Severin Hacker: Tech leaders fear AI because they risk losing purpose
Severin Hacker · Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · May 19, 2025 · at 20:29
Severin Hacker is the Co-Founder and CTO of Duolingo. He reflects on the psychological motivation behind why tech founders and investors are anxious about a post-work AGI world.
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“For a lot of people, The job is just, they do it for the income. They don't derive purpose from it. And then I think, you know, we are in, in, in this the people that derive purpose from their job who work the most, et cetera, you know, the tech people and the investors and all of these people close to the AI revolution. I think we are most afraid of it because we feel we might lose our purpose. And I think that, that's the, that's why, why we are, Sometimes not optimistic about this future world.”
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