Alex Karp says there are 2 ways to know if you have a future in the age of AI

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp said there are two groups of people who will be in demand.
• "One, you have some vocational training. Or two, you're neurodivergent," Karp said.
• Karp has repeatedly talked about how having dyslexia spurred his future success.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp says there are two groups of people who shouldn't be worried about AI advancements.

"There are basically two ways to know you have a future," Karp said during a recent interview on TBPN. "One, you have some vocational training. Or two, you're neurodivergent."

Neurodiversity is a broad term that encompasses ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and other conditions.

Karp went even further beyond that definition, casting it as almost anyone who takes an unconventional path. He pointed out how TBPN's cohosts, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, eschewed traditional corporate jobs for working on their own ventures, including their video podcast that covers tech like ESPN discusses sports.

"Like you guys are sitting here. You could have had a corporate tool job," Karp said during the interview, which was conducted on the sidelines of Palantir's AIPCon 9 conference in Maryland.

Karp said that "actual expertise" on either the technical or client side is much more valuable than "all the other things that used to be considered precious."

"Like being able to do low-end coding, being able to do low-end lawyering, being able to do low-end reading and writing," he said.

AI and agentic AI's ability to do this rote-type work has created "an inversion" in terms of the skills that will be in demand.

"Everybody with like the normal-shaped skills are dyslexics," Karp said, "meaning the thing they can do that used to be valuable is not so valuable. The thing that they need to learn to do is be more of an artist, look at things from a different direction, be able to build something unique."

Karp has been outspoken about how the age of AI will devalue mostly white-collar work. He's also a firm believer that neurodiversity is a major strength amid the upheaval. In December, Karp said that growing up with dyslexia was "the formative moment" of his life.

"It's simply because if you are massively dyslexic, you cannot play a playbook," he said during The New York Times' DealBook summit. "There is no playbook a dyslexic can master. And therefore, we learn to think freely. "

Video of Karp struggling to sit still during the summit went viral. In response, Palantir announced the creation of a "Neurodivergent Fellowship" as part of its unconventional hiring strategy. The data mining firm said Karp would conduct the final round of interviews.

As for those looking for vocational training, Karp called for an overhaul of the US educational system to better value vocational skills. He also wants to change how the US uses tests to measure aptitude for various fields.

"All of our tests are built around things that were valuable in the industrial revolution," he said. "It's like you want to pull out all the dyslexics, all the neurodivergence, everybody who can't sit, or needs to build, or wants to build," he said.

Karp's inconclastic personality is at the core of Palantir's unique identity, which has positioned both its CEO and the company for immense success. Karp became a billionaire after Palantir went public via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020. Shares of the firm are up over 1,500% since then.

"One part of the reason people come and stay at Palantir is we actively engage in cultivating minds," Karp said in December, adding, "We cultivate minds by being exceedingly difficult."