Reid, it's my pleasure to be here with you at Collège des Bernardins in Paris.
You are a legend in Silicon Valley.
You've worked closely with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk at PayPal,
and you've been one of the founders of LinkedIn.
Then, you've been an early investor in OpenAI.
Regarding AI,
each of us has had our “Aha!” moment using AI or GenAI.
What's been yours, Reid?
Well, I've had a number, but probably the very first one
was the ability to start doing something similar within the research arena.
I had the fortune and the privilege
to have very early access to GPT-4,
and I realized what some of its superpowers were.
So, what I started doing was saying, okay,
I'd like to think about
how AI’s development in what is
known as a Ministry of Experts format
could possibly parallel some aspects of economics,
game theory, and the prisoner's dilemma.
And so, I went in and started typing
those questions, and it gave me great research briefs,
things to research, things to look at, and so forth.
It was like, ah, imagine if every
information question that
you might start with, which could of course include writing a column,
could be addressed by an immediate, on-demand research assistant, who wouldn't always be right,
but could always give you something compelling to start with.
And so, your learning is only bounded by your ability to ask questions.
When I was writing "Impromptu," the first book on AI,
co-written with AI, published last year,
I created thousands of prompts and answers,
and then I selected the ones that were most interesting for readers.
Because sometimes you go: well, that first question, that first prompt wasn't very good,
but when you asked, "Answer this question from the perspective of a brand marketer
who loves Apple," or
"May as a brand, now answer this question,"
suddenly, you get a much more interesting question,
and then that becomes helpful.
And that's part of what you learn through the process
of beginning to experiment with these tools.
Thank you for this, Reid, for your thoughtful perspectives on the technology.
And thank you for being with me here at Collège des Bernardins today.
My pleasure.