Reid Hoffman Wants Silicon Valley to ‘Stand Up’ Against the Trump Administration | EUROtoday
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Reid Hoffman doesn’t do a lot in half measures. He cofounded LinkedIn, after all, and helped bankroll firms together with Meta and Airbnb of their startup days. He has additionally normal himself, by way of books, podcasts, and different public appearances, as one thing of a public mental—a pro-capitalist thinker who nonetheless insists that tech is usually a drive for good.
Most lately, Hoffman has emerged as one in all Silicon Valley’s most distinguished defenders of synthetic intelligence. His latest ebook, 2025’s Superagencymakes the case that AI gained’t diminish human capability however will as a substitute amplify it. In our dialog for this week’s episode of The Big Interview, Hoffman readily riffed on AI’s utility for just about every little thing, whether or not you’re in search of a analysis assistant or a second opinion in your blood work. Hoffman even relied on AI to make one of the unconventional—and maybe uncomfortable, relying in your view of AI-generated creativity—Christmas presents I’ve heard of currently. (And no, he didn’t get me one.)
Whatever you consider Hoffman’s utopian views on AI, credit score the place due: He’s additionally a really outspoken critic of President Trump—a uncommon trait in a tech world that’s grown more and more quiet, or cozy, with regards to the cruelties of the US administration. Hoffman’s overt political opinions haven’t been with out consequence: Trump has twice threatened to launch investigations into him, most lately calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to dig into Hoffman’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. (In 2019, Hoffman apologized for his mid-2010s relationship with Epstein, which he says associated solely to fundraising for MIT. He has subsequently referred to as for the federal government to launch the Epstein recordsdata in full.)
Despite these threats, Hoffman isn’t pulling punches: When we sat right down to tape this episode in mid-December, he readily referred to as out the administration for degrading American authorities, criticized his friends for preserving their heads down, and urged Silicon Valley to cease pretending that neutrality is a advantage. If solely extra billionaires have been saying it.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Reid Hoffman, welcome to The Big Interview. So glad to have you ever right here.
REID HOFFMAN: I’m glad to be right here.
We like to start out these conversations with some very quick questions. Little warm-up. Are you prepared?
Great!
Voice memo or textual content message?
Text message.
Cooperative video games or aggressive video games?
Cooperative video games.
The greatest distinction between you and Elon Musk?
Sanity.
What’s the toughest lesson you’ve ever needed to study?
Oh gosh, there’s a complete lot. Probably when to surrender.
Who do you want would run for president in 2028?
Sanity.
Sanity for president.
Yes, precisely. You know, it is humorous, I in all probability cannot give an excellent reply to that query. I imply, the individuals I’d need to run for president in all probability will not.
Oh, that is too unhealthy.
Yes.
You cannot say their names?
Since I’ve tried to steer them to take action, I feel it is in all probability rude.
I’m fascinated. Next time we discuss, I’m going to drive you to inform me. What is your one, private, killer use case for AI?
Well, I simply generated a vacation Christmas album as my Christmas reward for all my associates.
I assume all of them know that it’s AI generated music?
Yes. And it is on data. We put it on data.
So it is out of your coronary heart into the AI …
Yes.
… to their Christmas tree.
I’ve all the time had this need to have Christmas music that has irony in addition to affection for the vacation. So, there is a track on ugly sweaters and, you already know, all of this kinda stuff. As against the “holly, jolly Christmas,” you already know, one thing that really has some humor. Almost like what “Weird Al” Yankovic would do if he was doing a Christmas album.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-big-interview-podcast-reid-hoffman/