The Fed has appointed Marc Andreessen to co-chair its working group on AI and economics.

The US Federal Reserve on July 9th announced the formation of working groups to explore the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the economy. Among the groups formed was one titled “Productivity and Jobs” which will be co-chaired by Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist with the a16z fund who has personally invested billions into AI companies. Andreessen will serve alongside Charles Jones, an economist from Stanford, and Asha Sharma, a Microsoft executive.

This development presents a glaring conflict of interest for the Fed. Andreessen stands to benefit financially from the prevailing view at the Fed that AI can help lower inflation and provide justification for cutting interest rates. Yet others at the Fed caution that the building of data centers associated with AI is at present causing price increases rather than decreases.