Drinking coffee at the Palo Alto zombie cafe on Sunday morning, Alan Walker looked out the window and said lightly:

"Many people still think that the AI era is all about diligence, execution, overtime, and stacking people.

Actually not.

The most cruel thing about the AI era is that rewards will not be distributed evenly. It will only be given to those who are truly aware. This is true for making products, this is true for technology, and it is also true for investment.

Because what you are facing is not an ordinary tool or an ordinary cycle, but a new productivity restructuring brought about by high intelligence. ”

The following paragraph 6 is what I compiled from what he said that day.

AIIt's not a tool upgrade, it's the arrival of high intelligence

Many people are still using Internet thinking to understand AI today, which is already slow.

The Internet is a revolution in information distribution, and AI is a revolution in intelligent distribution.

In the past, you used tools, but the tools did not understand you; now you are facing a highly intelligent agent that can understand, deduce, collaborate, and reversely amplify you.

What does this mean?

It means that AI no longer just helps you save time, but begins to directly participate in judgment, generate structure, compress trial and error costs, and even redefine "how much a person can do."

AI is not an enhanced version of old tools, it is the first time that high intelligence has entered the workflow of ordinary people on a large scale.

So in this era, the first to be rewarded is not the busiest person, but the first to realize:

What we are facing is no longer software, but new intelligent infrastructure people.

AIIt will only amplify cognition, not supplement people's brain

Many people think that after using AI, they will automatically upgrade.

In fact, just the opposite.

AI is a very cruel thing in nature. It will not improve everyone equally, it will only amplify everyone's original structure, judgment and boundaries.

You don’t have a framework in your mind, and what AI gives you is often just more beautiful nonsense.

If you don’t have the ability to abstract the problem, it can only accompany you on the surface.

Only when you have a clear understanding of goals, constraints, costs, and paths can it truly unleash its potential, giving you deeper deductions and stronger output.

AI is not a plug-in for the useless brain, it just enlarges the human brain.

So why do some people become more powerful the more they use AI, while others become mediocre the more they use it?

It's not that the model is eccentric, it's that the cognitive level is too far apart.

The rewards of technology first flow to those who understand the direction

The technology industry has always been like this:

The real big rewards are never given to "those who work the hardest", but to "Those who understand the next generation paradigm".

The age of steam engines rewards those who understand mechanization,

The Internet era rewards those who understand connection and distribution,

The mobile Internet era rewards those who understand entrance and network effects .

In the AI era, rewards begin to flow to those who understand "how high intelligence rewrites production relations" .

Many programmers today are still struggling with how to use AI as a plug-in, assistant, or performance improvement tool.

But more knowledgeable people are already thinking about another level:

Which positions will this high intelligence swallow up, which processes will be rewritten, which organizations will be restructured, which product boundaries will be changed, and finally to whom will the value be redistributed?

The biggest dividend of technology has never been given to those who can use tools, but to those who first understand what the tools will destroy and rebuild .

This is the gap.

Ordinary people are still learning how to use it, while people with higher cognition are already redrawing the map.

Investment rewards are only given to those who understand the focus of the times

Investment is actually more cruel.

Because when making products, you can slowly correct if you make a mistake; if you make a mistake in investment, if you go in a wrong direction, it will be gone in three to five years.

The most valuable investor in the AI era is not the best storyteller or the best at chasing hot topics, but the first to understand:

This is not an opportunity for “one more track”, this is an opportunity for the entire technology value chain to be reordered.

What is a knowledgeable investor?

We don’t just look at valuation, growth, and popularity.

But can understand:

High intelligence will eat up whose profits first, whose moat will be compressed first, whose value will be repriced first, and finally where profits and power will be concentrated.

So cognizant investors don’t see “whether a certain AI application is popular”;

What they saw was:

In the entire chain of models, computing power, data, interfaces, workflow, organizational efficiency, and user relationships, which layer is most likely to accumulate long-term benefits, which layer is just a toll, and which layer will eventually be directly eaten by the native model.

The biggest reward for investment is not given to the most enthusiastic people, but only to those who understand the outcome first.

This is why many people are ostensibly investing in AI, but in the end the returns are as bad as two species.

Because some people are chasing volatility, while others are betting on structure.

For the first time, humans are forced to reprice themselves by high intelligence

The deepest layer of this matter is not technology or investment, but people.

The machines that humans encountered in the past were all low-intelligence machines.

They work for you, do the math for you, and network for you, but they will not force you to look directly at yourself.

Today’s AI is different. For the first time, many people had to admit that many of the abilities they were proud of in the past were actually just partial advantages in the old era.

So many people’s true emotions towards AI are not excitement, but discomfort.

Because once you really use AI deeply, you will find:

Many abilities that could be sold for money are rapidly depreciating; many abilities that were previously considered unattainable are beginning to be diluted by the system;

很多人和人的差距，不再体现在努力程度，而体现在认知深度。

The most hurtful thing about AI is not that it is faster than you, but that it lets you know that you are not that valuable.

This is why most people talk about AI but dare not really get into AI.

It’s not because the threshold is high, it’s because the threshold for self-esteem is high.

In this era, rewards will not be given to people from the old era

I remember Alan’s last words very clearly.

He said:

“This era doesn’t give people opportunities, it doesn’t give money to old brains. If you treat AI as a toy, it will play with you; if you treat AI as a search, it will search with you; if you treat AI as a highly intelligent collaborator, it will lift you up.

The same goes for investment, and the same goes for technology.

If you don’t understand the changes in rules brought about by high intelligence, you won’t be able to achieve real big results even if you are at the forefront. ”

So what this article really wants to say is not that "people with knowledge are more powerful", but:

In the AI era, rewards will not be given equally to everyone.

It will only be given to those who understand high intelligence first, understand new rules first, and dare to reorganize themselves first.

This is true for people who work in technology, this is true for people who make investments, and it is also true for ordinary people.

AI will not reward every participant, it will only cash in the cognition of a few people into results that the majority of people can no longer catch up with.