LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman Discusses AI's Future and Political Landscape

LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman sees bright AI future and hopes his tech peers are right about Trump

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has been immersed in Silicon Valley since his August 1967 birth in Palo Alto, California, in the shadow of Stanford University, where he and fellow technology luminary Peter Thiel became friends as college students during the 1980s. They went on to start PayPal during the late 1990s while working alongside a coterie of other bright-eyed entrepreneurs who went on to even bigger things, just as Hoffman did. That group -- dubbed the "PayPal Mafia" -- included Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Now worth an estimated $2.6 billion, Hoffman has been at the forefront of the artificial intelligence craze while investing in trailblazing startups such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Inflection. Unlike other prominent technologists who are worried about AI destroying humanity, Hoffman has co-written a new book called "Superagency" that makes an optimistic case for AI. He recently talked with The Associated Press. Q: Are humans creating something smarter than themselves with AI? A: You already have some version of superintelligence right now. Obviously, we will be increasing that superintelligence, so we need to be thinking about which ways it's going to be making great additions and which ways it's going to make things more challenging. Human are generally bad at transitions, and that is part of the reason for writing books like "Superagency," to try to say there are some positive design principles, some positive outcomes that we should be trying to work our way toward. Q: Do you think there is a chance that these superintelligent AI agents eventually may seem omniscient? A: AI agents are pretty useful for coaching and advising. Like if you were to say, "Hey, how should I approach this thorny problem?" An AI agent can be a pretty good advice-giving coach. And so you can imagine it being a useful tutor across a wide variety of subjects, including even spiritual or counseling or mental ones. And I think that could be positive for the evolution of humanity, having something talking to us that is infinitely patient and is trying to help us get to our better selves. So, yes, you could have a "Consult the Oracle" situation with AI agents. Q: What's the risk of some people embracing AI as a bosom buddy, and and becoming more socially isolated? A: Some of that will happen for sure, the same way some people isolated themselves with TV or the internet. Part of this will be about the design focus. If you go to Inflection's AI agent, Pi, and say, "Hey you're my best friend," Pi, will say, "No, I am your AI companion, let's talk about your friendships. Have you seen any of your friends recently or want to see them?" We want AI agents being softly and gently encouraging, to be tied into the human circumstance, which I think is what most people really want. Q: On the flip side, as these AI agents become more human-like, could that get people more in touch with their own humanity? A: Our humanity is expressed in how we incorporate technology in our lives, just as we are communicating through Zoom for this interview. I think that is part of our humanity. Q: Switching topics, are you worried about President Trump retaliating against you for being one of Kamala Harris' biggest supporters in Silicon Valley leading up to last year's election? 2024 obviously was a very intense year and what I am trying not to do is speculate too much about that because in 2025 I am going to really focus on how I build and fund really interesting AI companies and other areas that help build industries that make a difference. My obvious hope is that the incoming administration will turn to a positive agenda. I kind of feel at this point that speculation is not really helpful. We will see in a couple of months how it's all going to play out. Q: Were you surprised by how much support President Trump got from other technology billionaires like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen? A: It wasn't surprising that the people who were very intensely pro-cryptocurrency were pro-Trump because the Biden administration was so negative on crypto. Also the fact that the Biden administration -- unlike the Obama administration -- was not putting in a lot of energy into saying, "Hey we think that new technology and new technology companies of the future are really important." And I think a bunch of the Biden administration staff was somewhat negative on large, tech companies. What did surprise me -- and now I am very much hoping they are right -- is that they thought the Trump administration would be very strongly and thoughtfully pro business across the arena. Let's see what happens with tariffs, let's hope that it doesn't play out in a particularly challenging way. A: Do you think your old PayPal colleagues Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are playing a form of political chess? The thing that is so important about Silicon Valley is the broadly held belief -- even if it's manifested differently in Peter versus me or other people, -- is that the creation of new technology companies is how progress is made. And I think it's an important mission for the country and the world as well as Silicon Valley. The degree to which they are playing chess around that, I don't know. But I think they are driven on that mission and part of what they are doing is trying to make sure that mission is fully realized in the Trump administration. Q: Do you agree with Trump's supporters in Silicon Valley that it's time to ease up on the rigorous regulation of tech that we had during President Biden's administration? A: I do. I hope there will be much more enablement of technology innovation. Q: Going back to your book, what do you say about AI pioneers like Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton who now see the technology as a threat to humanity? A: I tend to rate a lot of risks based on how does it compare to my risk to driving to the airport because every time you get in a car and drive to the airport, the highest risk of the journey is on the drive and not on the plane. If the risk is in the automobile-level of percentage, then I don't worry about it that much. And, if you say, "Well this is much bigger, this could be an existential human risk." Then I say, "Well, yeah, that's part of the reason you put more energy into being protective in navigating and steering it."

