Welcome back to the Launch Key 🚀

If you’ve been reading this newsletter, you understand one of my foundational technology tenants: You don’t need to be first, but being early pays dividends.

There are fantastic AI developments every week now, but we are still pretty early in the evolution. That means there is still plenty of time to experiment, test, throw away and start over.

Your uncommon knowledge can still be the thing that stands out once everyone has AI. But not if you don’t start experimenting soon.

Let's get into it.

Slowly – then all at once – the AI genie is out of the bottle.

Last week Matt Shumer’s article, Something Big is Happening, (100+ million views) did such a better job explaining what I’ve been struggling with. And it turns out Shumer’s warning against AI was co-written with AI.

The AI world is accelerating:

The significance of the Steinberger play should not be overlooked. ChatGPT just grabbed the hottest open source tool and gave it way more resources than they could have imagined.

And that will make it easier for normal people to use.

My X feed has become polluted with AI slop of people trying to sell me their view of how to use today’s tools. They’re already outdated.

My favorite podcasters are trying to make sense of it. And thankfully the big brains are more levelheaded.

Marc Andreessen believes we’re 3 years into a 30 year stretch. In the following podcast he speaks about why AI may finally break a 50-year productivity slump — and what's at stake if America doesn't win the race. He also discusses where value will accrue in the AI stack.

If you haven’t already, you definitely need to start using AI.

And not just as a glorified Google.

The fact that written words are how we communicate with AI (via prompts) means more experienced professionals have a natural advantage. We have decades of well-written communication experience. Leverage it.

Test AI on real world tasks straight from your desk. Give it a messy spreadsheet. Or a complex legal contract. Or ask it to create a logical work flow. Or make sense of a database. Or build a financial model.

Analyst tasks are perfect for AI. Spoiler alert: entry level jobs are already fewer and farther between.

The first answers won’t be perfect. Rephrase the question, iterate and get better results over time. The tools may change, but the people with some experience will get more opportunities.

In just the past month, the opportunity to build a consulting practice has exploded. You don’t even need to be an expert to help people and companies skate to where the puck is going. Mark Cuban thinks AI job creation is the biggest since the internet. People who know how to set up agents and have business savvy will be in high demand. But that window will close as more people become experts.

Really look at your job honestly.

Where are the places that only you can solve problems? Not tasks, but uncommon knowledge you bring to work. Complex relationships, trusted client work, in-person closings etc. Those won’t be replaced by AI.

Add to your moat now, because soon everyone will have AI.

Now go launch something 🚀

Ok, so you’re not quite ready for a room of Mac Mini’s? How about an online agent ready to do some work right now? Review your website or twitter feed. Compare to your competitors. Make expert recommendations.

I wouldn’t give it any personal logins but you can absolutely send this rascal on errands to save your time.

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Sam and Shaan geek out on a few new tools.

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