Why tech bosses keep sharing their manifestos about AI

This past week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500 word open letter, external entitled “The Future is for Everyone”.

To some, it’s an expression of hope in AI’s promise. To others, it’s little more than a verbose public relations exercise.

Zuckerberg’s manifesto is the latest example of a tech boss opining on why AI is the next big thing.

His vision echoes what AI leaders have expressed in various forms: the product they are building is among the “most important technologies in history.”

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of early web titan Netscape, perhaps started this trend in 2023 with a 5,000-word essay he called “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”, which argued innovation was the way to solve life’s problems.

“So they’re writing manifestos now?,” I remember thinking to myself.

Andreessen’s writing began with him recounting lies he claimed people were spreading, and called for readers to push back against this.

“We believe growth is progress – leading to vitality, expansion of life, increasing knowledge, higher well being,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg’s recent essay doesn’t name names – but the Meta boss mimics Andreessen by questioning those who have warned about the negatives of future tech.

“It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom,” he writes.

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns AI could affect nearly 40% of jobs and worsen global financial inequality, Zuckerberg says he believes there will be an abundance of jobs in the future.

“I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity’s relevance would rush to build that future.”

Never mind that Zuckerberg’s Meta has cut 10% of its global workforce – about 8,000 jobs – as the company reorganizes to focus on AI.