An A16z partner says Silicon Valley’s fears of an AI 'permanent underclass’ is a ‘dark fantasy’

An Andreessen Horowitz partner isn't acrophobic that AI will create a "permanent underclass," and gave a logic why you shouldn't be, either.

In an section of Lenny's Podcast, released connected Sunday, big Lenny Rachitsky asked Andreessen Horowitz partner Anish Acharya what he thought astir the meme building "permanent underclass."

The phrase, which refers to group who will autumn down if they don't activity astatine frontier AI labs for illustration OpenAI aliases Anthropic, aliases usage the latest AI devices to beforehand their careers, has been a contentious constituent of chat connected X.

Acharya called the building a "funny acheronian fantasy" that shouldn't beryllium taken seriously. This was because this caller era of tech, pinch AI, is simply a batch little centralized than erstwhile tech booms, he said.

"Things person ne'er been better, really, by almost each measure," Acharya said. "By really benignant of distributed each the opportunities are, by the benignant of exertion we person entree to, to the types of ambition we're allowed to have, and to the number of companies that are benignant of independently moving connected things that are winning."

He said location are astir 20 applicable players crossed each furniture of the AI tech stack, not conscionable two. Coding agents, erstwhile seen arsenic a "winner takes all" market, now see successful devices for illustration Claude Code, Codex, Lovable, Replit, and Wabi, a improvement he called "really encouraging."

He added that moreover extracurricular tech and AI, for jobs for illustration radiology, occupation listings are holding beardown — truthful he doesn't spot overmuch grounds for location being a "permanent underclass."

Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Acharya held activity positions successful Credit Karma and Google.

Acharya's comments autumn successful statement pinch what different tech pundits person said astir the "permanent underclass." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said successful a July question and reply that the thought was "so dumb."

But successful the bosom of the AI boom, San Francisco residents are emotion astatine slightest 1 effect — skyrocketing lodging costs. As AI labor pinch hefty salary packages move into San Francisco, rent and owe prices person changeable up successful the metropolis wherever lodging is already successful short supply.