Many of my non-technical and technical friends ask me my opinions on where AI will take us. With the doomer takes AI circulating all over the web, I couldn’t help but feel the opposite. Whether you like it or not, we are in the next technical revolution since the modern computer. You can either run away and hide, or take advantage of the tools we have now.

I always tell them it’s like a train, the train is coming. You’re either driving the train, on the train, or you’re getting run over.

You’re driving the train

You’re an AI researcher or working at one of these companies developing the next model or developing the hardware to make these models more efficient. Open source developers influence this destinations as much as these large tech companies do, adoption for free stuff is a lot more enticing than a paid service.

This is the bleeding edge, I truly believe that these people are in it to better humanity. The ones that are in it for the money might win in the short term, but I feel like the people that are in it for the right reasons will prevail. The drivers of this train have the monetary incentives to listen to their passengers, put your money with people who you align with.

There are still a ton of problems with agents, and there really is no reason for these people to slow down and not solve these problems. The first version of ChatGPT was released 4 years ago. LLMs really only truly became useful December 2025 when GPT 5 was released. Hallucinations, memory, planning, reliability, cost, energy use, and long-running agents are all problems here, and it's only going to get better from here. We still are SO early in this revolution.

You’re on the train

This is where I feel like I personally am. I use AI daily. This past year has been the most productive time of my life. I’ve created a server in my home, wrote custom tools to make my life easier, multiple hardware projects that wouldn't have been possible last year, and I'm able to deeply research and learn new things that usually would’ve taken years to get proficient at. I’ve had no limitations to creating new things and haven’t had this much fun in a very long time.

Being on the train means that you are using AI to make your life easier. It’s a tool, not a replacement, that you can use at your disposal. The barrier to knowledge has practically been eliminated. If you want to get a high level of understanding of anything, what used to take months, takes days. No, I’m not talking about these vibe coded slop crap projects that are everywhere. AI generated posters and flyers still look like shit. It’s low effort, and it shows. A deep understanding and creaitng something valueable still, and will, always take hands on experience. AI is a multiplier, it multiplies your ideas, but it also can also multiple confusion. Poor direction produces bad work faster and as things become cheaper, taste and vision becomes more valuable.

There will always be a need for high quality products. There’s just going to be a ton more products that we are gonna have to sift through all of these piles of shit, but the good will surface. Humans have a great ability for snuffing out horrible products, we'll continue to do so.

The thinkers, visionaries, and people who are deeply passionate with their work is really where AI shines.

You’re getting run over

If you have no aspirations of creating anything that benefits the world, you’re going to get run over. If your job is repeatable and you feel like a drone, you’re going to get replaced. People with no drive or vision and the people who settle for mediocrity are on their way out. What used to take a team of 20 to create is probably going to only take a team of 5. You better be in that 5, or think of your own version that’s better than the other 5. The 5 people can now do the job of 20, and these people will shine.

Healthy skepticism is always a great thing to have, this is good judgement. People who doubt the advancements that are coming are essential for good alignment for what's to come. If people don't speak up about what the strongly feel is right then we won't get anywhere good. There is no drive to innovate if there is no real demand for it. For example, I believe the news cycle of AI draining out water supply and our power grids going to fail is going to drive people to create new advancements in hardware to better efficiently handle these models.

The sooner you come to terms with AI and accept it as a reality, the sooner you can position yourself to a withstand the times we are in. What will become invaluable in the future are people who learn to develop domain knowledge, communication, adaptability, and ownership. The baseline for "good enough" is rapidly becoming higher and that couldn't excite me more.

Buckle up or start building, we're in for a ride.