Y Combinator CEO on How AI is Changing What Startups Build

Y Combinator 首席执行官谈人工智能如何改变初创公司所构建的内容

The Journal.

2026-08-11

26 分钟
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Tickets for our live show in New York are now on sale! Get yours here. Garry Tan is the President and CEO of Y Combinator, a tech incubator that invests millions of dollars into new startups every year. Garry describes himself as “AI-pilled,” saying that he’s seen first-hand how the technology is transforming what startups can build. Ryan Knutson interviews Tan about how he remains optimistic despite AI’s risks, how AI is impacting the workforce and how we should all be having more parties. Further Listening: - The Vanishing of an Anti-AI Activist - Chinese AI Is Spooking Silicon Valley  Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • If you want to know how AI is going to change the workplace,

  • one of the best places to look is at startups.

  • And there's probably no one more steeped in the world of startups than this guy.

  • Hi, my name is Gary Tan, and I'm the president and CEO at Y Combinator.

  • If you haven't heard of Y Combinator, you've definitely heard of some of the startups it's helped launch.

  • Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase.

  • YC, as it's commonly known, is a startup incubator.

  • Gary says it gets about 100,000 applications every year.

  • But only a few startups get accepted.

  • Those that are get up to a half a million dollar investment.

  • Gary prolifically posts about his AI use.

  • And he says that AI is changing everything about how companies are being created these days.

  • And it's also changing how he works as a CEO.

  • Last month, I got on a call with Gary.

  • He was in San Francisco and I was in a studio overlooking Times Square.

  • If you want to see a video of our conversation, head to Spotify.

  • You use AI agents a lot.

  • You've talked a lot about ways you're putting it into your life.

  • What are you having to do and what do you find that it's most useful at?

  • I mean, I think of it as like self-driving rocket for the mind.