Software was supposed to eat the world. So is A.I. : This article was co-published with Understanding AI, a newsletter that explores how A.I. works and how it’s changing our world. In 2011, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen published an essay that became a kind of manifesto for Silicon Valley during the 2010s. Computers and the internet had already revolutionized a bunch of information-oriented businesses: books, movies, music, photography, telecommunications, and so forth. Software also played a major supporting role in more tangible industries.