Replit founder and chief executive Amjad Masad joined The a16z Show host Erik Torenberg and Gagan Biyani, the Andreessen Academy’s co-founder and CEO, to debate how schooling should adapt for students coming of age alongside artificial intelligence.
Masad’s central claim, per the episode listing: young people’s readiness to challenge assumptions long taken for granted ranks among their most valuable traits, and schools should cultivate that instinct rather than train it out of students.
Their episode ranges across coursework built around real projects, room for students to chase side interests outside the core syllabus, and time for one idea to develop in depth. Both guests frame that as the opposite of the model that dominates higher education today, a system leaning on grades and credentials instead of the open ended inquiry they want to see.
The episode runs roughly 46 minutes. Replit and the Andreessen Academy sit on opposite sides of the build versus teach divide in AI education, which makes the pairing notable: one runs a coding platform used to train engineers, the other is building a new institution meant to replace parts of the traditional degree.
Per The a16z Show’s episode listing, featuring Amjad Masad and Gagan Biyani.
