Who is Marc Andreessen? Tech executive calls for AI fighter jets on Joe Rogan podcast

Tech executive Marc Andreessen has claimed fighter jets controlled by AI are "far superior" to their counterparts with human crews.

American businessman and software engineer Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Hororwitz. He has an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion and is known for co-authoring Mosaic, the first widely used Web browser.

Andreessen spoke on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Tuesday (26 November) about his AI fighter jet theory.

“And there’s a bunch of reasons for [their superiority],” he said, echoing a similar AI fighter jet comment said by Elon Musk. “And part of it is just simply the speed of processing and so forth.”

"But another big thing is if you don't have a human in the plane, you don't have the, as they say, the spam in the can, you don't have the human body in the plane," he continued.

"You don't have to keep a human being alive, which means you can be a lot faster, and you can move a lot more quickly."

Tesla CEO and “vampire alien” Musk criticised the Pentagon’s F-35 program in a bunch of posts shared on his social media platform X on Sunday (24 November).

“Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs. A reusable drone can do so without all the overhead of a human pilot," Musk claimed in one of the posts.

On Tuesday he wrote: "Future wars are all about drones & hypersonic missiles. Fighter jets piloted by humans will be destroyed very quickly.”

Musk’s comments have increased significance because of his increasingly close friendship president-elect Donald Trump. They became particularly cosy during Trump's 2024 election campaign. The SpaceX founder was also recently appointed the co-lead of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (that’s DOGE for short).

In a statement confirming Musk’s new role, Trump said: “I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”).

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the 'Save America' Movement.”

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