Prediction certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Song: In five years, AI's outcome will be viewed as completely obvious

Rick Song · From reluctant founder to $2B valuation: The story of Persona | Rick Song (Co-founder and CEO) · May 8, 2025 · at 4:29

Rick Song, co-founder and CEO of Persona, discusses retrospective rationalization in Silicon Valley and how people rationalize macro tech trends after the fact.

0:00 / 0:14exact quote · 14.4s
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“I've joked with some people right now that regardless of the outcome of AI, it's all going to be completely obvious in five years, right? Like, how can no one tell that, you know, this was all a sham or the greatest thing that we've ever seen, right? And everyone's going to be like, how could those people back then could not, it was so obvious.”

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