Wu: AI scales faster because single-player utility lacks hardware barriers
Scott Wu · A Cheeky Pint with Cognition CEO Scott Wu · Aug 27, 2025 · at 44:10
Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, explains to Patrick Collison why AI adoption happens significantly faster than previous tech paradigms.
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“AI is, I'd say, uniquely different from some of these previous ways, in an important way, which is, you know, personal computer, or internet, or mobile phone. All of these had a, one of two things, or often both. One was a big hardware component, of like, yeah, you had to just go ship modems to everybody, and you had to get people on the internet, and you had to give everyone a phone first, right? And then two was like a very core critical mass effect, or like a, you know, empty room effect, or whatever, you know, network effect, whatever you want to call it, where, The internet was great and all, obviously, but, like, it doesn't really get that useful until all your friends are on the internet, too, and, like, the restaurant that you're looking up is on the internet, too, and, you know, various other things as well, right? AI actually has neither of those problems. And as a result, what you kind of see is, like, as soon as the tech works for somebody, you know, it's pure software, it can work single player and give you a ton of value directly, it kind of works for everyone.”
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