Robert Ta explains why he interviews strangers about AI instead of just talking to tech people. He's gathering real perspectives for product ideas, building his founder brand, and training his puppy Kenji in the process.
I'm getting asked a lot. Why am I doing these street interviews where I go up to random strangers in public and I ask them, hey, do you think AI is going to kill us all, take our jobs? What do you think? Among other various questions. And I wanted to make this video to share my thought process. So there's a few reasons why. Number one, I'm tired of tech billionaires telling us how to think. I paid my way through college, I worked for everything I have. My parents had a hard life growing up. And so I really want to hear from real people with real lives doing real things in everyday life. What do they think about AI? I don't want to hear so much of this, oh, the future of work is X or, hey, we're going to get all this cool stuff done and nobody's going to work anymore. And I want to hear real uncertainty, fear, anxiety, excitement, nervousness, you know, all of those things. Inspiration, motivation. I want to hear from real people doing real things. So that's one. And I really want to get it from unbiased people. So I don't want to hear it from my friends either. I think everybody could end up living in a bubble, right? So I really want to check my own biases, round out my own perspectives. So that's why I'm going out into public and just asking random people if they would spend some time talking to me about, you know, their thoughts about the future of AI and what that means for them and their families. Number two, I'm a product leader and entrepreneur at heart, so this is also a really good way to just do user research interviews. And, and through that I see another sort of value add that I can give to society, which is, hey, here's what real people think of AI. Here's what real people think of it in respect to their family lives or their work lives or their careers or their academic lives as students. And hopefully I can capture those moments and share it with other people so that other people in our work global community get a pulse of what do real people with real lives think about these things? Does it resonate? And it hopefully it just starts a conversation. And in that time that I'm asking these questions, I'm also getting an understanding of what do people actually want and need. And so as an entrepreneur, I really think if you don't have a great pulse of what people actually want and need, how they feel about something, then you can't serve those underserved needs. You can't really hear what's going on. So I Don't want to make assumptions. I want to make educated, informed experiments in my product work. So everything to me is an experiment. We're gaining more data points as we do more user research interviews as we do more street interviews, and that compounds in leverage. So let me talk about leverage for a sec. So I want to hear from people, I want to create content so other people could hear from people about AI. I want to research what are people's thoughts and perspectives around these tools and where do they fit into the bigger picture. And then the last thing is that I actually bring my dog on a lot of these street interviews. So this is a funny one, but I have a puppy named Kenji. I'm training him to just be, you know, really okay around different situations, different people of every type. And so it's a really high leverage activity for me. Right. Number one, I just want to find out what people think. And number two, I want to share that with other people so that it starts a good conversation about one of the most craziest times in humanity, the AI era. Are we going to survive and thrive or are we all going to die? I'm also doing getting user research interview done. It helps my content game and that will help me build my founder brand and build up the social media platforms that I'm working on. And really my mission and purpose in life as I see it is to empower everybody on the planet to become their best selves. So I believe in hustling, rolling up my sleeves as I've done all my life, to build up the life I have and will continue to for my dreams and hopefully my future kids one day see what their dad's doing, hustling, and they're, you know, inspired by that. That, that also drives me. And then I'm also training my dad, I'm training my dog at the same time. So that's why I'm making these street interviews. And hopefully you enjoy it. If you have questions that you would like me to ask, if you have parts of the content that resonates or doesn't, or parts that are good and are trash, I love feedback. Anybody who knows me knows I love feedback. And feedback is gold. So give me your feedback. If you like the content, you know, hit subscribe, watch my videos, give me a like and comment and engage and I'll be there in the comments section trying to engage with you all too. So what do you think? Are we all going to die because of AI? Is it going to take our jobs? Thoughts on that? Would love to hear it.
