​​“We are the [artificial intelligence] AI platform for human intelligence,” said micro1 founder and master’s student Ali Ansari, who is currently attending classes part time to work on the startup.

Led by 01 Advisors, micro1 recently raised $35 million, increasing the valuation of the company to $500 million. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): For readers that don’t know about micro1, what problem does your company solve? 

Ali Ansari (AA): We are the AI platform for human intelligence. We vet highly skilled talent in different domains — including engineering and medicine — and help frontier labs train their models. 

TSD: This isn’t your first company. Tell us about your previous ones. Have they had an effect on the work you do today?

AA: I started a company called CashBooksNow in middle school. It lets college students sell their textbooks. I’d take their books and flip them on Amazon. I then started my second company my sophomore year of high school. My friends and I started teaching students for math competitions, and it ended up becoming an online math tutoring marketplace. 

At Berkeley, I started a software development agency that led to micro1. The limiting factor for that was that I had to vet engineers, so I developed an AI screener to help me with that. That became micro1. 

TSD: Are you a proponent of people starting a company while in school?

AA: I think so. I always wondered if I should take the internship or Big Tech route, and I had this fear of missing out. I think it is a risk worth taking. 

TSD: When do you think a student should drop out? 

AA: When I was at Berkeley, I was about to drop out in my third year. I decided to just finish with computer science (CS), instead of CS and math, and finish in three years. The better case might be to finish early rather than dropping out. 

TSD: What role does Stanford play in your work at micro1? 

AA: I’m currently a master’s student at Stanford. Associate professor Stefano Ermon leads our research lab and is a legend in the reinforcement learning space. We’re also very grateful to hire exceptional talent from Stanford. 

TSD: How do you think you define intelligence? Is there a difference between an intelligent person and an intelligent machine? 

AA: We are trying to resemble human intelligence with machines, as a first step. We, therefore, need human brilliance to feed these machines. The ultimate goal is to have these entities be similar to humans but also aligned with human values. The way to have both of those be true is if these systems fundamentally learn from humans.

TSD: Do you believe AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] is possible, theoretically and practically? 

AA: It depends on how you define it. I believe that we will have systems that are smarter than all humans combined, eventually. That, however, does not mean humans will become less important.

Even if these entities grow much smarter than all humans combined, they will still continue to learn from humans. Humans value change. The only way to continue to make sure that it is aligned with those values is to make sure that it continues to learn from humans. 

TSD: You said it depends on how you define AGI. What do you define it as? 

AA: I’d categorize them as AGI and ASI [Artificial Super Intelligence]. I think we are quite close to AGI, an entity that’s better than the best humans in any domain, excluding the physical world. ASI is more intelligent than all humans combined, including the physical realm. We are very far from this. 

TSD: Will these models ever have true understanding?

AA: I believe so. When the model infers, you are giving it a chance to understand what it is doing. 

TSD: What’s a theory you have about the future of work you hope you are wrong about?

AA: I think there is a good chance that most jobs will converge to training models. I don’t think all that humans should do is spend their time training models. 

TSD: What’s a theory you have about the future of work you hope you are right about?

AA: I hope AI systems will be managed by humans, forever. 

TSD: Any advice for Stanford students? 

AA: If you’re picking between a startup and Big Tech, go startup. It won’t work for a while, but it’ll be great when it does. 

TSD: Were there times you regreted picking the startup route? 

AA: I questioned it pretty much everyday. 

TSD: Who do you support in the Big Game — Berkeley or Stanford? 

AA: I have to stay neutral here. I’ve been at Berkeley longer, but I love Stanford.