AI Will Create New Wealth, But Not Where You Think | Carnegie Mellon University, Po-Shen Loh

The AI today can do those problems like this. Actually, at this point, even a

this. Actually, at this point, even a very sophisticated math coach can be replaced by the AI tool if you decide you want to do it. As I started running around rural areas, I walked into the

elementary school. I walked into the

elementary school. I walked into the fourth grade classroom and I was just going to do my usual thing, Mr. Poe, the substitute teacher. So, I wrote on the

substitute teacher. So, I wrote on the blackboard, what is 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 equals? As soon as I wrote equals,

equals? As soon as I wrote equals, behind me, I heard a bunch of kids yelling 25. I've actually never

yelling 25. I've actually never experienced before, a classroom. This

was one of the best classrooms I have ever taught. And I just told you the

ever taught. And I just told you the profile of the area was high poverty. I

asked the person who took me around afterwards, "These kids are amazing. Do

they play games on their phones?" And

the lady told me, "They don't have phones. It's because of the money. In

phones. It's because of the money. In

fact, they might not even have the internet access." Then I said, "What do

internet access." Then I said, "What do they do for fun?" And she said, "Well, they just figure out how to make their own games." The problem was these people

own games." The problem was these people who I met, people outside in the rest of the world, didn't know about these particular great people. So then I realized actually that huge pool of

authentically interested and curious kids throughout rural America, this could be an enormous untapped potential across not only the US but the the entire world. This could potentially

entire world. This could potentially create a totally new economic flow system. This might just be what we need

system. This might just be what we need for the 21st century after AI. I will

also say for everyone who wanted a stable life, good luck cuz AI is going to take that.

Hi, I'm Po Shan Lo. I'm a mathematician who has gotten very distracted by the real world. And now my main focus is on

real world. And now my main focus is on trying to build a more thoughtful world to help humanity survive after AI.

These days, my biggest focus is on how to bring opportunities to places where there might not have been as many opportunities before. The latest

opportunities before. The latest direction that I've been pushing in has actually been rural communities throughout the United States. I went to South Carolina last year in December. I

went into a classroom of fourth graders.

As we were driving down the road, it was very clear from the stores and the buildings that this was an area that was quite impoverished. Well, I walked into

quite impoverished. Well, I walked into the fourth grade classroom and I was just going to do my usual thing, Mr. Poe, the substitute teacher. So, I wrote

on the blackboard, "What is 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 =?" As soon as I wrote equals, behind me, I heard a bunch of kids

yelling 25. And we talked for about 20

yelling 25. And we talked for about 20 minutes. And through the whole thing,

minutes. And through the whole thing, the kids were all suggesting ideas. They

were also very respectful of each other's ideas. If someone was giving an

other's ideas. If someone was giving an answer, I said, "Oh, let's let's all listen to that person." Everyone did. It

was a marvelous class. It was one of the best fourth grade classes I've ever taught. And I just told you the profile

taught. And I just told you the profile of the area was high poverty. Uh I'll

also say the ethnic makeup of the classroom. It was 95% African-Amean. I

classroom. It was 95% African-Amean. I

asked the person who took me around afterwards, "These kids are amazing. do

they play games on their phones? And the

lady told me they don't have phones.

It's because of the money. They don't

have the phones. In fact, they might not even have the internet access. Then I

said, "What do they do for fun?" And she said, "Well, they just figure out how to make their own games." And I found out that throughout all of rural America, which is where I've been running, wow,

there are so many kids who are actually really, really interested in challenging themselves. It's just that because of

themselves. It's just that because of the way the curriculum is designed, they haven't been actually standard curriculum is designed just to make sure that you know how to do a standard

problem. In this future world, we need

problem. In this future world, we need people who can do non-standard problems. Well, it turns out that there's plenty of kids who were really poised to do that. Actually, it even felt more

that. Actually, it even felt more authentic than what I found in cities.

