and every other open source project is built on something that none of them actually created and developed themselves.