Don't just stare at AI and feel anxious. The threshold for doing things has changed.

Many people still ask, "Will AI replace me?"

However, they may be asking the wrong question.

Because what is truly reshaped by AI is not "who will be eliminated", but the threshold of "getting things done" itself.

Tasks that were extremely challenging in the past are now becoming incredibly easy to accomplish; abilities that were once highly scarce are now becoming more and more common.

In the following content, we won't talk about "how powerful AI is", but rather clarify where this new threshold lies and how it will reshape future competition.

Section 1: Which Rules Are Becoming Obsolete

To understand the changes in the threshold, we can first look at two different aspects.

In terms of the macro business logic, Ben Horowitz, the co - founder of the top Silicon Valley venture capital firm a16z, mentioned in a recent interview that several "iron laws" in the technology industry in the past are simultaneously becoming invalid:

Rule 1: Money can now solve the "time" problem.

In the past, there were limitations in software development. If the progress fell behind, simply adding more people couldn't catch up. Just as it's said in the science - fiction book The Mythical Man - Month, a woman can't give birth to a child in one month. But today, as long as there is sufficient capital, computing power, and data, many technological gaps that originally required a long - term accumulation are being quickly narrowed by large - scale models.

Rule 2: The moat of "user stickiness" is collapsing.

In the past, the great value of software companies came from user lock - in. Whoever occupied users first and mastered data had a competitive advantage. However, in the AI era, code is easier to generate and copy, and the cost of data migration has been significantly reduced. More importantly, in the future, it will mainly be intelligent agents that call software, and the stickiness built on users' interface usage habits in the past is no longer reliable.

Rule 3: The time window has been extremely compressed.

In the past, when a good product was launched, there were usually several years for expansion and optimization, and the competition unfolded at a relatively predictable pace. Now, the product life cycle has been significantly shortened, and technological disruptions and replacements often occur suddenly rather than gradually.

If Horowitz saw the collapse of industry rules, Greg Brockman, the co - founder and president of OpenAI, noticed more micro and daily changes: People no longer need to break down their ideas into complex instructions to adapt to tools. The thresholds of many skills that originally required long - term professional training are being completely flattened.

Putting these aspects together, you'll find that they all point to the same fact: The underlying logic of getting things done has been rewritten.

The advantages that were relied on in the past are becoming invalid in batches;

The thresholds that needed to be crossed in the past are rapidly decreasing.

But the real question is: What will happen after the old thresholds are leveled?

Section 2: Suddenly, More People Can Get Things Done

The first thing that happens is a complete reversal of the human - computer interaction relationship.

In the past, people had to adapt to computers. You needed to master the operation logic of software and break down complex ideas into codes or steps that machines could understand. Each tool required specialized learning, and this process often took months or even years.

But now, computers are starting to understand people.

You no longer need to precisely input every step of the instructions. Instead, you can directly express your intention, and AI will automatically fill in the intermediate execution process. Writing code, building models, and generating visual content, which were once professional fields requiring long - term training, can now be achieved through simple communication.

This brings a very practical result: The number of people who can participate in creation is rapidly increasing.

Greg Brockman mentioned that nearly one billion people use ChatGPT and related tools every week. Ben Horowitz's judgment is more straightforward: Among the eight billion people in the world, as long as they have an idea in mind, they can turn it into reality. People who don't understand music can write songs, and those who don't understand storyboarding can make videos. The technical barriers between ideas and results are being broken.

More importantly, this change is reshaping the form of business organizations.

A small team of three to five people can now deliver a product in a few weeks that used to take a team of dozens of people several months to complete. The cost of trial and error has dropped sharply, and the link from idea to product has been extremely shortened. This is why so many new AI companies that have achieved a business closed - loop have emerged explosively in a short period of time.

However, the cruelty of business lies in the fact that when everyone can easily create something, the focus of competition will shift.

A lower threshold does not mean the disappearance of competition.

Section 3: What's Scarce Has Changed

When everyone can easily deliver results, the real test becomes: What exactly should be done?

In the past, skills themselves were barriers. As long as you mastered a craft, you could enjoy the benefits for a long time. Those who could write code, do design, or analyze data were in short supply, so they were valuable.

Now, the same things are being easily done by an infinite number of people and AI. The barriers to competition are starting to shift to a higher level: How do you choose a direction? How do you precisely define a problem? Do you have the ability to judge what a high - value result is?

In other words, the difficulty in business has shifted from execution ability to strategic judgment.

This also explains why people feel so torn in the current technological wave.

Those who see opportunities everywhere often have a clear direction. After AI lowers the threshold, they can turn their ideas into reality ten times faster. Those who feel extremely anxious are mostly stuck in the situation of not knowing what to do. No matter how powerful the tools are, they can't make strategic decisions for you.

Ben Horowitz mentioned a classic case in the interview. Economist John Maynard Keynes once predicted that with the great abundance of material productivity, human basic needs would be completely met, and in the future, everyone would only need to work 15 hours a week.

But where did Keynes go wrong? He underestimated human desires.

Humans not only need a means of transportation but also desire their own limited - edition sports cars; not only need to be full but also pursue molecular cuisine in Michelin - starred restaurants; not only need a place to shelter from the wind and rain but also yearn for an extremely luxurious vacation experience.

Humans will continuously transform their personalized desires into large - scale demands. To meet these ever - emerging new demands, we must reorganize resources and create brand - new industrial chains.

This means that the lowering of the threshold brought by AI will not reduce the things that can be done. Instead, it will give rise to a large number of new ecosystems. At the same time, it places higher requirements on people: You must precisely lock in the one thing that is truly worth doing among the exploding possibilities.

This ability is much more difficult than simple execution. Because execution can be improved through deliberate practice, while judgment requires a keen business sense, cross - border insights, and even a bit of luck.

So, when someone asked Ben Horowitz: Facing such a drastic change, what should we teach our children to learn and do?

His answer was extremely honest: I don't know either.

This is not a shirk, but a real attitude towards the current cycle. Because what has truly changed is not just tools and skills, but the underlying standards we use to measure what is valuable are being redefined.

The threshold has been lowered, but the difficult part has changed.

Conclusion

Looking back at this round of changes, the pattern is extremely clear: When AI flattens the threshold of "how to do it", the focus of competition has completely shifted to "what to do". When it becomes extremely easy to "create something", the scarcest things become decision - making and taste.

Many people's anxiety, seemingly caused by AI, actually stems from trying to find the "new world" with an "old map".

This is a stage without a standard answer. The greatest risk has never been being eliminated by technology, but being trapped by the old common sense.

Stop staring at your anxiety and find your new threshold.

Original article links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZDJ3jcO5UY&t=930s

https://x.com/gdb/status/2043831031468568734

Source: Official media/Online news

This article is from the WeChat official account "AI Deep Researcher". Author: AI Deep Researcher, Editor: Shen Si. Republished by 36Kr with permission.