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Jason Wei says connections now outweigh skill in AI careers

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Jason Wei, a former OpenAI researcher, says in a post on X that connections now matter more than technical skill for success in AI. He estimates success now splits about 55% skills and 45% who you know, compared with 75% skills and 25% connections five years ago.

He attributes the shift to three factors: coding agents making research execution cheaper, rising compute costs for frontier training, and closed models that make individual contributions hard to verify. The report contains only Wei's own estimate and reasoning, with no supporting data.

Written by AI from the articles below · updated Nov 11, 4:34 PM ET

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Latest developmentNov 11, 4:31 PM ET
Jason Wei says who you know now matters more than skills in AI

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The articles in this story. Times are ET.

Nov 11
  1. Jason WeiX
    Jason Wei says who you know now matters more than skills in AI

    AIJason Wei argues that in AI, connections are gaining weight over technical skill, estimating success now splits about 55% skills and 45% who you know, versus 75% and 25% five years ago. He attributes the shift to coding agents commoditizing research execution, the rising compute costs of frontier training, and closed models that make individual contributions hard to verify.

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