Reid Hoffman: ‘Start using AI deeply. It is a huge intelligence amplifier’

The co-founder of LinkedIn and Democrat donor remains confident that AI can be good for all of us – if its introduction is handled in the right way

Reid Hoffman is a prominent Silicon Valley billionaire entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding the professional social networking site LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft. He’s also staunchly anti-Trump. The longtime Democrat donor threw his support behind Kamala Harris in the race for the White House. Hoffman spoke to the Observer about technology in the new political milieu and his new book about our future with artificial intelligence, Superagency. The book, while not ignoring the problems that AI might cause, argues that the technology is poised to give us cognitive superpowers that will increase our individual and collective human agency, creating a state of widespread empowerment for society.

You have a vested interest in being positive about AI, including a company focused on conversational AI for business, Inflection AI. Why should we listen to you?
First, an economic interest doesn’t necessarily make what someone is saying wrong, and I try to be transparent and not hide mine. Second, I tend to start with my beliefs and follow with my money. And sometimes that does mean doing things that are against my economic interests. Not kissing [Trump’s] ring, like many others have, is probably an economic limiter – but it’s better to be principled. I could have put the time and energy I spent writing Superagency into my companies and made much more money, but I want to share in the intellectual discourse.

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