In December, I went to Africa because I was particularly interested in Africa because the population is getting bigger and bigger and as a fraction of the world's population is going to become more and more significant. When I went

there, I wasn't going to propose particular solutions. I was going there

particular solutions. I was going there to learn and try to see what was going on. And immediately I saw lots of very

on. And immediately I saw lots of very capable people. Then I started to think

capable people. Then I started to think why is the economic development not as strong given that there are all these great people. The problem was these

great people. The problem was these people who I met people outside in the rest of the world didn't know about these particular great people from their outside world. It was just I guess there

outside world. It was just I guess there is a place called Africa. How do you send resources? Okay, if you send it

send resources? Okay, if you send it this way, somebody is professional at receiving resources. That's not as good

receiving resources. That's not as good as knowing this person can really use the resources. So with the whole system

the resources. So with the whole system we do, we have high schoolers who coach middle schoolers. The high schoolers can

middle schoolers. The high schoolers can be from anywhere in the world and they are selected through our our method where we try to find who really cares about people and who's also very good at thinking about ideas on the spot to

solve questions. They always teach in

solve questions. They always teach in Paris. By having the two of them teach

Paris. By having the two of them teach in Paris, they get to know each other.

If anyone in say United States or Korea or or China or Canada or Europe, if they partner with one of these people from Rwanda or Ethiopia, any other country

which we might start to have a relationship with, well then they would very quickly realize, oh, each of us are good. My prediction is that 5 to 10

good. My prediction is that 5 to 10 years down the line, they'll be looking for jobs. It turns out that you can have

for jobs. It turns out that you can have remote work. Remote work does work well.

remote work. Remote work does work well.

The only issue is who would you hire?

Hm. If the person who was living in the in the developed country was starting a company or if they were looking for partners or people to work or even looking for employees to help work, I

anticipate that they might call up the person that they know. There's even an economic arbitrage. The amount of money

economic arbitrage. The amount of money that people are used to earning in different countries is very different.

In fact, if you split the difference, both sides win massively. one side will save a lot, the other side will get to live really, really, really well. So

there was just the observation I made of h given that there's this huge economic difference in how much $1 can buy in each country, if people who are really,

really, really good are detected by other people. Well, then they could get

other people. Well, then they could get they could get a really good remote work job, then they might be in a situation where they can start their own thing.

Sometimes to start your own company or start your own initiative, you need to first be safe. You might also have a whole bunch of friends you know from doing all of this co-eing at that stage those friends in the United States or in

the rest of the world. The only

difficulty is can it get through a network of trust and if there's a direct trust where people know that person really can do stuff well then that person could start to get resources

coming in through this network from developed countries to developing countries which are shortcutting.

they're going directly to people who can use it. So this could potentially create

use it. So this could potentially create a totally new economic flow system. This

could also work in developed countries.

In general, to me, this is the value of a huge network. I'm a network theorist.

So when I thought of this whole thing, I said ultimately building a high trust network among lots of people who love helping other people and love thinking

hard. This might just be what we need

hard. This might just be what we need for the 21st century after AI.

I think that what we're observing is whatever people are good at all these skills, the AIS are getting better at them and eventually getting better than them as well. For a while, people were

saying that the safe job will be plumber like a blue collar job. But if you look at how many humanoid robots there are, there are a lot of them. Oh, actually

one of the very famous US companies was Boston Dynamics. As soon as I saw that

Boston Dynamics. As soon as I saw that Hyundai had bought them, I know what Hyundai wants to use those robots for.

Not for dancing. Hyundai manufactures

large amounts of stuff. Hyundai probably

would be very happy to be able to have tons of robot workers. Hundai also has money. So, it's not going to be very

money. So, it's not going to be very long before you got these humanoid robots that can make all kinds of stuff that are working in all the Hundai plants. that's going to that's going to

plants. that's going to that's going to wreak havoc across the blue collar as well. So then I started to think what is

well. So then I started to think what is special about people. One of the things I think is quite special about people is that hopefully they care that humanity still exists. And the best part is the

still exists. And the best part is the ones who do if you talk to them you can read it from their eyes. Beautiful thing

about humans is that you can tell when you talk to someone this person cares about the big picture more than just about themsel. You will never be able to

about themsel. You will never be able to get that confidence looking at a robot's eyes. I see a lot of electric vehicles

eyes. I see a lot of electric vehicles on the road today. A lot of EVs. An EV is basically a computer with four wheels. Why I say this is because I'm

wheels. Why I say this is because I'm emphasizing one of the most important parts of the electric vehicle is the computer. Many of the electric vehicles

computer. Many of the electric vehicles get constant software updates. What

would happen if somebody hacked into the software update system? Next week, one particular brand of EVs at 5:30 p.m.

they all accelerate to full 100%.