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on our AI future -- and reaching out to Trump

Reid Hoffman wants you to stop worrying and learn to love AI -- just not too much. The LinkedIn (MSFT-0.90%) co-founder and venture capitalist's new book "Superagency," co-authored with tech writer Greg Beato, makes a case for AI's potential to dramatically enhance human capabilities while also acknowledging the need for thoughtful development. In an interview with Quartz, Hoffman positioned himself as a "bloomer" on AI -- somewhere between the "doomers" prophesying robot apocalypse, the "gloomers" stocking their bunkers just in case, and the "zoomers" who've never met an AI model they didn't want to accelerate. It's a stance he calls "tech optimist" rather than "tech utopian," a distinction he sees as a sweet spot between innovation and responsibility. Read on to learn why he's betting on AI's future, what he thinks of the new administration's tech policy, and why he's choosing to build businesses rather than "make overtures" to President Donald Trump. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Quartz: How do tech doomers and tech optimists (or "zoomers") mischaracterize the current state and future of AI? Reid Hoffman: "The doomers are heavily populated by folks who either view there's an existential risk -- like the Terminator robot scenario -- or see AI firmly in the hands of human beings doing bad things, whether it's military or destruction of society through jobs. The zoomers tend to believe technology is always great, arguing we just have to hit the accelerator and get it fully adopted, and the end result will be much better. Those are the two bracketing concerns, between which you put the "bloomers," who are a bit less extreme on either of those two sides." Quartz: You've described yourself as a tech optimist rather than a tech utopian. Can you explain the distinction and how it shapes your perspective on AI development? Hoffman: "Tech utopian, which is a little bit like being a zoomer, believes that anytime you're creating new technology, it's just great and we should do it and work it out - it's almost like a certain form of techno determinism. I think we're better described as Homo tech than Homo sapiens because we evolve through technology, but we have to shape the technology because we can shape it in ways that are better and worse for human futures. "When we look at the history of technology, part of the reason I'm a bloomer is that the first iterations are not necessarily that good, not only because of competence but because we figure out how to make the technology best shaped for maximum positive impact, together with the limitations to make sure we don't damage people with it." Hoffman: "The coding stack is what many major players are working on with intensity, but to think it's just coding underplays the benefit. When you get coding capabilities, that extends an agent's ability to do things for you by its ability to write its own tools. For example, if you wanted to analyze different news sources about South Korea's presidency, it could write a mini agent to hunt for information and do web searches, write another agent to analyze numbers from reports, do cross-check analysis on which facts are most cited, and then write a report bringing it all together. This capability extends beyond just amplifying engineers to amplifying everyone's use of these tools across various professional tasks - from journalism to financial analysis, law, medicine, and more." Quartz: Given the substantial costs associated with AI development, as highlighted by Sequoia Capital's "$600 billion question" analysis, do you have concerns about funding constraints impacting future progress? Hoffman: "I think that for some startups, the faucet will be turned off or unavailable. For some startups, it'll be turned down - a little bit more constrained, like 'prove it as you go.' But among the leaders demonstrating they're part of the AI future, there's enough diversity and breadth and depth of investors who want to be part of that vision. I think there will be lots of AI capital available, just as there was for years with the internet before we began seeing which patterns really proved out and which ones were later or never materialized." Quartz: What's your assessment of the new Trump administration's tech policy approach? Hoffman: "I think it's a good thing that they're bringing a lot of people with technical depth and interest in creating the new technologies of the future. It's one of the things that I think we should all do as a society, as industries, as corporations, and as individuals. And so I think that that's a huge positive. A personal interest that I hope that we'll see, for example, is refactoring the nuclear energy regulation to take advantage of all the clean energy that's there to both increase the energy supply and increase the green energy supply." Quartz: Given your past political stances, did you ever consider engaging with the new administration to advance your tech policy views? Hoffman: "Look, obviously in '24, I was advocating for a different pattern, a different path forward. I think now, in '25, the best thing I could do is really help contribute to great American businesses by thinking about how we maintain and grow our technology and business leadership positions in ways that help the whole country. "I think being high integrity and all the rest like, I think that's the simplest way for me to positively contribute, which is what all of us should be working on doing. I don't know if I were even to make any particular overtures how they would be received. So I'm just doing the classic American thing of focusing on building the businesses."