Databricks CEO says AI talent war has put 'too much pressure' on young people (www.businessinsider.com)

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi warned in an A16z video that the current “AI talent war” is putting excessive pressure on young people, who increasingly worry that short-term decisions (like taking an internship) will cost them multimillion-dollar opportunities. He described a shift in questions from "how do I advance here?" to "when should I start a company, what valuation should I chase, am I wasting my life by interning?" Ghodsi linked this anxiety to hype around AGI and the rapid rise of very young founders and high-profile hires, noting the market for foundation-model talent is intensely competitive and that stories of enormous offers (which he suspects are often exaggerated) can distort expectations and morale. For the AI/ML community, this highlights concrete labor-market and product-development implications: intense poaching among model developers concentrates talent at deep-pocketed firms, risks inflating compensation benchmarks, and can disadvantage smaller startups that must instead sell potential upside, learning opportunities, and impact. Ghodsi suggested practical recruiting strategies — emphasize growth trajectory, real ownership, and multi-decade career horizons to calm candidate FOMO — and warned that exaggerated salary signaling can backfire by setting unrealistic bars for negotiating offers. The comments underscore a broader tension between short-term monetary incentives and sustainable talent development in the fast-moving AI ecosystem.