The more interconnected our world is, the easier it is for one move to cause very bad things to happen. And if you ever tried editing code, you know that

it's actually possible to make weird things happen without even fully understanding, especially if the code was written with AI. So the car which was supposed to help you can change into

the car that was supposed to hurt you.

You have absolutely no way of knowing because it has no eyes. It has has no eyes you can see that don't change. That

will also give a job opportunity because there will need to be people who you can trust to take care of things and to make sure things are safe. You want to know that the people you put into these positions care about things that are bigger than themselves and they aren't

easily bought off by someone bribing them for a million dollars or something like that. So my prediction is that the

like that. So my prediction is that the kinds of people that are going to have a lot of job opportunities are the ones where you can tell that you can really really count on this person and that

person is very flexible. Generally

speaking, when I hire people, if I meet someone like that, I just try to think, can I just find a place for you in my organization? Cuz this kind of person,

organization? Cuz this kind of person, you can plug into anything. Great

intention and great learning capacity.

They're going to work hard towards a goal that's meaningful. Okay, let's

figure it out. I don't want to hire someone who has been trained to do one particular task because now I've discovered wait one or two more years I can use the AI to do that task and it'll be way cheaper. People who for whom you

can see that they just want to do good stuff.

We don't have enough of them. The more

automation there is the more things that can go wrong. We don't even have enough good people to watch out for all this stuff. I think that's one of the major

stuff. I think that's one of the major future needs for humans.

AI definitely creates a way for more people to access education. Actually, I

get to learn all kinds of things right now. My chat GPT history currently has

now. My chat GPT history currently has questions about what's in the Quran.

Okay, so the best thing is today if you want to learn something, oh, you really can learn it. You can you can ask these AIs. In fact, this morning I came in

AIs. In fact, this morning I came in here on an overnight bus and I was busy uh updating a particular website. is a

is an online video game. We're about to put out video game meaning it's a math game. It's for people to do math. But uh

game. It's for people to do math. But uh

there are all these math problems. In the old days, I had to actually do the math problems myself. I have all these old math problems from other math contests. The AI today can do those

contests. The AI today can do those problems like this. I was using Claude's Opus 4.5, which is the very advanced version. And I was having it solve all

version. And I was having it solve all these advanced math problems and give hints. So I'm explaining like actually

hints. So I'm explaining like actually at this point even a very sophisticated math coach can be replaced by the AI tool if you decide you want to do it. So

the big question becomes for the student do I want to do this right because there are any all you need actually is just to open up your favorite AI and start asking it all kinds of questions. I was

actually just in China uh last week and I was at one school and that one school was showing me how they had some AI powered app. So that app was designed to

powered app. So that app was designed to let you do the kinds of problems that will appear on the exams so that you could rank higher so to speak. So it was it was an AI powered performance

improver for standard exams in China.

One of the curriculum people asked me, "What do you think?" And I said, 'You know, actually, if I was using AI to do education, I don't think I would do it that way

because I think that that's just creating people who are human versions of AI. You're just making human robots. The most important thing

human robots. The most important thing today is that you want to learn something and then you're curious enough to go and engage with it. Ah, but you also need to be able to think. So that's

the other piece. It's very dangerous today for people just to ask AI stuff because the AI can tell you something and it sounds authoritative but it could be bogus. So the bottom line is that the

be bogus. So the bottom line is that the playing field for learning stuff at this point if you just want to go and interact with AI you can everyone can have it. Then the deep question becomes

have it. Then the deep question becomes why would anyone do it? So that's why the way I work now is on the philosophy.

