The a16z Show · Thursday, September 24, 2026
Eddie Lazareyn, a general partner at A16Z Crypto, argues that the current focus on AI safety and the potential for AI doom distracts from the significant benefits of AI progress. He believes that many AI incidents are better understood as cybersecurity and control problems, not signs of imminent superintelligence, and that existing mechanisms like law and market incentives can be adapted to ensure AI safety.
“I think we're putting the cart before the horse a little bit when we worry about safety before we worry about what we're leaving on the table and what the costs of delay are.”
“Being safe is critical. Right? Like we, we any industry needs to take responsibility for making its products safe. But it's definitely the case that the conversation isn't about safety in the typical manner, right? It's about something else.”
“Those are cyber security failures. Those are definitely control failures. And they're not in my view, they're not little glimpses of a superintelligence that's about to, you know, throw off its its shackles, so to speak, and go wild on us.”