Kaufman: Governments will not allow superintelligent AI to remain in private hands
Micha Kaufman · Fiverr CEO & Founder, Micha Kaufman: "If You’re Not Adapting to AI, F* You. You’re Done!" · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 9, 2025 · at 47:16
Micha Kaufman is the Founder and CEO of Fiverr. Discussing the geopolitics and regulation of frontier AI models, he compares building foundational AI to privatizing the Manhattan Project and predicts inevitable state intervention.
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“What AI companies is doing right now that like the foundational companies, It's like privatizing the Manhattan Project. Ok? Alright, so imagine that they do build the atomic bomb. And now they're sitting and saying, ah, you know, I don't know, maybe we'll do it non, non-profit. Or maybe they'll say, oh, we'll license the atomic bomb to, do you see a government allowing this? Seriously? Seriously, think about that for a second. If you get to AI that cures the worst disease in the world, which actually is worth a lot of money, do you see government leaving this in private hands? If this could create the ultimate weapon? If this could be the, whatever, the ultimate solution for infinite food and energy. No way. Dude, no way.”
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More from Micha Kaufman
Kaufman: Workers who fail to adapt to AI will be poor or burdens on society
“Seriously, if you're not going to take the time to make yourself valuable, to embrace reality, you're doomed. I'm not going to help you. If you don't want to do this, you're either going to be poor or a burden on society.”
Kaufman: Workers who fail to self-upgrade in the AI era are done
“But if not, fuck you. You're done. You're done. You're not done at Fiverr. You're done. Period. Because no one, there's not going to be demand for people that cannot upgrade themselves.”
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“In an ideal situation, my expectation of you is that each and every one of you, and it doesn't matter what you do, Is going to replace a hundred percent of what you do with automation.”
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