This Week in Startups · Monday, September 14, 2026
Jason Calacanis suggests that AI's primary role should be to protect against individuals with malicious intent. He argues that AI, when properly designed, can be a safer tool than non-AI alternatives, citing the example of self-driving cars preventing dangerous actions.
“AI should be used first and foremost to protect against humans with bad intent, aka terrorists, school shooters, mentally ill people, people in society with screws loose or, you know, they're religious zealots or they're hearing voices. Those are the people actually that we can start to find, get help for, and or neutralize.”
“With a self-driving car, it, with AI in it, properly tuned, you can't take a self-driving car and ram it into a farmer's market. The car will stop you.”
“So, literally, not only should AI not allow you to do these things, it should in fact be safer than non-AI products. AI products, if designed correctly, should be safer than non-AI products and can be.”