Reid Hoffman doesn’t do much in half measures. He cofounded LinkedIn, of course, and helped bankroll companies including Meta and Airbnb in their startup days. He has also fashioned himself, via books, podcasts, and other public appearances, as something of a public intellectual—a pro-capitalist philosopher who still insists that tech can be a force for good.
Most recently, Hoffman has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent defenders of artificial intelligence. His newest book, 2025’s Superagency, makes the case that AI won’t diminish human capacity but will instead amplify it. In our conversation for this week’s episode of The Big Interview, Hoffman readily riffed on AI’s utility for pretty much everything, whether you’re looking for a research assistant or a second opinion on your blood work. Hoffman even relied on AI to make one of the most unconventional—and perhaps uncomfortable, depending on your view of AI-generated creativity—Christmas gifts I’ve heard of lately. (And no, he didn’t get me one.)
Whatever you think of Hoffman’s utopian views on AI, credit where due: He’s also a very outspoken critic of President Trump—a rare trait in a tech world that’s grown increasingly quiet, or cozy, when it comes to the cruelties of the US administration. Hoffman’s overt political views haven’t been without consequence: Trump has twice threatened to launch investigations into him, most recently 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 related solely to fundraising for MIT. He has subsequently called for the government to release the Epstein files in full.)
Despite those threats, Hoffman isn’t pulling punches: When we sat down to tape this episode in mid-December, he readily called out the administration for degrading American government, criticized his peers for keeping their heads down, and urged Silicon Valley to stop pretending that neutrality is a virtue. If only more billionaires were saying it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Reid Hoffman, welcome to The Big Interview. So glad to have you here.
REID HOFFMAN: I'm glad to be here.
We like to start these conversations with some very fast questions. Little warm-up. Are you ready?
Great!
Voice memo or text message?
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