Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan advised graduates to be the protagonists of their own stories and the writers of humanity’s future during his commencement address to Johns Hopkins University’s graduating class of 2025 on Thursday.
In his speech, Khan said today’s young people – like the characters in their favorite literary epics – are heroes and heroines with untapped potential who are tasked with saving the world from an existential threat.
Throughout history, humans have faced a collection of inflection points, Khan said, starting with learning to harness fire and later developing agriculture, to creating systems of writing and inventing the printing press to more widely share those written ideas, to periods of cultural renaissance, enlightenment, and industrialization.
Now, Khan said, a new inflection point is upon us: the boom of artificial intelligence and rapidly improving biotechnology.
Already, AI systems are outperforming humans in many intellectual tasks, and scientists are able to edit human genomes, Khan said.
He added that within the next decades, the world can expect superintelligent AIs, massive medical breakthroughs, and cures for diseases that will dramatically extend our lifespans.
Khan lended both caution and hope, saying that AI, like other tools, is what humans make of it.
“Whether you find this thrilling or terrifying – or both – your feelings are valid,” he said. “But make no mistake: this is the most epic of backdrops to your story. AI and other transformative technologies are neither good nor evil; they amplify human intent. Fire can warm or destroy. A knife can harm or create. Likewise, AI can amplify the negative intent of criminals and autocrats, or the positive intent of artists, researchers, policymakers and educators.”
Reflecting on his own career after college, Khan said the path to finding his purpose wasn’t straightforward.
After working for a large tech company, startups, and a hedge fund, Khan’s life changed during a conversation with a young relative.
After discovering his cousin was struggling with math, he offered to tutor her.
Khan was able to communicate remotely from Boston to where his cousin lived in New Orleans. Through their tutoring sessions, Khan’s cousin not only drastically improved in the math course she began in, but Khan even convinced her school to place her in a more advanced class.
Before he knew it, he was tutoring 5-10 other cousins all over the country. What started as a resource for his family members became tools that were being used by people all over the world as part of his nonprofit Khan Academy.
“We still have a long way to go, but none of it would have been possible without that early period of building, learning and focusing what was in my control to help others,” he said. “I hope my story gives you permission to find joy in small human wins, even as you dream audaciously in this time of extraordinary change.”
Khan shared three pieces of advices with Hopkins graduates.
“First, don’t just follow your dreams. Have dreams and take them seriously, but the world won’t hand you the influence or the resource to realize them unless you build the skills and credibility to make them real.”
“Second, curate your worries. Yes, life will throw real challenges your way: health scares, financial stress, people you love going through pain. But most of the stress we carry comes from things that don’t really matter. The frustration that people aren’t doing what you want you to, that they aren’t seeing you the way you want to be seen. If you can do something about it, do it. If not, let it go.”
Khan’s third piece of advice was to “Be thoughtful about what you truly aspire to…. So as you build yourself in the traditional sense, also invest in what gives you meaning.”
Though he began his address likening himself to fictional mentors like Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore, Khan said there is one big difference between graduates and their beloved protagonists like Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter.
“The odds are not stacked against you,” he said. “You are equipped for this moment. You are not alone. The roughly thousands of you who are graduating today are the vanguard of an army of millions, ready to push the future forward while staying grounded in what makes us human.”
Hopkins as an institution has “shaped the course of human progress and set the model for many more,” Khan said. Now, graduates get to join these efforts to effect change.
“Build yourself with care,” Khan said. “Strengthen your foundation. Focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t. Reflect deeply on what gives you meaning and invest in it. Put one foot in front of the other even when the path is steep. Find gratitude in the setbacks; they are the trials that shape our great story. And remember: you are living in a science fiction epic unfolding in real time with stakes for all of humanity. The ending hasn’t been written yet, and you have the pen. Onward.”
