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Steve Jobs Would Have Loved AI, and Been Hated for It

September 9, 2026

Happy Wednesday.

We’re live on YouTube and 𝕏.

The current thing in tech and business is Anthropic’s alignment lead saying there’s a >10% chance AI wipes out humanity within the next decade.

Today’s Lineup

Sequoia Capital Partner David Cahn at 11:50 AM
Suno Co-Founder Mikey Shulman at 12:05 PM
Khosla Ventures Managing Director Keith Rabois at 12:30 PM
How I Write Writer & Host David Perell at 1:00 PM
Type Co-Founder & CEO Fletcher Richman at 1:30 PM
Charleston AI Founder Jim Reilly at 1:40 PM

Run of ShowAlamy

Steve Jobs Would Have Loved AI, and Been Hated for It

Steve Jobs predicted ChatGPT in 1985, it’s an awesome video:

Here’s the transcript:

Do you know who Alexander the Great’s tutor was for about 14 years? You know, right? Aristotle. When I read this, I became immensely jealous. I think I would have enjoyed that a great deal. Through the miracle of the printed page, I can at least read what Aristotle wrote without an intermediary. And maybe if there’s a professor, they can add to that. But at least I can go directly to the source material. And that is, of course, the foundation upon which our Western civilization is built. But I can’t ask Aristotle a question. I mean, I can, but I won’t get an answer. And so my hope is that, in our lifetimes, we can make a tool of a new kind—of an interactive kind. My hope is someday, when the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture the underlying worldview of that Aristotle in a computer. And someday, some student will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote, but ask Aristotle a question and get an answer. That’s what I hope that we can do.

Steve Jobs is perhaps the most famous techno optimist, his “bicycle for the mind” quote is still repeated constantly, and you could see his excitement whenever he gave a keynote about a new creative tool launched by Apple. Particularly funny to watch him just chilling on a stool jamming on GarageBand with John Mayer:

And thanks to modern AI, you can now ask (an LLM version of) Steve Jobs, or Aristotle, or Alexander the Great what they would think about AI.

Here’s the Steve Jobs answer from Astra.

And here’s Aristotle:

I like these answers, and I like to imagine a version of the world where Steve Jobs is inspiring Americans with a positive view of what artificial intelligence will do for the future. But I’m not sure that’s how it would play out. Because of political polarization, economic stagnation, wealth inequality, negativity bias on social media, and a host of other factors, I believe the tide would have shifted against Jobs in this imagined alternate reality. Not to say that the vision would be incorrect. Giving people new abilities is awesome, making things that are excellent is more important than ever, but the urge to attack is ineluctable and we’d probably get another round of biopics that take an even harsher view of his legacy.

Nevertheless, it’s unacceptable to back down, simply because you aren’t being properly lionized. Everyone must still channel Aristotle and take whatever steps they can to improve human flourishing. Resist the idea that a life requiring less human effort is automatically a better life. Keep working.

Clip Spotlight: Greg Brockman sees OpenAI as building "the world's best healthcare platform"

"Think about how much work you have to do as a patient if you talk to different specialists."

"You have to carry your medical record from one to the other, re-explaining your issue, etc. Being able to have good sharing of that information across different providers becomes possible if everyone's on one platform."

"Take clinical trial enrollment. That's a huge bottleneck to drug development and finding people who are eligible and will benefit from being enrolled in a particular trial."

"If you have that kind of data, if people are willing to entrust you with that information, that's something that can actually benefit them and the world."

Headlines

WSJ: Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears

Axios: Here’s how AI could kill us all (if the worst fears come true)

WSJ: Meta Launches a Personal AI Agent Designed to Be Easy to Use

WSJ: Apple to Debut New Foldable iPhone, New CEO and New Prices

Jon Gruber’s Daring Fireball: The iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro

Harvey raises $550M Series H at a $15.5B valuation co-led by Lightspeed and Diffusion VC

Clay raises $115M Series D at a $7.1B valuation led by Wellington Management

FT: Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency

The Information: China Curbs Humanoid IPOs After Unitree’s Volatile Debut

The Washington Post: These teachers fight AI cheating with classes that force students to show they are learning

Meta acquires Stilla