Eric Jing, CEO of our portfolio company Genspark, shares a sobering and essential perspective on embracing AGI—as an industry practitioner, an ordinary person, and a father of a 12-year-old boy. Having built Microsoft Bing, shipped 40M+ AI devices, and scaled a $5.5B company, Eric has used over 300 AI tools to witness the exponential curve firsthand.

Lanchi Ventures is the angel round and series A investor of Genspark. We share similar views with Eric Jing, so we are reprinting this article today to help everyone explore ways to coexist with AI.

“AI will impact 99% of people’s jobs, and white-collar jobs might be wiped out. New graduates might be unemployed on day one. It deserves our closest attention—not just for ourselves, but for our children.”

This may not be a post that many people will see, but it’s my sincere sharing as an industry practitioner, an ordinary person, and a father of a 12-year-old boy. I hope everyone who reads this, especially families with children, will find it helpful.

My name is Eric Jing. Since joining Microsoft as a software developer in 2006, I’ve spent nearly 20 years working in search, AI, chatbots, and AI hardware. I’ve fought tooth and nail in fierce competition, was a founding team member to ship Microsoft Bing search, built AI voice devices from scratch that sold over 40 million units, and built a $5.5 billion company. Now I’m the co-founder and CEO of Genspark, a $500 million AI startup.

My dream, from the first day I started studying computer science, has been to change the world through technology. Over the past nearly 20 years, I’ve witnessed incredible transformations. Since 2023, I’ve been personally experiencing and trying new AI products almost every day. In the early days of my startup, I used over 300 AI products (my main sources were Twitter and Product Hunt). To this day, I still try to use 1-5 AI products daily without interruption.

Many AI practitioners and enthusiasts surround me, but I’ve found that even this group may not have enough time to experience AI products as extensively as I do. Many people might feel they understand a product just by reading news or watching a demo video. But from my personal experience, there’s a fundamental difference between hearing about something, seeing it, using it, and paying for it. That’s why I want to share my feelings with more people, even if not many will see this article. But as a father of a 12-year-old, I feel I need to share this with everyone.

I Have Already Seen AGI

This isn’t speculation, it is based on the experience of personally using nearly 1000 AI products, watching the exponential AI evolution speed I’m witnessing firsthand, especially based on the recent full agentic progress and the work we are seeing internally, the AGI is coming.

As an industry practitioner, I’m excited and thrilled. But as an ordinary person and a father, I feel fear. This coexistence of excitement and fear is hard to describe. Let me offer a simple analogy: imagine if everyone had a conversational supercomputer – one that knows more than you, calculates faster than you, knows everything, and can do anything. What would our work and life look like with such an experience by our side?

A fresh college graduate, without much social experience, having learned only textbook knowledge in school, might find that their first day after graduation is also their first day of unemployment. What will happen to our entire education system in the future? How will we raise our children? These are questions worth pondering.

Moreover, what I want to emphasize is that the current state of this computer isn’t what matters (it certainly still has errors and hallucinations sometimes). What’s important is the speed of its evolution – it’s not linear progress, but exponential progress. This is what’s truly frightening.

As a person and a parent, I believe we should realize now that we need to coexist with AI in the future, and we should start learning how to coexist with AI now – how to coexist, even how to learn from AI, to be humble and unashamed to ask questions, letting them teach us more knowledge and abilities.

What I Suggest Everyone Should Consider Doing:

1.Pay for the AI Platform You Trust and Like Most, Use the Most Powerful Features Intensively

Not necessarily Genspark (but preferably choose those platforms that evolve fastest). Trust me, hearing about it, seeing it, using it, and paying for it – each step will give you a completely different feeling. Experience AI’s evolution speed firsthand and feel the urgency.

2.Work with AI to Do Things You’ve Never Imagined

For example, even if you’re not a programmer, have AI write any website or mobile apps you can imagine. If you love playing games, have AI create game apps on the fly based on any idea you have. I have my 12-year-old child use AI to write presentations, create business plans, and do anything you’ve never imagined. You’ll feel AI’s power.

3.Don’t Test AI (Stop Trying to Prove AI Isn’t Good Enough)

Many people in our industry are good at posing problems to AI and trying to stump it to prove AI isn’t capable yet. Let’s try a different approach: patiently co-create with it, give it detailed step-by-step prompts to complete tasks together. Let AI explain instructions it doesn’t understand, help it work through confusion together, then let it approach the results you want. You’ll have a completely different experience.

Those who only test love will never receive love, only those who know how to nurture love will be filled with it. Likewise, only those who truly coexist with AI will experience its power and reap the greatest rewards.

4.If You Have Children, Start Changing Some of Their Learning Content Today

Make them the AI-native generation. Let them boldly use AI to complete any work they want, not just chit-chat with AI or finish homework. Treat our kids just like fresh college students, junior white-collar workers, and have them do things we never imagined before. Let them become the most AI-familiar people from the moment they graduate.

A Call to Action

There may be many more things worth doing, but I wanted to write this content today to sincerely tell people who read this article: We must become anxious, but at the same time, we must calmly make plans for what’s next.

The future belongs to those who:

• Keep their ego small

• Maintain a learning mindset

• Adapt quickly to new technologies

• Start preparing today, not tomorrow

I genuinely hope this message reaches more people. My goal isn’t to promote any products, only to share my experiences and convey the urgency I feel about what I’ve witnessed.

I may be wrong, and I hope I am wrong in some ways.