Vinod Khosla on softening the blow from AGI, and other future bets | TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

AI presents unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurs to replace traditional labor across every profession, from legal services to structural engineering. Rather than building tools for humans, the most value lies in creating AI agents that perform the work autonomously. Founders must build defensible moats by anticipating model capabilities in 2030 to avoid obsolescence. This technological shift promises a highly deflationary economy with massive GDP growth, necessitating radical social safety nets like free healthcare and education, or national reserve funds for displaced workers. While energy consumption remains a concern, innovations in fusion and super-hot geothermal energy provide scalable solutions to power these advancements. Ultimately, restrictive immigration policies threaten this innovation engine by limiting access to the global talent required to maintain a competitive edge in the ongoing techno-economic battle.