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Marc Andreessen: AI Is Bigger Than the Internet. And It's an 80-Year Revolution.

By Marc Andreessen · AI & Technology · 2 min read

Andreessen says the comps for AI aren't Google or Facebook. They're the steam engine and electricity.

Key Points

Scientists knew about neural networks in 1943 — the computer industry just took the other path
AI spent 80 years not working until the ChatGPT moment proved it did
We're only 3 years into what Andreessen calls the biggest tech revolution of his lifetime

This is clearly bigger than the internet. The comps on this are things like the microprocessor, the steam engine, and electricity.

The Biggest One

Marc Andreessen has seen every tech wave since the browser. The internet. Mobile. Cloud. Social.

He says AI is bigger than all of them. Not by a little. By an order of magnitude.

The right comparisons aren't tech companies. They're the steam engine. Electricity. The microprocessor. The wheel.

This is the biggest technological revolution of my life. This is the big one.

The Path Not Taken

In the 1930s, the inventors of the computer had a debate. Build machines like cash registers — fast calculators? Or build machines like the human brain — neural networks?

They chose the calculator. And that's the computer industry we got for 80 years. Fast math. No understanding of humans.

But the neural network idea never died. Scientists published the first paper on it in 1943. They kept working on it for decades, even when everyone else gave up.

The first neural network paper was published in 1943. Eighty years of patience.

Decades of Disappointment

When Andreessen was in college in the late '80s, AI was a backwater. There'd been a boom-bust cycle in Silicon Valley. Money flowed in. Nothing worked. Money left.

AI departments became a joke. Nobody wanted to study it. The field was considered dead.

But the scientists kept working. They built up a massive reservoir of concepts and ideas. All waiting for the right moment.

AI was considered dead. The scientists kept working anyway.

The ChatGPT Moment

Then came Christmas 2022. ChatGPT launched. And everything crystallized.

After 80 years of excessive optimism followed by disappointment, it worked. Neural networks actually worked.

Andreessen describes the reaction simply: Oh my god. It turns out it works.

Eighty years of 'it'll never work.' Then it worked.

Three Years Into an 80-Year Revolution

Here's the perspective that matters. The ChatGPT moment was less than three years ago.

We are at the very beginning. Three years into what Andreessen calls an 80-year revolution finally coming to fruition.

If you think AI is moving fast now, you haven't seen anything yet.

We're 3 years in. The revolution is 80 years in the making.