Unlike prior tech waves where founders aimed to build companies, many top AI founders are singularly focused on achieving AGI. This unified "North Star" creates a unique tension between long-term research and near-term product goals, leading to unconventional founder and company dynamics.
OpenAI's new "General Manager" structure organizes the company into product-line P&Ls like Enterprise and Ads. This "big techification" is designed to improve commercial execution but clashes with the original AGI-focused mission, risking demotivation and attrition among top researchers who joined for science, not to work in an ads org.
Unlike traditional software development, AI-native founders avoid long-term, deterministic roadmaps. They recognize that AI capabilities change so rapidly that the most effective strategy is to maximize what's possible *now* with fast iteration cycles, rather than planning for a speculative future.
Naming AI research teams with terms like "AGI" is more about signaling a long-term "north star" and creating "vibes" to attract ambitious talent, rather than reflecting a concrete, step-by-step plan to achieve artificial general intelligence.
Top AI leaders are motivated by a competitive, ego-driven desire to create a god-like intelligence, believing it grants them ultimate power and a form of transcendence. This 'winner-takes-all' mindset leads them to rationalize immense risks to humanity, framing it as an inevitable, thrilling endeavor.
The new, siloed AI team at Meta is clashing with established leadership. The research team wants to pursue pure AGI, while existing business units want to apply AI to improve core products. This conflict between disruptive research and incremental improvement is a classic innovator's dilemma.
A new category of AI lab, the "NeoTrad Lab," is emerging. These companies are highly research-focused and concentrate on a single, novel architectural idea (e.g., data efficiency, diffusion for text) without a clear, immediate plan for productization, believing value will emerge from a core research breakthrough.
The rapid pace of AI innovation means today's cutting-edge research is irrelevant in three months. This creates a core challenge for founders: establishing a stable, long-term company vision when the underlying technology is in constant, rapid flux. The solution is to anchor on the macro trend, not the specific implementation.
The most forward-thinking founders are exploring whether AI enables the entire concept of a company to be redefined. The ultimate goal is a 'super-powered individual' who oversees an army of AI bots to handle coding, marketing, sales, and support, creating a billion-dollar outcome with a single human employee.
Sequoia's proclamation that AGI has arrived is a strategic move to energize founders. The firm argues that today's AI, particularly long-horizon agents, is already capable enough to solve major problems, urging entrepreneurs to stop waiting for a future breakthrough and start building now.
Despite significant VC interest, OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI to avoid the operational burdens of starting another company. This highlights a key motivation for elite technical talent: the desire to focus purely on building technology without the distractions of fundraising and management.