On the latest episode of the Washington AI Network podcast, host Tammy Haddad is joined by General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja and General Catalyst Institute President Teresa Carlson at the House at 1229 as the venture capital firm launches the General Catalyst Institute to shape global AI policy and drive transformative innovation. Taneja and Carlson shared how General Catalyst and the GCI will help governments create capability around AI, create training and education tools for founders, engage policymakers to inform a thoughtful regulatory approach, and invest in American innovation for U.S. defense and national security.
Taneja on how AI is changing business around the world: “As founders, we do tell them to think about the fact that there are these consequences to what they’re building … And that’s part of why we created the General Catalyst Institute. Let’s go work with those governments to help them create their own capabilities around AI so they can uplift their people…”
Carlson on the importance of policy: “You can deploy capital in a really amazing way. You can invest in the very best technological innovation that’s out there… but guess what? If you don’t have public policies that help shape that in the right way, it doesn’t become a true reality.”
Carlson on the importance of partnerships: “I believe in partnerships. GC believes in partnerships…We want to listen, we want to learn, we want to advocate, we want to educate … We want to bring in lots of startup tech so they can see these founders. We want to show them, we want to tell them, we want to bring solutions to the table. And for us, it’s not about what’s going wrong and what can’t be done, it’s about what can be done.”
Carlson on pushing for thoughtful regulation: “We’ll work proactively with [government], and we’ll push on areas that we believe will drive transformative innovation but not hurt these companies… If you overregulate, then a lot of these startups, they can’t afford that. And if every state starts regulating and every country has a totally different approach, you are gradually stomping out the innovation… And GC’s one of the best companies in the world to deploy the capital.”
“If you don’t regulate, you actually then go back. Because that history tells us, and I know a lot of you all saw this in cloud with facial recognition…. The tech companies were coming out and all of a sudden government was like, ‘Whoa, slow down.’ So then I was at Amazon at the time, we had to stop a lot and go back to government and say, ‘Will you help us please create the right models and standards for this?’ So I actually think sometimes going a little bit slower to go faster is a good thing because if you don’t engage government, and that’s I think part of our philosophy with the Institute, let’s engage government early and actually educate them on, ‘look, light touch regulation is good, over-regulation stomps out innovation.’”
Taneja on what General Catalyst tells its founders about the future of AI regulation: “This is peak ambiguity. If you think about it, the geopolitics, how the global trade is changing, the re-globalization going on, and then you’ve got this massive tectonic shift in terms of technology and AI. None of us really know what the world’s going to look like in the future. In that setting, I think you sort of go back to your core values when you think about navigating that ambiguity with a true north. And for us it is, we often call it inclusive capitalism. How do you think about sustainability? How do you think about bringing everybody along? And hence the word global resilience.”
Taneja on engaging with policymakers: “Our goal is make them more effective, because the technology industry has not been that sophisticated about engaging with policy. The conventional wisdom is if policymakers are paying attention to it, it’s a good thing, meaning you made it and then you’ll deal with the problems rather than being proactive and intentional about how to work together. So I think we want to bring that cultural mindset to the industry.”
Carlson on new innovations to support U.S. national security: “It’s going to be important for us to get in front of those committee members that are driving and thinking about this both at the House and the Senate sides … because I don’t know that we’re going to see anytime soon the war go away. We might see an expansion, and we need technology to be ready and prepared and we need the right policies in place to drive the innovation. And what we hear from our defense and intelligence partners is they want to go faster. They want access to this innovation and they want to be able to see that innovation. So that’s really part of our strategy to make sure they see what’s available and then work with the lawmakers to make sure we can get it out in front of them.”
Taneja on AI’s workforce implications: “So I think we’re going from unipolarity to a multipolar world as you think about what’s happening today, and a lot of market competitiveness ultimately is going to come down to the race for AI. And the reason is whatever the winning AI technologies are going to have significant impact on our culture, significant impact on what the market leading businesses are. Because to my earlier point, the workforce transformation that it enables and therefore the ability to innovate these future businesses is a stunning capability.”
Listen to the full episode on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.