Midjourney founder David Holz: One of our goals is to build new human infrastructure.

At the 2023 Beijing Zhiguan Conference, Midjourney founder David Holz discussed his ideas about AI entrepreneurship and the contributions of AI to human knowledge.

When asked about the help Leap provided to Holz in founding Midjourney, Holz pointed out that the first company Leap helped him understand how to work in large buildings, how to manage large research teams, and how to solve problems that no one had done before. How to really think deeply about how people interact with technology:

What people do together often comes from how we interact. This is one of the very important core ideas, we are doing something similar, like LEAP is very big, very fast. It's like it caught everyone's imagination. I think the middle journey is similar. But I think there are other different things, we spent a lot of time on LEAP, I think we established an ecosystem very early.

I think one very interesting thing I see is that when you give people more opportunities to create, they are also more interested in learning.

Holz believes that user-friendly interfaces can make artificial intelligence an extension of users' own thinking:

Artificial intelligence is a bit like a part of my body in my understanding, and artificial intelligence is also closely intertwined with history.

This also makes me intertwined with history. This way is also interesting.

Holz said that one of Midjourney's goals is to build new human infrastructure:

I think the world will need a lot of new things, we need infrastructure to build new things.

So I thought a lot about building new forms of human infrastructure, like new pillars of infrastructure. So I need my theme, my pillar is reflection, imagination and coordination.

You have to reflect on who you are and what you want. You have to imagine what might happen. Because this is the lens we use in everything, we begin to see some breakthroughs in image synthesis that are qualitatively different from anything I've encountered in artificial intelligence before.

When it comes to the current competition among major countries in the AI field, Holz believes that people are sometimes too competitive:

I think this is a weakness of the West. Sometimes competition is not worth it, just like I don't consider the future, I don't consider competition. I'm just trying to make the most beautiful, the best thing I can do. I think in many ways, as many problems and challenges as there are in the world, there are as many opportunities.

Holz pointed out that it is normal for the world to be afraid of artificial intelligence, but at the same time, people do not want a world that lacks wisdom:

I think here, people are not only afraid of technology, but also afraid of intelligence. If they are smart, can I trust them? But on the other hand, we seem to want the world to have as much intelligence as possible. We seem to not want a world that lacks wisdom. Holz said that using Midjourney is not just about learning how to use the tool, but also about learning all the art and history:

"We often ask users what they want, and Midjourney is not just about learning how to use the tool, but also about learning all the art and history, as well as all the knowledge about cameras, lenses, and lighting. They want to understand the language and concepts they can use in their creations. Because I used to think that knowledge was just history, but now knowledge is actually a power to create things. It immediately becomes very powerful, so people want it. It's really cool.

"I think for those who haven't started their artistic journey yet, this gives you a unique opportunity to have it for the first time. You're thinking, what do I like? What is my aesthetic? What do I think is beautiful? This is like a real me, and you can spend decades becoming a professional artist, suddenly everyone can access it. We find that people like deep reflection, which is almost like art therapy, making people think about their lives, which is challenging, and maybe bad things happen for good reasons. It's very meaningful.

"So I think it's really cool. I see that when we ask our users what they want, the first and usually the second request is for our learning materials. Not just about learning how to use the tool, but also about learning all the art and history, as well as all the knowledge about cameras, lenses, and lighting. They want to understand the language and concepts they can use in their creations. Because I used to think that knowledge was just history, but now knowledge is actually a power to create things. It immediately becomes very powerful, so people want it. It's really cool."