Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman on the future of AI

August 15, 2024

The latest episode of The Eric Ries Show features my conversation with Reid Hoffman. Executive Vice President of PayPal, co-founder of LinkedIn, and legendary investor at Greylock Partners are just a few of his official roles that have changed our world. He’s also been a mentor to countless founders of iconic companies like Airbnb, Facebook, and OpenAI. He’s an author, a podcast host – both Masters of Scale and his new show, Possible, with Aria Finger – and perhaps most importantly a crucial steward of AI, including co-founding Inflection AI, a Public Benefit Corporation, in 2022.Reid has also long been a voice of moral clarity and a stabilizing influence on the tech ecosystem, supporting people who are working to make the world a better place at every level. He’s a firm believer that “the way that we express ourselves over time is by being citizens of the polis – tribal members.” That includes not just supporting the legal system and democratic process but also building organizations “from the founding and through scaling and ongoing iteration to have a functional and healthy society.” We talked about all of this, as well as AI, from multiple angles – including the story of how he came to broker the first meeting between Sam Altman and Satya Nadella that led to the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership. He also had a lot to say about how AI will work as a meta-tool for all the other tools we use. We are, as he said,” homo techne,” – meaning we evolve through the technology we make. We also broke down his famous saying that “entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down” and: 

• LinkedIn’s three eras

• The power of auditing to create trust

• The human tendency to form groups

• The relationship between doing good for people and profits

• AI as a meta-tool

• What he looks for in a leader

• Mission as motivator

• The necessity of evolving culture

• Being willing to take public positions

• His thoughts on the economy and the upcoming election 

• Smart acceleration

Watch or listen to the episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.

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Where to find Reid Hoffman

• Reid’s Website: https://www.reidhoffman.org/

Where to find Eric:

• Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ 

• Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ 

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In This Episode We Cover:

(01:15) Meet Reid Hoffman

(06:01) The three eras of LinkedIn

(08:21) The alignment of LinkedIn and Microsoft’s missions

(10:39) The power of being mission-driven

(15:50) Evolving culture 

(18:42) Embedding culture in every function

(21:08) The purpose of organizations

(23:45) Organizations as tribes for human expression

(29:08) Reid’s advice for navigating profit vs. purpose

(38:33) The moment Reid realized the AI future is actually now

(41:57) Home techne

(44:52) AI as meta-tool

(47:05) Why Reid co-founded Inflection AI

(48:58) AI as translator and facilitator of connections across languages

(49:53) The early days of OpenAI

(55:41) How Reid introduced Sam Altman and Satya Nadella

(58:26) The unusual structure of the Microsoft-OpenAI deal

(1:04:42) The importance of aligning governance structure with mission

(1:09:56) Making a company trustworthy through accountability 

(1:15:59) Inflection’s pivot a unique model

(1:19:53) Companies that are doing lean AI right

(1:22:52) Reid’s advice for deploying AI effectively 

(1:26:21) Being a voice of moral clarity in complicated times 

(1:29:38) Supporting democracy

(1:31:26) The economy and what’s at stake in the 2024 election

(1:37:24) The qualities Reid looks for in a leader

(1:39:43) Lightning round, including board games, the PayPal mafia, regulation, and more

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Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.