Last week, I was listening to a recent podcast with Raoul Pal and Emad Mostaque on AI. Emad is a former hedge fund manager who left to co-found Stability AI. I had previously enjoyed a podcast with him and Peter Diamandis last year and was interested in his latest thoughts. Much of the early part of the conversation was about the rise of AI agents and the transformative impact they will have—not just for productivity, but for the structure of the global economy itself. Mostaque warned that as these agents become more capable, they will automate tasks across every sector, from law and finance to healthcare and logistics. The result, he believes, will be a massive shift in value toward capital and away from labor. In his words: “Even if we try and focus on GDP growth, we don’t know who it accrues to. Well, it’ll accrue to capital, right? The rich will become even richer.” It’s a compelling argument, and one that many economists and technologists echo. But as I listened, my brain had a different view—one where the same tools Mostaque warns about could actually close the gap rather than widen it. This is why it is so important with AI moving this fast to listen to many of the people innovating within AI to help shape your own views on the eventual outcome. Nobody knows so collect everyone’s thoughts.
Ironically, in the same conversation, he highlighted a story that perfectly captured the opposite potential of AI. In Edo State, Nigeria, a recent education pilot using Microsoft Copilot—powered by ChatGPT—demonstrated just how powerful and democratizing AI can be. Over just six weeks, students using the tool achieved learning gains equivalent to nearly two years of traditional instruction. The gains were broad-based, but especially pronounced among girls, who had been trailing their male peers. It was a low-cost, scalable solution that didn’t depend on elite institutions or wealthy districts—it simply provided students with access to intelligence and guidance that had previously been out of reach. Rather than reinforcing inequality, this AI experiment did the opposite: it leveled the playing field.
That story reminded me of one of the oldest truths in education and economics: for generations, one of the most reliable predictors of a person’s success has been the zip code—or postal code—they were born into. This geographic lottery often determines access to quality schools, safe neighborhoods, healthcare, and ultimately, opportunity. Research from the Opportunity Atlas—a project by Harvard, Brown, and the U.S. Census Bureau—confirms that a child’s neighborhood is one of the strongest indicators of their future earnings and mobility. But AI is beginning to challenge that reality. With generative models offering personalized tutoring, business support, and productivity tools to anyone with a smartphone, we’re entering an era where access to intelligence is no longer confined to wealth or geography. I believe AI has the potential to decentralize power and democratize success. It can help those born in the “wrong” zip codes catch up—perhaps for the first time in history.
Beyond education, this digital revolution is also reshaping entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Access to AI tools means that anyone with a smartphone can now launch a business, generate content, analyze markets, and automate workflows without the need for traditional infrastructure. In countries where being born in the “wrong zip code” often also means lacking access to capital, stable electricity, or reliable governance, this is nothing short of revolutionary. For these populations, AI isn’t just a productivity enhancer—it’s a lifeline. It lowers the cost of intelligence, removes barriers to entry, and enables individuals to compete globally with nothing more than data and ambition.
But access to knowledge is only part of the story. In many of these same regions, the formal financial system is broken—or never arrived. Billions of people remain unbanked or underbanked, navigating daily life without access to credit, secure savings, or efficient payment systems. They often operate in economies where trust in banks, governments, and local currencies is weak or nonexistent. Here, the rise of crypto—especially stablecoins—becomes the second half of the democratization equation. While Bitcoin offers long-term sovereignty and protection against debasement, stablecoins offer immediate utility: fast, borderless, low-cost transactions that sidestep the inefficiencies and corruption of traditional financial rails.
Together, AI and crypto form a powerful toolkit for global inclusion. The same child in Edo who now learns math with a generative tutor can one day launch a business, accept cross-border payments in stablecoins, and scale operations without ever walking into a bank or government office. What once required proximity to capital, lawyers, or institutions is now becoming accessible through open-source models and decentralized ledgers. Success in the 21st century will be less defined by your physical location and more by your digital access. With these tools, the next generation of innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs will emerge not from the world’s traditional centers of power, but from its margins.
Of course, access to tools and capital is only part of the equation—trust is the rest. In places like Nigeria, and specifically in Edo State, decades of currency devaluations, inflationary spirals, and inconsistent government policies have left deep scars. The naira has lost over 90% of its value against the dollar in just the past decade, wiping out the savings of entire generations. This reminds me of my own experience living in Brazil from 1997 to 1999, during the lead-up to the devaluation of the real. I remember learning in my Portuguese lessons about the country’s long history of hyperinflation, bank confiscations, and broken trust in institutions. In the final months before the currency was officially devalued, we would send someone to the black market to make a daily transaction—because that was the only way to know the real value of the real. That experience shaped how I view countries like Nigeria today. Even Central Bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso has acknowledged this widespread mistrust, stating, “It is clear to me that trust is so critical in successfully anchoring a major task.” So even as students in Edo begin to learn and build with AI, and entrepreneurs start transacting globally using stablecoins, their instinct will not be to store wealth in local banks or fiat currencies—it will be to save in Bitcoin. Bitcoin offers what their government cannot: transparency, scarcity, and independence. For the people of Edo, and millions like them, this isn’t speculation—it’s survival. In a world where AI helps them earn more and stablecoins help them transact, Bitcoin becomes the vault where they protect the future they’re finally able to build.
