Cadence CEO on the AI boom and human nature: ‘there are more tools, but the human part is not different’

Anirudh Devgan has a theory about why smart people keep making the same mistakes.

Every generation faces a new wave of technological disruption and responds with the same blend of overconfidence, short-termism, and reluctance to let go of what’s working. The internet did it. The mainframe era did it. AI is doing it now.

“The technology always evolves faster,” he told Fortune backstage at Great Place to Work’s For All Summit in Las Vegas, when asked about the pace of change. “There are more tools, but the human part is not different,” he said.

What makes Devgan’s perspective unusual is that he’s not a philosopher: He’s an engineer at the center of the AI build-out. As president and CEO of Cadence, the $90 billion-plus electronic design automation company whose software underpins the chips in everything from iPhones to AI data centers, he has a front-row seat to the most consequential technology boom in history. And he keeps seeing the same human tendencies play out—in corporate boardrooms, in Washington, and in the broader culture of AI panic and AI hype.

AI vs. humanity

Onstage, in conversation with Great Place to Work CEO Michael C. Bush, Devgan sounded a similar tune about why he believes AI is a bit overhyped. <...