In an essay titled ‘Why AI Will Save The World’, a16z General Partner Marc Andreessen argues that the contemporary panic over artificial intelligence’s harmful potential is overblown.

Fundamentally, Andreessen argues, AI is a glorified toaster; it’s made up of inputs, processes, and outputs. In other words, it has no potential—and will not develop any desire—to take over the world on its own terms.

Fundamentally, I agree with the premise. I think it’s unlikely that AI will ever reach truly human levels of autonomy and decision-making. Is this an optimistic or pessimistic outlook? It often depends on where you work. The debate over AI focuses on different issues depending on the industry.

In my industry, stock trading and market making, the outlook is generally a mixture of excitement and apprehension. High-frequency traders are excited about the prospect of applying even more sophisticated algorithms to crack the market. Others—and I would include myself in this category—are worried that AI will make the negative externalities of algorithmic trading even worse.