I watched Sam Altman speak and paused my music career and joined AI

This essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Cambridge University graduate Alexander Cobb, 25 years old. Pivot from the carrier Music to AI. Business Insider confirmed his music contract and academic qualifications. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Before I saw Sam Altman give a lecture at Cambridge University in November 2023, I was pursuing a career in music.

But by the end of the lecture, we realized we were in a cusp of something big, and AI could be the most revolutionary thing in my life.

In AI, time is essential and I had a small window of opportunity to get into it at the right moment.

But as a child, I didn't just play computer games. I grew up in the middle of the countryside. The internet was very slow so it took an hour to load the 10 minute YouTube video. Instead, I spent my time skateboarding and playing music.

I took music lessons since I was seven years old, and I was in a band and organized my gigs while studying. Mphil of Cambridge Economics. My own songs, which I describe as eclectic dance music featuring songs and rap, have gotten tens of thousands of listings and views across Spotify and YouTube. In 2021 I signed with a sync label – My meaningful songs can be used in ads, TV shows, and movies. The music was mine.

Then I saw Altman's story in my second and final year at Cambridge. That's what I wanted to be that wave when I realized there might be a decade to join this whole AI startup. Music will be there for the next 50 years.

Almost every night in Cambridge, I was taking part in lectures and discussions. They were one of my favorites about student life there.

Altman was not as famous as he spoke, so I had to look into him, but I thought I should go.

I wasn't particularly interested in AI. At the time of the lecture, ChatGpt had been on for about a year. I tried it and reminded me of a customer service chatbot that doesn't seem to work in practice.

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Altman's speech was almost paradoxically not what changed my way of thinking. That was an audience question. Students and professors from all backgrounds asked about large-scale social changes, as is what happens when AI causes an 80% unemployment rate.

Whether or not that was likely, the fact that so many people were seriously involved in the possibilities of AI has made me realize that I should probably pay attention to technology.

When the internet first took off, many people founded startups and quickly found success. I missed it. But then, in my 20s, I was there at the start of the AI ​​boom.

I've been soaked in coding

Before Cambridge, I studied mathematics at Imperial College London for my bachelor's degree because I think it's the perfect theme for studying abstract problem solving. Mathematics offers high-level thinking skills that can be applied to anything.

In my third year at Imperial, I took a Data Science course to build neural networks. It showed me the programming and skills I still use in coding.

As a student, I usually go back to coding and writing music and my studies. But it was different when he approached the end of his college career at Cambridge. After Altman's talk, later in my final year I spent a lot of time researching AI that could read the Reddit forum, browse hacker news, and get a grasp of the languages ​​I was learning. I knew I could graduate and pursue music, my passion, or ride this new, massive wave. In my academic background, I was good at building something into an AI space.

I dealt with coding learning like a full-time job

After the final exam in July 2024, I had a party for two weeks before plunging into coding learning. I treated it like a full-time job and worked for 10 consecutive months on most days from 9am to 6pm.

I taught two days a week to pay my rent. I gave up on music and focused on mastering my coding and getting into AI at the right moment, but I'm sure I'll have the time and ability to get back to music at the right time.

I started by filming the CS50, Harvard's intro to computer science where I learned C, Python, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Next, I learned about the open source coding curriculum through the Odin Project. I think this is the best free resource on the internet. It was as good as the education I had at Imperial and Cambridge. Unlike universities, there are no exams, grades, or accreditations. After completing that, I took the 3-week typescript course.

Most of my friends went directly to work in the corporate world from university. They were making progress in their careers and making money, and I was still studying and doing hustle on my university side. My parents suggested I see that I get a job.

But the idea of ​​putting my career in others scared me. I felt left out, but I was dead to build something. I was very tired, but I was all in.

I'm building an AI startup

Over the past few months, I We have begun building an application and participating in hackathons. Both were really fun – I won all three hackathons that I competed in.

Now I'm spending all day coding and building an early stage AI startup in stealth mode. That's about everything I can say for now.

I'm collaborating with people who are doing bootstrap for us. The great thing is that I can get my salary. In other words, I no longer need to tutor on the sidelines and can focus entirely on AI. I love it. Every morning I wake up really excited to go to my desk.

I have always had an obsessive personality. I was pouring that energy into the song – now it's going to build my startup. It's a bit sad that I'm not making music anymore, but writing chord is just as fun.

I'm making a bet by holding my musical ambitions on hold. AI will become one of the most important technologies of all time. I can easily see it is the fourth industrial revolution and it is bigger or bigger than the internet.

Ten years from now, I hope that AI will be everywhere in society and I am confident in the gambling I have created to be a part of that future.