Cresta's CEO argues that while the internet's evolution from 1995-2001 was somewhat foreseeable, the advancements in AI since 2019 would have been unimaginable even to the experts who wrote the foundational papers. This highlights the unprecedented nature of the current technological shift.

The speaker uses a powerful tsunami analogy to highlight a widespread denial or misunderstanding of AI's profound societal impact. While the wave of change approaches, many are rationalizing it away as a 'trick of the light' instead of preparing.

People deeply involved in AI perceive its current capabilities as world-changing, while the general public, using free or basic tools, remains largely unaware of the imminent, profound disruption to knowledge work.

Shane Legg observes that non-technical people often recognize AI's general intelligence because it already surpasses them in many areas. In contrast, experts in specific fields tend to believe their domain is too unique to be impacted, underestimating the technology's rapid, exponential progress while clinging to outdated experiences.

The rapid change in perception about AI's impact wasn't caused by new models alone, but by a critical mass of technical users experiencing agentic tools firsthand. This shift from "talking" about AI's potential to "doing" real work with it, like building a website in an hour, created a cascade of recognition that abstract understanding could not achieve.

Recent updates from Anthropic's Claude mark a fundamental shift. AI is no longer a simple tool for single tasks but has become a system of autonomous "agents" that you orchestrate and manage to achieve complex outcomes, much like a human team.

In 2015-2016, major tech companies actively avoided the term "AI," fearing it was tainted from previous "AI winters." It wasn't until around 2017 that branding as an "AI company" became a positive signal, highlighting the incredible speed of the recent AI revolution and shift in public perception.

Bret Taylor predicts that over the next year, AI will produce scientific breakthroughs—like proving mathematical conjectures—that are undeniable to the public. This will change the conversation from AI as a chatbot to AI as a fundamental tool for human progress in science and medicine.

Many technical leaders initially dismissed generative AI for its failures on simple logical tasks. However, its rapid, tangible improvement over a short period forces a re-evaluation and a crucial mindset shift towards adoption to avoid being left behind.