Marc Andreessen. Kimberly White/Getty Images for Fortune
Marc Andreessen made headlines earlier this month by writing a manifesto about why artificial intelligence won’t destroy humanity, but rather make the world a better place. Venture Co-founder of his capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he wrote the seminal essay “Why Software Is Eating the World” in 2011.
Andreessen says that AI has “dramatically accelerated productivity gains across the economy, driving economic growth, creating new industries, creating new jobs and raising wages, resulting in A new era of increased material prosperity will come.”
this week, Podcast by Rex Fridmanhe gave advice to young people who want to stand out in this AI-powered “freeze frame moment.” There, tools like ChatGPT and GPT-4 suddenly became available and he “watches everyone wondering what to do.” ”
We now live in a world with vast amounts of information at our fingertips, and AI tools are making us “both learning and productive” dramatically better than in the past, he said. said. Such tools should enable the emergence of more “very productive talent,” he said. There is no reason, for example, that writers and musicians cannot churn out far more books and songs than is past practice.
There is little doubt that AI tools can make people more productive. Earlier this year, Ethan Morrick, a business professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, conducted an experiment to see how many business projects could be completed in 30 minutes by simply telling an AI tool like ChatGPT to do the work. rice field. He called the result “superhuman”.
Of course, highly productive people made their mark on the world long before AI came along. Andreessen cites several examples, including Pliny the Elder, the prodigious writer of the Roman Empire, and Richard Posner, a former federal judge who has written dozens of books on a dizzyingly diverse range of subjects in today’s world. rice field.
When asked why, given today’s technology, we don’t see many of those people yet, Andreessen said: I think people get distracted from creating because it’s so easy to just sit down and consume. “
He didn’t go into detail, but it’s no secret that social media, video games, streaming media and traditional media are competing for our time and attention like never before. Andreessen says that today’s ambitious young people can easily find themselves by minimizing such distractions and maximizing their productivity using “great” tools that are readily available. You suggested that you can differentiate yourself.
“If you set your mind to it young, if you really want to stand out, you should be on the productivity curve early on,” he says.
