The Coming Divide: AI-Native or Left Behind

I'm getting more worried, and more frustrated, about this new phase of AI disillusionment.

Some of it is fair. Hundreds of billions are sloshing around in financing shell games. The real cost of inference is still a wildcard. Noticing that danger and being concerned about it is healthy.

But a lot of people are taking that concern and stretching it into something else: proof that this whole thing was another Crypto/NFT moment. Safe to ignore. Safe to make fun of.

That's the part that worries me, because it splits people into two camps.

One camp thinks AI is gross and scammy, or a bubble, so they avoid it as much as they can.

The other camp sees it as a new, essential tool for upgrading their life and their work. Something they use constantly and weave through everything they do.

We talk endlessly about division in this country, and around the world. I think this is going to be the biggest divide of all: the people who are AI-native, and the people who aren't.

It reminds me of reading ​

Talking to someone who reads 20–50 good books a year is nothing like talking to someone who hasn't read a book since school made them.

They see the world differently. Different preferences, different experiences, different opportunities. Like they're from different planets.

Now take that gap and put an exponent on it.

Being AI-native is like the opportunity boost a voracious reader gets, multiplied many times over. It doesn't help that, anecdotally, they tend to be the same people.

I'm watching it happen ​

I see this difference up close now, in the people who are wired up versus the people who aren't.

It's in what they think is possible. It's in what they ship every single week: how much they're building, how much they're creating.

And I don't just mean tech people building apps. I mean completely non-technical people too. The ones who are fully wired up with AI are simply far more productive at whatever it is they actually do.

It feels gross to me. It feels unfair.

And it makes me want to evangelize even louder. To pull more people away from the "it's just a phase" story, and away from the "it's all evil and bad for society" story.

Because honestly, I think those people are screwed. Or at least badly hobbled.

A useful frame: treat it as binary ​

So here's my takeaway. I think we should treat this as close to a binary situation. It isn't quite binary, but it's a useful frame.

You get yourself and the people you love into the AI-native camp. Or you and they are likely to struggle, badly, in the coming years.

That doesn't mean treating AI like Jesus. It's not perfect. It comes with real moral complications and real dangers of over-use. You don't have to be a zealot.

But think of it like a pill that makes you smarter. Or a team of 100 brilliant interns who'll help you do whatever you want.

Use them. And get the people you care about to do the same.