While OpenAI focused on the future during its DevDay event this week, I was especially curious about what OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap had to say about the past.

Lightcap—who joined OpenAI from Y Combinator in 2018—double-majored in economics and history in college. I’m a big believer that we all, deep down, remain who we were and that, to understand moments of massive change, looking back is a helpful way to look forward. When I interviewed Lightcap for the Term Sheet Podcast and asked him what history could tell us about AI today, his answer surprised me.

“There are some things that rhyme [with previous technological cycles],” he said. “But in many ways, also, AI is weird…The reason I say that is because, if you look at past technological cycles, there’s almost always been one kind of in

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