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This is what A16Z's vaunted techno-optimism movement has produced. A more efficient way of scamming and generating disinformation. Hooray.
by nvy 3y ago
This is what A16Z's vaunted techno-optimism movement has produced. A more efficient way of scamming and generating disinformation. Hooray.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- blobbers 3y agoThere are few truths; some say only one. Unfortunately there are many many ways to lie.
- antonvs 3y agoGood grief. I just looked that up. What a day to have eyes. I want a list of everyone who worked on that manifesto so I can put them on a list of "people to never interact with at any cost."
- camillomiller 3y agoWell it's just, like, the biggest VC in the world for investments and popularity? And yes, that is extremely sad.
- antonvs 3y agoI mean, the biggest firms are generally just shitshows of FOMO and so on. The second biggest, Sequoia, was all in on FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried right up until the collapse.
- mycologos 3y agoSequoia put out a PR piece about SBF [1] a few months before it all blew up, and it's pretty amazing, and has made it a lot easier for me to believe that VC partners are maybe not necessarily that smart: > [Sequoia partner Michelle] Bailhe remembers it the same way: “We had a great meeting with Sam, but the last question, which I remember Alfred asking, was, ‘So, everything you’re building is great, but what is your long-term vision for FTX?’” That’s when SBF told Sequoia about the so-called super-app: “I want FTX to be a place where you can do anything you want with your next dollar. You can buy bitcoin. You can send money in whatever currency to any friend anywhere in the world. You can buy a banana. You can do anything you want with your money from inside FTX.” Suddenly, the chat window on Sequoia’s side of the Zoom lights up with partners freaking out. “I LOVE THIS FOUNDER,” typed one partner. “I am a 10 out of 10,” pinged another. “YES!!!” exclaimed a third. What Sequoia was reacting to was the scale of SBF’s vision. It wasn’t a story about how we might use fintech in the future, or crypto, or a new kind of bank. It was a vision about the future of money itself—with a total addressable market of every person on the entire planet. “I sit ten feet from him, and I walked over, thinking, Oh, shit, that was really good,” remembers Arora. “And it turns out that that fucker was playing League of Legends through the entire meeting.” “We were incredibly impressed,” Bailhe says. “It was one of those your-hair-is-blown-back type of meetings.” There's plenty of other stuff in there. It's not just pumping up a promising bet that went bad, it's hagiography on a scale that is almost impossible to believe, approved by an organization that is really supposed to know better. [1] https://archive.ph/GQkCp https://archive.ph/GQkCp
- camillomiller 3y ago*An organization trying really hard with money and PR to convince everyone that they know better FTFY :)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- seabass-labrax 3y agoWhat is the relationship between A16Z (Andreessen Horowitz, presumably) and this article? Is there in fact any?
- spxneo 3y agoits that Andreesseen is engaging in what most would describe as security fraud with crypto and that he feels emboldened by it. lot of voices in washington to make an example out of him. not sure if he's aware
- seabass-labrax 3y agoThanks - I feel I'm still missing a link though, as Andreesseen seems to be all about blockchains and cryptocurrency, and this article is about nefarious uses of generative AI technology by SEO firms. I don't immediately see a common thread.
- nvy 3y agoA16Z is a major investor of "Open" "AI" and the techno-optimism movement espouses the belief that technology is inherently good (which is patently false).