Key Takeaways
- • Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), said on an a16z podcast that venture capital may be one of the last fields people still perform after AI automates much of the human labor force.
- • Andreessen argued that the great venture capitalists of the last 70 years have missed most of the great companies of their generation, with success rates of roughly two in ten.
- • He described the job as largely psychological, involving assessing entrepreneurs' character and how they handle pressure, and said this may be "quite literally timeless," while cautioning he did not want to be definitive.
- • The remarks drew skepticism from Gizmodo, which argued that AI could plausibly be trained on psychological data to perform similar tasks.
Summary
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said that venture capital may be one of the last occupations to remain human-run as artificial intelligence takes over large portions of the labor force, according to Gizmodo. The comments came during a recent appearance on the a16z podcast, produced by Andreessen Horowitz, the firm he co-founded and through which he has invested broadly in AI-related companies.
Andreessen framed the venture investing track record in sobering terms. "Every great venture capitalist in the last 70 years has missed most of the great companies of his generation," he said, adding that top VCs typically back roughly two in ten of the decade's great companies. He characterized the core of the job as a mix of intangible skills, chiefly psychological assessment of founders: who they are, how they react under pressure, and how to keep them from faltering. "You end up being a psychologist half the time," he said.
He was careful not to overstate the point. "It is possible—I don't want to be definitive—but it's possible that that is quite literally timeless," Andreessen said. "And when... the AI is doing everything else, that may be one of the last remaining fields that people are still doing."
Gizmodo treated the remarks skeptically, noting that similar claims that a given profession is uniquely resistant to automation have often preceded job losses to new technology. The outlet argued that a sufficiently capable AI, trained on large volumes of behavioral and psychological data, could plausibly perform the founder-assessment work Andreessen described. The article also referenced Andreessen's earlier Techno-Optimist's Manifesto, which Gizmodo characterized critically. Other coverage of the podcast reported similar framing, with one outlet describing venture capital as potentially among the last fields safe from AI replacement.
Andreessen framed the venture investing track record in sobering terms. "Every great venture capitalist in the last 70 years has missed most of the great companies of his generation," he said, adding that top VCs typically back roughly two in ten of the decade's great companies. He characterized the core of the job as a mix of intangible skills, chiefly psychological assessment of founders: who they are, how they react under pressure, and how to keep them from faltering. "You end up being a psychologist half the time," he said.
He was careful not to overstate the point. "It is possible—I don't want to be definitive—but it's possible that that is quite literally timeless," Andreessen said. "And when... the AI is doing everything else, that may be one of the last remaining fields that people are still doing."
Gizmodo treated the remarks skeptically, noting that similar claims that a given profession is uniquely resistant to automation have often preceded job losses to new technology. The outlet argued that a sufficiently capable AI, trained on large volumes of behavioral and psychological data, could plausibly perform the founder-assessment work Andreessen described. The article also referenced Andreessen's earlier Techno-Optimist's Manifesto, which Gizmodo characterized critically. Other coverage of the podcast reported similar framing, with one outlet describing venture capital as potentially among the last fields safe from AI replacement.
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