Assertion certainty 3/5 debate potential 4/5

McCune: Effective Altruists spent a decade funding think tanks to steer AI

Colin McCune · The Little Tech Agenda for AI · Sep 8, 2025 · at 12:47

Colin McCune, Head of Government Affairs at a16z, discusses how early lobby efforts shaped government perceptions of AI danger.

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“You know, from my point of view and look, you know, they deserve a lot of credit. I think the effect of altruist community for 10 years backed by large sums of money were very, very effective at influencing think tanks and nonprofit organizations in D.C. And the state capitals to sort of push us in a direction where people are very fearful about the technology.”

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