Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI and one of the youngest billionaires in tech, believes teenagers today should spend their time mastering artificial intelligence-powered coding tools — just as Bill Gates did with software in the early days of computing.
“You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally,” Wang said on the TBPN podcast aired on September 17. “It’s impossible to understate the degree to which I’ve been radicalized by AI coding.”
Wang, who helped build Scale AI into a $29 billion unicorn, said teens should immerse themselves in “vibe coding” — a term used to describe AI-assisted software development where users generate code by typing natural language instructions into platforms like Replit and Cursor.
“This is an incredible moment of discontinuity,” CNBC Make It reported Wang as saying. “If you spend 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than others, that’s a huge advantage.”
He compared the current AI boom to the early computer revolution, when Gates spent his teen years sneaking out to learn coding at a local Seattle company. “That moment is happening right now — and if you are, like, 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding,” Wang said. “That’s how you should live your life.”
AI will match top coders soon, Wang says
Despite his own success, Wang believes AI will soon be able to replicate all the code he’s ever written. “Literally all the code I’ve written in my life … will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years,” he said.
A similar sentiment was echoed by Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain. In a LinkedIn post, he wrote: “As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer.” He added that those who understand software will be able to use AI tools more precisely — and will be more valuable to employers.
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