Industry leaders talk about AI on Business Insider’s The Long Play

AI is shaking up every industry, and some of the top players in superintelligence, health, media, and longevity are recognizing it.

On Tuesday night at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Business Insider hosted The Long Play, bringing together some 150 industry insiders and executives, including Asana CEO Dan Rodgers and NFL tight end-turned-executive coach Damien Bourne, to get the inside scoop on how career climbers and companies can thrive in the age of AI.

Will AI replace Hollywood creators and medical professionals? Who will be the first to be made obsolete by AI: programmers or mathematicians? And how will a world where everyone lives longer impact broader society?

Business Insider spoke with Axiom’s Karina Hong, Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum, Midi Health founder Joanna Strober, and entrepreneur Brian Johnson, the “Most Valuable Man on Earth.”

Current Theme: The world of technology, and modern culture at large, values ​​speed, scale, and certainty. Speakers showed that there is still room for limitations, skepticism, and human judgment in the long run.

The night combined a health-conscious poke bowl, booze (Johnson said no), and a quick talk about sex and nighttime erections (Johnson said yes, yes).

Here are some highlights from “The Long Play.”

Asana CEO Dan Rogers shares his best career advice and how to leverage AI

Asana CEO Dan Rogers said the company uses AI as an “everyday partner,” using the company’s AI teammates to summarize information, synthesize insights, and conduct competitive research.

He says these tools are built directly into his workflow and are used every day.

As for career advice, Rogers cited a well-known Silicon Valley credo that he believes still holds true: join a “rocket ship.” He said that in a rapidly changing technology environment, workers should focus more on companies with breakout potential rather than roles.

Rogers emphasized consistency outside of work, insisting that exercise is non-negotiable. He prioritizes a combination of cardio, strength training, and yoga.

Axiom Math CEO Karina Hong believes powerful AI will check her work.

While LLM has been revolutionary for front-end software engineers, we have yet to see AI take over systems where safety is non-negotiable without human intervention, said Hong, a Rhodes academic and founder of Axiom Math.

The mathematician said the most powerful AI will be one that can check its own output. Because, Hong suggested, what good is an LLM that gives five different answers to the mysteries of the universe? How can humans confirm the answer?

“I would say that superintelligence reaches its full potential when it is validated,” she says. “If you know that you can perform the output like a computer program, you have something like a verifiable signal.”

Founders consider which skills are most resilient to AI

Some founders who spoke with Business Insider talked about how human judgment is becoming increasingly valuable in the age of AI.

When asked what skills are becoming more important due to AI, Seda CEO Talha Khan said, “The simple answer is taste.” Khan said the more context and insight you can provide to AI, the better and unique output it will produce.

Carmen Li, CEO of Silicon Data, said she distinguishes between AI that flatters you with its judgment and AI that provides accurate answers.

“Don’t make me feel good,” she said. “It didn’t matter.”

Milan Institute President Gary Yasuda said various AI tools are like “boards of directors” that require human guidance.

“Everyone has their favorites: different technologies, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc. But they all ask their own style of questions, and if you don’t ask the right probing questions, they’ll never be useful,” says Yasuda.

Off-the-shelf AI is useless in medicine

Strober, founder of Midi Health, a virtual clinic for women, said popular chatbots still face inaccuracies when it comes to questions about patients’ health.

“We spend a lot of time debunking what they see with AI, because it doesn’t just include the latest women’s health research,” she says.

While the founders envision a future where patients can rely on expert AI to answer their most pressing health questions, Strober’s bet is that AI won’t replace humans anytime soon.

“Honestly, I’m betting on the fact that people still want to talk to someone for their care,” Strober said. “Other companies would probably make a different bet, but we found that what we’re really good at is empathy.”

Hollywood is not competing with AI so far

Blum’s production company, which is behind some of the most popular horror series and movies, doesn’t think AI will make movies better.

Producers experimented with the technology. In 2024, Blumhouse Productions announced a partnership with Meta to produce AI-generated short films and VR experiences. He was grilled online.

Blum said that experience convinced him that AI could not make movies better and that Hollywood would not compete with it. Instead, AI is competing with user-generated content.

“What we’re competing against is scrolling,” he says. “I think we’re going to see a ton of AI on Instagram and doomscrolling and we’re going to see that. So I think for the first time, creators have more to worry about than directors and screenwriters.”

Grind culture is not a badge of honor

The founders may be cutting back on booze, but the grind culture remains.

On top of that, some young professionals vow to stop having sex or dating, all in the name of “locking in.”

Johnson, a popular longevity guru, wants to put an end to that.

“We are not fostering a culture of health, and that hurts everyone,” he said.

His message, in a nutshell: “Have sex, stop talking and go to sleep.”

no one has a crystal ball

CEOs have long been expected to make predictions for their organizations, but recently, especially during the AI ​​boom cycle, CEOs have been looked upon as oracles of the future.

When will AI wipe out the white-collar workforce? What value will money have when humanoid robots take over the world?

Asked what it would mean for the world to have a population that lives longer, Mr Johnson said that while technology had made progress in our jobs and health, it did not mean we were better at predicting the future.

“My personal opinion is that no one can say wisely about the future,” he said. “In fact, when they say something, they are revealing their ignorance, not their knowledge.”