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Dan Young, founder of PC Laptops and Xidax
I was talking AI before it was cool.
Most "AI experts" showed up in 2023. I've been in tech since 1992, and I was talking AI, robots and self-driving cars on my podcast and socials years before ChatGPT. Here are the receipts, with dates and links, so you don't have to take my word for it.
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Start building computer companies
Started what became PC Laptops, then Xidax. Thirty-plus years of selling, building and supporting the machines people run their lives and businesses on.
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Asked Utah's wealthiest family where business was headed. The answer was AI.
On episode 6 of my podcast I sat down with Gail Miller, Bryan Miller and Karen Miller of the Larry H. Miller Group. I asked what's next for the Miller companies. The answer:
"There are going to be some major changes in the future. Artificial intelligence, it's going to be a major factor."
That was 2018, four years before ChatGPT.
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Called it on my podcast: automation is coming for the labor jobs.
On episode 31 we got into robots and automation replacing truck drivers, Lyft drivers and labor jobs, and how a big share of today's jobs could be gone within a decade. My take:
"I'm a big enthusiast into AI."
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Made a whole video on how to stay "future proof" against AI.
People kept asking me if computers and robots were going to take their jobs. So I made a video about it:
"A lot of people ask me about artificial intelligence. Are computers and robots gonna take over the world? Are we all gonna be unemployed?"
My advice was to build the skills AI can't copy. That was early 2020, almost three years before ChatGPT.
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"Half of the labor jobs" in the next decade.
Eight months before ChatGPT, on episode 79 of my podcast:
"AI automation are going to replace in the next decade probably half of the labor jobs."
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"The Robot Has Arrived"
Posted about AI and robotics showing up in the real world, months before ChatGPT launched.
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"The Robots Are Coming"
"I have been involved with tech for over 30 yrs. I currently am on Intel Corporation's Board of Advisors and AMD Gaming Advisory Council. Tech is evolving at an exponential rate. Many jobs as we know it today will become..."
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Testing Tesla's self-driving AI
Posted about the Full Self-Driving update, then filmed a test drive in my Plaid a couple weeks later.
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ChatGPT comes out. Everybody else starts talking about AI.
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"Anyone else worried AI is coming for their job?"
A month after ChatGPT came out. The next day on LinkedIn:
"We've been talking about something similar for 15+ years, how robots will take over our jobs. But could AI really be close?"
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Warned people about AI voice-clone scams
Scammers copying your voice off the internet and calling your family or your company for money. Most people hadn't heard of it yet. I've kept warning about it since. The reel on it has 77K views on Instagram.
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A full podcast episode on AI
Episode 88 with Kirk Ouimet, who built a computer vision company, on the wave of artificial intelligence and what it means for business.
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Running AI in every department of my own companies
Marketing, sales, accounting, purchasing, logistics, warehouse, websites and compliance. Our operating costs are running $2.8 million a year lower with AI driving it. That's our own internal estimate, not audited. And at Xidax we build the machines to run it on.
See what it does in each department · What it takes to run AI on your own machine
More dated posts from my Instagram and YouTube archive are being added.
Why this matters to you
Anybody can call themselves an AI expert now. Ask them two things: how long have they been at it, and what does AI actually run in their own business?
I don't tell you what AI should do. I show you what it already does in my companies, and the machines I run it on.