Andreessen Horowitz has hired a former top Facebook policy official to advance the venture capital firm’s vision of artificial intelligence at a key moment.
Matt Perault will lead AI policy for the firm, now known as a16z, with a focus on supporting AI for startups and entrepreneurs. Perault’s move is the latest policy hire by the firm, which also brought on Matt Cronin, a former White House director of national cybersecurity, in October.
The staff-up comes at a moment of opportunity in Washington for a16z. The firm’s founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have emerged as enthusiastic — and generous — supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. Horowitz also donated to Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed bid. Increasingly, so-called “Little Tech” in Silicon Valley is expanding its presence in Washington too.
The most powerful force in tech lobbying is Big Tech, of course, but startups and VC firms want to make a stronger showing going forward. Big and small tech firms are both racing for the rewards of the AI revolution.
“AI’s future is going to be driven by Little Tech, and I’m looking forward to working across the AI ecosystem and with policymakers to make sure startups and entrepreneurs can compete fairly and have the freedom to create, build, and thrive,” Perault said in a statement to Punchbowl News.
Part of Perault’s advocacy will include a push for open-source models. Unlike proprietary algorithmic tech, open-source allows small researchers and entrepreneurs to build on prior breakthroughs. Safety advocates have worried, however, that open-source models allow bad actors to harm consumers cheaply and at scale.
Most recently, Perault was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
At Facebook, Perault was a director on the public policy team, where he focused on antitrust, AI and human rights for the social media site and WhatsApp. Perault worked at the company for almost nine years until leaving in 2019.
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