Gabe Newell, co-founder and billionaire Yacht-Fancier of Valve Corporation, recently interviewed YouTuber Zalkar Saliev (Tiktok, IG). The full interview covers some drive-bys on traditional Silicon Valley wisdom, including things like Newell's everyday life (“wake, work, scuba diving”) and why startups chasing VC money make no sense.
Newell is asked about AI. AI is asked both about technology obsession with the moment and areas that could overturn social elements. The question Saliev puts in Newell is whether young people are learning the technical aspects of AI or should they focus purely on the best ways to use tools?
“I think it's both,” Newell says. “The more you understand what underlies these current tools, the more effective you will be using them, but I think people who don't know how to use AI to program their programming capabilities onto the foothold will become more valuable and valuable developers than those who have been programming.
“Even pure tool users will discover that the benefits of using them are very, very high. However, the ability to use them continues to understand more of the underlying methods and mindset of those developing machine learning systems.
Newell gives some specific examples, saying, “If you're a filmmaker and don't know how to use AI, you'll really struggle in the not-so-distant future.” why? Filmmakers using AI say, “Oh, I can spin up a simple model to solve the very narrow problems I have, and I understand its strengths and limitations, and why I can't get away with not using the basic model to solve technical problems.”
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If you worked that way, Newell thinks you're going to “race.” For examples of film production, I think [AI is] I think it's increasing it by magnitude of magnitude in terms of the value of what CGI impacts in filmmaking, and how it will affect the trajectory of your career in the filmmaking industry. ”
“Value” is a term that Newell uses a lot, and in this context it relates to practicality. It is the distinction between someone who knows technology and someone who uses it to understand limitations.
“If you're a tool user, it helps you understand your ability to read articles about variety and understand what the impact will be like for the industry,” says Newell. “Around 19-year-olds in his or her bedroom said, “Oh, you guys really don't understand this. I'm actually using this tool and you're going to miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of it unless you're actually using it and how you're evolving it and how it's going.”
“And the same person in their bedroom will find that the more they try to write a bit of code or dig into research papers on topics, the more they are trying to accelerate the process.”
Newell is AI positive, which is no surprise. Men loved new technology, constantly pushing valves into technological experiments (some were hugely successful, some were not as many), and co-founded starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces. His bullishness isn't surprising, even if the broader story of technology is a little more complicated than the sunshine and lollipops.
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