Together, the two main players in the tech industry startups and large corporations have urged government regulators to refrain from getting involved in the industry, saying that doing so would impede “innovation.” A16z venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz unexpectedly teamed up with Microsoft executives Satya Nadella and Brad Smith to oppose California’s SB 1047 bill, which they claim unfairly affects small businesses.
However, the proposed law would have had little impact on smaller firms. Regulating bigger businesses, such as those that Andreessen Horowitz supports, was its main goal. It’s ironic that these business titans, who frequently support small companies, pushed against SB 1047, portraying it as detrimental to “Little Tech,” in order to further their own agendas.
Their position is consistent with Big Tech’s standard strategy, which is to oppose state-level laws while professing to support federal measures that are unlikely to be implemented. In this instance, they issued a unified statement urging a government strategy founded on “responsible market-based solutions” after defeating SB 1047. However, this strategy frequently entails forgoing proactive regulation in favour of post-event punishment of bad actors.
Additionally, they defended technology’s “right to learn,” arguing that AI’s access to data shouldn’t be restricted by copyright restrictions. However, this perspective ignores the intricacy of intellectual property by equating the utilisation of data by software with human learning. Copyright law is about valuing the expense of creating facts, not about hiding them.
Although their policy statement has some good-sounding recommendations, such as encouraging digital literacy and establishing data commons, these are the less contentious aspects. These tech leaders are primarily concerned with reducing governmental scrutiny, allowing businesses to choose which regulations to abide by, and enabling them to use copyrighted data without incurring fees or restrictions. To put it succinctly, their “support for innovation” primarily helps their business and profits.