Ben Horowitz and Gagan Biyani Launch Horowitz Andreessen Academy to Rethink Skills Training for the AI Era

Ben Horowitz and Gagan Biyani announced the launch of Horowitz Andreessen Academy on an a16z podcast, presenting it as a response to how AI is reshaping the skills needed to build, work, and create. Horowitz argued that the current education system was built for a world that is about to disappear, and that universities are too slow to adapt to the fast-changing needs of the technology industry.

The academy separates learning from building. Rather than spending most time in lectures, students will intern directly at companies such as Databricks, NVIDIA, and Stripe, and be immersed in the startup ecosystem connected to a16z. Biyani, co-founder of Udemy and founder of Maven, said previous education innovations failed to deliver a complete experience comparable to college. He described today's young builders as a real group with clear demand for this kind of education.

Horowitz compared the AI shift to the industrial revolution, which transformed an agricultural world and led to the expansion of the university system. The new academy is not intended to replace universities, but to offer a path for young people who already know what they want to build—moving from learning about doing things to actually doing them.