Vinod Khosla

When Vinod Khosla had a skiing accident in 2011 that led to an ACL injury in his knee, doctors gave conflicting opinions over his treatment. Frustrated with the healthcare system, the leading venture capitalist proffered, in a hotly debated article, that AI algorithms could do the job better than doctors. Since then, Khosla’s firm has invested in a number of robotics and medtech companies, including Rad AI, a radiology tech company. The self-professed techno-optimist still stands by his assertions a decade later. “Almost all expertise will be free in an AI model, and we’ll have plenty of these for the benefit of humanity,” he tells TIME.

One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures, Khosla, 69, co-founded the influential computing company Sun Microsystems in the 1980s, which he eventually sold to Oracle in 2010. His venture capital firm Khosla Ventures has subsequently placed big bets on green tech, healthcare, and AI startups around the world—including an early investment of $50 million in 2019 in OpenAI, now one of the world’s most valuable. When OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, was briefly fired last year, Khosla was one of the investors who spoke out about wanting Altman back in the top job. “I was very vocal that we needed to get rid of those, frankly, EA [Effective Altruism] nuts, who were really just religious bigots,” he says, referring to the company’s board members who orchestrated the ousting. He contends with their concerns: “Humanity faces risks and we have to manage them,” he says, “but that doesn't mean we completely forgo the benefits of especially powerful technologies like AI.”

Khosla is a firm believer that AI can replace jobs, including those performed by teachers and doctors, and enable a future where humans are free from servitude. “Because of AI, we will have enough abundance to choose what to do and what not to do,” he says.

*Disclosure: OpenAI and TIME have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access TIME's archives.