GoKawiilVenture capitalist John O'Farrell, who resigned from Andreessen Horowitz in 2025 after nearly 15 years at the firm, published an op-ed on Thursday with a stern message for his former peers and colleagues, describing their thwarting of artificial intelligence regulation is a "huge mistake."
O'Farrell criticized the political action committee Leading the Future, which launched in August with the goal of elevating "candidates who support a bold, forward-looking approach to AI," according to a release. The PAC's backers include Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, SV Angel founder Ron Conway and AI software company Perplexity.
"The PAC has raised over $125 million — not to make the case for their vision of AI policy, but, in my view, to intimidate politicians who appear to engage too aggressively with the question of how to govern AI," O'Farrell wrote in the op-ed, which was published in The New York Times.
Andreessen Horowitz and Leading the Future did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an AI executive order that was lauded by the tech industry and thin on specific details. The order asks companies, on a voluntary basis, to provide their AI models to the federal government to assess their capabilities ahead of a full release.
O'Farrell wrote in the Times that AI is not "just another technology," and that tech industry leaders should be working extensively to encourage politicians to get up to speed on its potential benefits and risks.