This first episode of Otherwise has been a long time in the making. Like roughly 14 years long time.
In 2012, before Fast Forward existed, I called a classmate for advice.
I had built and sold a company, and I was thinking about what to do next. I figured a conversation with my old business school classmate, Sal Khan, would shake loose a few ideas. Instead, he inspired me to go in a completely different direction than where my career was going. I saw what he was doing with Khan Academy, and I remember thinking: why aren’t more people doing this?
The answer to that question eventually became Fast Forward. So having Sal on our very first podcast episode felt like the right way to start.
On Otherwise, we call a moment like that an “Otherwise Moment.” The fork in the road where you decide to take a different path. We start every episode by asking our guests for theirs.
Sal’s involves an email from Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, a new model called GPT-4, and a decision to build an AI tutor even though he could initially see lots of problems with it. You’ll have to listen for the rest.
We were also joined by Josh Tyrangiel, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the book on AI for good. It’s aptly called “AI for Good,” and Sal’s GPT-4 story is in it. In his reporting, Josh got an inside look at Khan Academy, the IRS, and Cleveland Clinic as a powerful new technology arrived and they had to decide what to do with it.
When faced with big questions like this, Sal has a habit of asking himself what the protagonist in a sci-fi book would do. On Otherwise, we introduce you to leaders who are living the answers.
New episodes release every Tuesday. Our next conversation is with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. We talk about trust, how to disagree without falling apart, and where Wikipedia draws the line on AI.
