Teens dreaming of lucrative tech careers should seize on the opportunity to hone their artificial intelligence skills by immersing themselves in the growing number of AI-powered code generation tools, says billionaire Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang.
“You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally,” Wang said on a recent episode of the “TBPN” podcast that aired on September 17.
When asked for his best advice for young people, Wang said, “it’s impossible to understate the degree to which I’ve been radicalized by AI coding.”
AI coding, also called “vibe coding,” involves using artificial intelligence to generate original software code simply by typing out commands and instructions. AI coding apps, like Replit and Cursor, allow you to write code, or even develop a new app, without any coding or computer engineering expertise.
“It’s actually, in some ways, this incredible moment of discontinuity where, if you just happen to spend, like, 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than other people, that’s a huge advantage,” said Wang, who co-founded Scale AI in 2016 and helped build it into a tech unicorn that was most recently valued at $29 billion.
Wang compared the current moment of rapid technological advancement to the early days of the computer revolution, when people like “the Bill Gates’ of the world” capitalized on being early adopters of computers and software.
Indeed, the Microsoft co-founder has said he spent his teen years sneaking out of his parents’ house at night to spend hours learning to write software code, thanks to a fortuitous arrangement he had with a local Seattle company that gave him free computer access.
Wang believes this era’s teens would be wise to follow Gates’ approach by spending as much time as possible learning to use AI coding tools: “That moment is happening right now — and if you are, like, 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding,” he said on the podcast. “That’s how you should live your life.”
AI’s coding ability will match Wang’s ‘within the next five years’
Wang has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as chief AI officer. Despite his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that “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 told “TBPN.”
The idea of AI programs potentially being able to replicate the work of even the best coders in the world is already feeding concerns about software programming remaining a promising career choice. Companies are already increasing their use of AI coding programs, and in some cases using them to replace human programmers.
But Wang and others in the industry still believe in the value of teens learning programming skills, especially in concert with familiarizing themselves with relevant AI tools that can potentially help maximize those skills.
“As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer!” Andrew Ng, co-founder of the Google Brain research lab, wrote in a LinkedIn post in March, adding: “One of the most important skills in the future will be the ability to tell a computer exactly what you want, so it can do that for you.”
Ng called this “the best time yet to learn to code,” noting in the post that workers with strong coding skills will be able to use AI coding tools more effectively than anyone else, making them desirable to employers who are already seeking out employees with AI skills. And, while anyone can use AI tools to generate code and create new apps and startups, entrepreneurs “who understand the language of software through their knowledge of coding” are able to communicate what they want AI to build “much more precisely” than anyone else can, Ng added.
Want to be your own boss? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders. Find step-by-step guidance for launching your first business, from testing your idea to growing your revenue. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off the regular course price of $127 (plus tax). Offer valid September 16 through September 30, 2025.
Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.
