Look Back: Emmett Shear on The Future of AI & YC Days With Sam Altman
The Logan Bartlett Show: Untold stories from tech's inner circle
A few months ago, Emmett Shear came on the podcast. He made some predictions on the future of AI, reflected on early days at YC with Sam Altman, and shared his story as the Co-Founder of Twitch. In light of Emmett being named the Interim CEO of OpenAI, here are a few key reflections from the episode.
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✉️ Memo
The Future of AI
Despite being a self-described techno-optimist, Emmett has major concerns about the fast take-off of artificial intelligence and what that could mean for humanity. His percentage chance of doom for humanity due to artificial intelligence is 5-50%. These opinions may align with OpenAI board members’ concerns about commercializing AI too quickly.
On Scaling Twitch and Selling To Amazon
Emmett is on a short list of people who have had to pivot a company multiple times, scale it to a major financial success, and continue to operate it for nearly a decade as a business unit within a huge corporation. He uniquely understands all the elements of a business lifecycle, and this should allow him to work well within a unique structure and set-up.
YC Days With Sam Altman
Emmett has known Sam Altman since 2005 as a part of the first Y Combinator batch. In our discussion, he reflects on what was obvious about Sam back in 2005. He said that the most obvious thing about Sam at the time was that he was an incredible "deals guy," which is still true today.
⭐ Highlight:
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