On April 18, 2020 a couple months into the COVID-19 pandemic Marc Andreessen famously wrote that it's time to build! His primary point was that the west was not preparaed to deal with a global pandemic and that it was time to reinvigorate its capacity to build essential infrastructure, technologies, and systems. The whole vibe of rebuilding the west is still very much envogue, but 5 years later we have a very different elephant in the room, the scaling up of AI systems and the potential that we might be close to reaching AGI or ASI.
About a week ago I read AI 2027 which predicts that we'll start getting close to AGI around 2027. This morning I listened to a podcast about Mercor which is doing a lot around fine tuning models to better execute tasks that are currently the domain of human experts and using AI to evaluate and manage human talent. The broad message is that in the next few years most white collar workers will be displaced, at the same time the economy will soar and people that own the right assets will become very rich.
In this context, as a white collar professional, what should you do? The first thing you can do is prepare yourself from a skill perspective to stay relevant. In a world where computers can do most knowledge tasks better than humans people that can either do human things really well or understand how to leverage AI will be highly valued. From a purely financial perspective you should be spending the next few years accruing as many assets as possible before it becomes too hard to compete with AI. AI will create an age of abundance and almost certainly all boats will rise, but there will be a large delta between those that are living a better life on UBI and those that own the means of production.
Over the next several years I predict we will see this manifest in two ways the good will put their heads down and with the help of AI will go on a massive building and value creation spree resulting in massive renumaration. The bad will attemnpt to steal and scam resources from people. The apathetic will do nothing.