The Journal. · Monday, August 10, 2026
Gary Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, likens AI agents to 'self-driving rockets for the mind,' enabling smaller teams to achieve what previously required much larger workforces. He predicts that AI coding agents will reach his level of capability within six to 18 months, at which point he plans to resume drinking.
“I mean, I think of it as like self-driving rocket for the mind. And so, Interesting. Like, back in the day, you you might have to have a team of a hundred or a thousand people to get done something that now only takes like 10 or 15 people.”
“But, you know, I would I would say I'm going to start drinking again when, uh, the coding agents don't need me anymore. And, uh, I would guess that that's sometime in the next, like six to 18 months.”