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Posted on 03/27/2026 8:22:15 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
There are four categories. You are in one of them. Nobody asked which one you'd like.
I am the CEO of Perplexity. My company is worth $20 billion. I am 31 years old.
Last week I said losing your job to AI could be a "glorious" thing.
I said it at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference. On a podcast. In front of an audience of people who build the tools. Everyone nodded.
I said: "The reality is most people don't enjoy their jobs."
I have had one job. I have had it for three years. It made me a billionaire. I enjoy it very much. But the data is clear. Most people do not enjoy theirs.
I said people displaced by AI could start their own businesses. I used the word "mini." Mini businesses. My example was someone selling t-shirts from their garage. Using AI tools to handle invoicing, inventory, marketing. No employees. No funding. Just the tools.
My company has raised $1.5 billion in venture capital. My advice to the displaced is: sell t-shirts. From your garage.
The average American small business earns less than $50,000 in its first year. The average tech worker who lost their job was making six figures. That is a pay cut. We call it an opportunity. We call it the glorious future.
My company is an AI search engine. It summarizes content from the internet. A significant amount of that content was written by journalists. Many of those journalists have been laid off in the past two years. Some of them have started newsletters. Some of those newsletters are summarized by our product.
I did not mention this on the podcast. I mentioned the t-shirts.
Your company has a version of this. They may not use the word "categories." They may use "workforce planning" or "strategic alignment" or "future-state org design." But somewhere in a slide deck you have not seen, there is a chart. The chart has boxes. You are in one of the boxes. The box was not a conversation. It was a decision. You were not in the room.
Another CEO said the chart out loud this month. Alex Karp. Palantir. His company builds AI software for the CIA, NSA, and ICE.
Alex said: "There are basically two ways to know you have a future. One, you have some vocational training. Or two, you're neurodivergent."
Two categories. Alex has dyslexia. Alex is in the second category.
At Davos, Alex told people with philosophy degrees: "hopefully, you have some other skill." Alex has a philosophy degree. He also has a defense company. So Alex is fine.
He created two fellowships at Palantir. One for the neurodivergent. One for high school graduates willing to skip college. The pitch: "Earn the Palantir degree." The Palantir degree does not transfer to other institutions.
Between the two of us, Alex and I have simply said the chart out loud.
Here are the categories:
1. Tradespeople. Plumbers. Electricians. Safe until the robots can sweat-solder copper. We are funding the robotics companies. That is a separate conversation. 2. Neurodivergent individuals. Strategically valuable. See the Palantir fellowship. 3. Entrepreneurs. They will use our tools to start mini businesses. Many of them will be selling things to other entrepreneurs who also lost their jobs and also started mini businesses. That is an ecosystem. 4. Everyone else. Everyone else gets the glorious future. We wish them well.
"Even if there is temporary job displacement to deal with, that sort of glorious future is what we should look forward to."
That is my full quote. I said "even if." As though it is one of several possible outcomes. It is not. But "even if" is a warm way to say it.
The tools are neutral. The displacement is temporary. The future is glorious. I believe all of it.
Some say AI is not causing the layoffs. The narrative is useful either way.
Nobody has asked which category they would like to be in. But the categories exist whether you choose them or not. That is not something we decided. That is the market.
The market decided. We built the tools. The tools are available.
I will be at GTC again next year. I look forward to hearing what the garages have built.
We will summarize it.
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Girnus is tone-deaf. What he says has a lot of truth, but he sure has a gruff way of stating it.
“Too bad you lost your high-paying job that paid for your life, your cars, your kids, your house. Go print t-shirts and be happy.”
You will own nothing... and be happy.
The author sounds like a complete a**hole.
“The author sounds like a complete a**hole.”
Doesn’t he? “I’ve got mine. I’m smart. You schumck losers in life...just too bad for you.” “a**hole” doesn’t begin to describe this condescending pr!ck. (even though he is, sadly, right about things)
Is it time for the next pandemic yet? Maybe one of those will remove all of us useless humans that were replaced by robots and Ai. They’re probably planning our final permanent vacation. Sounds glorious. /s
My company has raised $1.5 billion in venture capital. My advice to the displaced is: sell t-shirts. From your garage.
I take it as get tough or die, find meaningful work and fail your way to success.
It depends on what the ears hear.
Pro 20:12 Ears to hear and eyes to see—both are gifts from the LORD.
I estimate that Perplexity is run by about 70% (dot) Indian 1/2 slaves living in the USA. They are half slaves in that they make about 1/2 the pay of the Americans they took their jobs from.
I think he is trying to sound that way to make his point.
This is all tongue in cheek. He’s a cynic with a sense of humor.
He’s making fun of all the hype surrounding AI.
Check this other hilarious post by him and you’ll get a better idea of what he’s all about.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4372448/posts
“I take it as get tough or die, find meaningful work and fail your way to success.”
Yes. Basically, big disruptive changes are coming. Adapt or die. Don’t be the bug on the windshield.
Once AI and humanoid robotics take over providing for the needs and most wants for everyone, what’s the point of money?
I had that very conversation with Grok a couple months ago. Our conversation eventually got to the point where I asked it “Can robots and AI meet all the worldly needs of every human in Earth? Can it raise all 8 billion people to the standard of living we enjoy in the USA?”
Grok basically said “No, there’s not enough energy or raw materials to do that.” So back to square one.
I had dinner with a good friend (and ex-boss) this week and we got talking about what money will mean in the future if nobody has to work. He asked good questions — “if nobody has to work, how do companies generate earnings to thrive and invest?”
How can an economy work if there are no price signals? Can we truly achieve a world of abundance at zero cost?
Ah, thanks for clarifying. I guess one would have to be pretty tone deaf to write something like that seriously (i.e. most democrats).
I think there was a Star Trek TOS episode that was about that.
T shirt; “I lost my job to AI and all I got was this t-shirt”
I read that other post and thought it was hilarious. He was so spot-on with the corporate culture and what goes on in the exec ranks. I thought that post of his was real, too.
I didn’t connect that both of them are written by Girnus. He IS good, isn’t he!
“He asked good questions — “if nobody has to work, how do companies generate earnings to thrive and invest?”
How can an economy work if there are no price signals?”
Lots of good questions that require some thought.
My thought was that at the end of the day, don’t companies only require money to pay people to do work? The energy, materials and equipment needed, they are all supplied by someone who needs to be paid. If the energy, materials and equipment all come from robots and AI, who don’t need to be paid, what’s the need for money?
Price signals might be replaced with direct market demand.
It’s interesting to think of such a world. Maybe our children will be a part of it.
Indeed. Lots of people are thinking about what the world will look like, but I don't think anybody has a good, clear view.
I ran across a country / American / Roots singer named Sierra Ferrel recently (turns out she's quite famous being a three-time Grammy-winner). I really like her song "Years" (I'm 74, so songs like this have new meaning):
[Verse 2]
You and me came to be
We raised a family
When wе're gone, they livе on
To see what we won't see[Pre-Chorus]
Don't look back in sorrow
The children have tomorrow
A complete anal pore.
Most of the stuff in this article made no sense to me at all. I made what little I made by actually producing something; I worked for it, the company i worked for charged for my labor, & I got paid a small portion of that. Yeah, I think a lot of us got cheated that way, but now I am retired & it doesn’t matter any more. He who dies with the most toys is not necessarily the “winner”.
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