Mark Cuban believes artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed who gets to innovate.
The billionaire entrepreneur and former “Shark Tank” investor said we’ve entered a moment where “some kid in a basement” can build something that transforms an industry because AI has put the world’s knowledge within reach.
“All it takes is one good idea,” Cuban told Eric Bricker, former cofounder and chief medical officer of Compass Professional Health Services, in an interview released on Wednesday.
“Why not you? Why can’t a 12-year-old, 14-year-old, 20-year-old, 25-year-old, whatever it may be, come up with something that changes the world?” he asked.
Cuban pointed to AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as a turning point. Just a few years ago, a curious student without access to strong teachers or resources might have struggled to go deep on a topic. Now, he said, they can create their own curriculum.
“If you’re curious about something, you can set up your own curriculum,” Cuban said, describing how a young person could ask an AI tool to teach them what it takes to become a surgeon or understand robotic surgery.
“There is nothing you are unable to learn if you put in the time,” he added.
He acknowledged that AI systems can hallucinate but said that access to instant explanations, iteration, and feedback dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for ambitious builders.
Cuban framed the shift as especially powerful in healthcare, an industry he has tried to disrupt through ventures like Cost Plus Drugs.
“All it takes is one good idea from some kid everybody thought was crazy,” he said.
Cuban also said AI makes it easier to act on ideas. Someone who wants to develop a concept or even file a patent can ask an AI tool to “help me write this patent — boom boom boom,” he said, adding that builders now have instant access to knowledge that once required expensive experts or years in a library.
For Cuban, the opportunity is less about hype and more about access. The combination of AI tools and global communication platforms means that once someone builds something meaningful, they can scale it quickly.
“There’s nothing that can stop you anymore,” he said. “And that is just so powerful.”
