Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…I'm excited to be here, Lenny. I'm even more excited to have you here. It is such a treat to get to chat with you. There's so much that I want to talk about. You've been at the center of this AI explosion that we're seeing right now for so long. We're going to talk about a bunch of the history that I think a lot of people don't even know about how this whole thing started, but let me first read a quote from Wired about you just so people get a sense, and in the intro I'll share all of the other epic things you've done. But I think this is a good way to just set context. "Fei-Fei is one of a tiny group of scientists, a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table, who are responsible for AI's recent remarkable advances." A lot of people call you the godmother of AI, and unlike a lot of AI leaders, you're an AI optimist. You don't think AI is going to replace us. You don't think it's going to take all our jobs. You don't think it's going to kill us. So I thought it'd be fun to start there, just what's your perspective on how AI is going to impact humanity over time? Yeah, okay, so Lenny, let me be very clear. I'm not a utopian, so it's not like I think AI will have no impact on jobs or people. In fact, I'm a humanist. I believe that whatever AI does, currently or in the future, is up to us. It's up to the people. So I do believe technology is a net positive for humanity. If you look at the long course of civilization, I think we are, and fundamentally, we're an innovative species that we... If you look at from written record thousands of years ago to now, humans just kept innovating ourselves and innovating our tools, and with that, we make lives better, we make work better, we build civilization, and I do believe AI is part of that. So that's where the optimism comes from. But I think every technology is a double-edged sword, and if we're not doing the right thing as a species, as a society, as communities, as individuals, we can screw this up as well.…

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