Vinod Khosla on AI Interns, Trust, and Health Moonshots in the Age of Superintelligence

**Unity Stoakes** (0:05)
Welcome back to StartUp Health NOW. My name is Unity Stoakes, co-founder of StartUp Health. This is the podcast where we get to have deep and meaningful conversations so we can get to know the change makers, the entrepreneurs and innovators who are transforming health. Stick around, it's gonna be another great show.

**Steve** (0:28)
I want to pass the microphone back to Unity Stoakes. Before I do though, I want everyone to acknowledge one thing, which is 15 years ago when Union and I were first here, when he talked about meeting Margaret Laws at a Mexican restaurant to tell her about what we were working on, Unity would describe how he wanted to bring people together at JPM. And it started out with StartUp Health Cafe, if anybody was at StartUp Health Cafe, before it was even the festival. The StartUp Health Festival then came and took over Market Street for many years. And today we're at the Apollo House, and I can tell you it would not happen without the leadership and the guidance of Unity and the dreams of Unity Stoakes. I just want to thank you for putting this together and truly leading the team to doing that. And with Unity, I am incredibly excited to have Vinod Khosla here. He needs no introduction, but what he does need is a quick moment of gratitude. For the last 15 years, Vinod has been joining our community at every event we've done, almost systematically since 2013, maybe even 2012, talking about the world we're living in today. If you go back, there are videos on YouTube at the StartUp Health events talking about having a doctor in your pocket, talking about how it's going to impact the world. So couldn't be more excited to introduce Unity and Vinod Khosla our Fireside Chat.

**Vinod Khosla** (1:53)
Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Thanks.

**Unity Stoakes** (1:57)
All right. Welcome Vinod Khosla to the Apollo House. Today, we're talking about health moon shots in the age of super intelligence. I thought we would start with, I think it's the tweet that is pinned now on X for you. I'm just going to read it because I think it's really beautiful. At 70 plus, I feel like I'm 30 backing exciting innovations, making the impossible possible. And from improbable ideas to world changing, socially impactful companies. Never had such a fast learning rate in my life or felt I could have so much impact, which is exciting. Wow, at 70 Okay, now that tweet was maybe a week ago. So do you, things move so fast. Do you still feel that way? How do you?

**Vinod Khosla** (2:47)
It's still true.

**Unity Stoakes** (2:48)
Is it still true?

**Vinod Khosla** (2:49)
Even more in a way it is today than yesterday.

**Unity Stoakes** (2:52)
Why do you feel this way? What's going on?

**Vinod Khosla** (2:55)
What's going on is from time to time, platforms change. I started my first company in 1980 when the microprocessor came along and a whole bunch of stuff was built on that platform, including the PC and all that. In 1996, the internet came along and a whole bunch of companies were built on that platform. In 2007, the iPhone came along and a whole bunch of companies were built on that platform. If you look at the AI platform, it's broader, bigger and more impactful than one can ever than one anybody could have imagined a little while ago. I was optimistic.

**Unity Stoakes** (3:48)
You were talking about this years ago. You wrote papers on this years ago.

**Vinod Khosla** (3:51)
Yeah, so it was 2012 when I wrote two blogs that were highly controversial then. One was called, they were in TechCrunch, so they're there to look.

**Unity Stoakes** (4:01)
Is this the 20% doctor?

**Vinod Khosla** (4:03)
No, so the first blog was called Do We Need Doctors? My thesis was with AI, we don't need doctors. Some people still doubt that a little bit, but most people are coming around to that point of view. The other one was, do we need teachers? And that's also true. That was 2012 2016, I wrote a 100-page document called Do We Need, 20% Doctor Included. And people are now coming around to the point of view that this is real. It sounded loony 10 years ago. Even 10 years ago, it sounded loony to be talking about this. Of course, it was 100% clear to me. It was only a question of when, not how, or if. It's very clear now. There's no area of endeavor where humans will be better than AI. Real well before 2035, likely well before 2030
That's a good place to start.

**Unity Stoakes** (5:07)