In the old days, people would do it because then you can get a higher rank and then you can get into a better university. But today, even if you do

university. But today, even if you do that, you still can't get a job. It's

actually quite sad. A lot of people who are running along this pathway, they're going to work very hard for about 20 years of their life being told by their parents, you do this so that you have a

better job at the end. Finally, they

graduate and they still have no job.

That's going to be a that's going to be a major mental health crisis. So instead

the the way I think is more healthy is if people have a real intention to do something that is bigger than themsel that involves other people. That's why

what I love is when I see a kid whose eyes are saying I want to help you. It's

so interesting. You can see this from human eyes. They're going to be very

human eyes. They're going to be very curious. They're going to keep learning

curious. They're going to keep learning stuff. And the interesting thing is then

stuff. And the interesting thing is then they can they can become arbitrarily good. So when I was thinking about how

good. So when I was thinking about how do you motivate people to want to be thoughtful, it occurred to me thoughtful people like being around other thoughtful people. It's fun. If you if

thoughtful people. It's fun. If you if you're a person who likes to help other people and thinks about stuff and likes to think about stuff, the moment you meet anyone else with these two characteristics, you very quickly become

friends and you become trusted friends.

Well, then these thoughtful networks become very, very strong. So then I realized there's another way to motivate people. Find thoughtful people, connect

people. Find thoughtful people, connect them to each other. Then they naturally will start to try to find ways to create value. Some of these people will also be

value. Some of these people will also be entrepreneurs. The heart of

entrepreneurs. The heart of entrepreneurship is finding pain points in other people and solving them. And by

the way, you'll get money out of that because you have solved a problem.

Right? That's how I realized networking together thoughtful people provides a 21st century way to provide ongoing opportunity which is actually even

better than the central authority way of everyone take a test go and see who ranks the highest the ones who rank the highest give them something that they all can do independently right there there's different ways that you can run

a society different countries do have different systems though so I I I actually see this in some of the other countries that I go to where due to the way the system

is everyone is just struggling along competing to get these high scores on exams because that's what's going to determine uh their future. Then of

course the question is how can we help them very strong practical advice would be to learn English learn English to a very high level of fluency because that gives you access to almost well not

almost but it gives you access to a huge world of opportunities. If the only language you know is your native language, you only get opportunities in systems which use your native language.

And if the system is designed in a way where most of the people will not have opportunity, it could be beneficial to be able to play in all the other systems. Next thing is to pick up this

this this thoughtful thing where when anyone meets you, they see, oh, you really do care about other people. That

is actually what's going to make people want to pull you out of those systems. Because for example, if anyone has fluent English and if you live in another country, Korea for example, oh, we'd love to have you in our program.

We're not designed to only take the top 10%. We're designed to take all the

10%. We're designed to take all the great people. We're great just means

great people. We're great just means that you actually like other people and you actually want to do things for other people. And if we give you weird math

people. And if we give you weird math problems that you've never seen before, you can think about them. It's very

useful for people to take a step back and think why is the system built this way anyway? What was the intention? And

way anyway? What was the intention? And

then you might need to break out of the system. You might need to find your own

system. You might need to find your own other way to do things. That's

entrepreneurship. I will also say for everyone who wanted a stable life, good luck cuz AI is going to take that. So

unfortunately anyway people need to move to this direction.

I'm Mih. The title of the class is the modern software developer. It's

definitely the first class in where the focus is AI across the SDLC. It's the

first of its kind at Stanford within like a few hours of the class being announced and it kind of opened up for enrollment filled up over 100 students.

Something kind of crazy is happening.

Software development and AI is really starting to make its way into every single part of of how software is being done and and clearly something was changing. What is interesting is that

changing. What is interesting is that there is this emergence of kind of like a new I would say class of like engineer which is like the AI native engineer and AI is that language. AI is that new

language. This particular generation of

language. This particular generation of junior developers of junior engineers the people that are now entering the workforce will I think be the first kind of generation of that new shift. A

single developer become a manager of agents. So really knowing how to like

agents. So really knowing how to like properly handle multiple agents is like the last boss in the game. Like if you can do that really really well then you are like literally like the top top.1%

of of users even today.