Within five years, I believe historians will view AI export controls the same way we now view the cryptography export controls of the 1990s: as a well-intentioned policy that fundamentally misunderstood who benefited most from the technology.

My first real job wasn’t in technology. It was washing dishes in a restaurant at the Jersey Shore. [A shout out to my first real boss, Keven, who was the head cook there. He recently opened his own restaurant in Ocean City, NJ - Hooked on Breakfast. If you’re nearby, check it out].

Having had worked at Google for over 13 years, I grew accustomed to having geniuses in every field just a XMPP, Google Talk, Buzz, Hangouts, Allo, Chat˛ Meet message away. If I ever got stumped by something, a world class expert was nearby. In fact, it’s one of the things that make the environment of big tech companies so attractive to the curious engineer.