March to Abundance

Utopia cannot be achieved if people are bogged down by rote work for the majority of their waking lives, and yet, repetitive unfulfilling tasks are crucial to the function of many of the most productive companies. Thankfully, AI now has the potential to eliminate large swaths of this work. For example, new technologies such as large language models can now complete various cognitive tasks at similar proficiency to a human. If AI capabilities continue to accelerate at a rate faster than Moore’s Law, then billions of person-hours of repetitive work will be automated each year, and in some cases, AI will be capable of completing tasks that were previously intractable to even the most skilled humans. A multi-trillion dollar opportunity lies in both the infrastructure that powers this AI, as well as in the applications that deliver it.

Access to financial services, such as banking, credit, and insurance, are a key underpinning of an abundant society. Given some of our team members’ roots in developing economies, we are sensitive to the fact that this access is not yet a reality for much of the global population. Even those who do have access to such services are often subject to low quality user experiences, archaic processes, and exorbitant fees, making it difficult for them to transact or build meaningful wealth. Thankfully, in the last decade, proliferation of mobile phones has expanded access to core financial needs for many. Furthermore, we are optimistic that applications built on decentralized networks will ultimately serve as an important medium to extend financial services to those who have been barred from legacy institutions.

Perhaps one of the most unfair realities of life is that some people are born with unfavorable genetics that expose them to greater disease risk and overall poor health. For example, just a single base-pair point mutation in the hemoglobin-beta gene causes sickle cell anemia, resulting in a lifetime of discomfort and a significantly reduced life expectancy. However, in 2012, a landmark paper demonstrated that clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) could enable scientists to edit specific sequences of DNA in a faster, more precise, and more cost-effective manner, enhancing humankind’s ability to change the previously immutable coding of life. Genetic engineering technologies like CRISPR have the potential to eliminate genetic diseases like sickle cell for hundreds of millions of people, an important step forward in the march towards utopia. In the long-term, we believe that a deeper understanding of genetics and biology will enable mankind to surpass other previously insurmountable limitations, such as aging and infertility.

In utopia, people can freely connect, form relationships, and transact with peers from across the world. Those of us who live in vibrant cities often take for granted the benefit of our surroundings; we are surrounded by accomplished and intelligent people, as well as great workplaces, nature, and entertainment. However, much of the world’s population does not have this experience, as they are isolated or surrounded by relatively homogenous populations. Internet access through smartphones and desktop computers have helped close this gap to some extent, but our world is still a far cry from utopia. As they reach maturity, new mediums such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and, in the long term, brain-computer interfaces, will facilitate new forms of commerce, entertainment, and work.