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Business

SoftBank's Son handpicks 96 disciples to navigate exponential world

Aged 8 to 26, the youngsters already run companies

'I am jealous of your age,' Masayoshi Son told a young child he will be supporting.

TOKYO -- By day, Soto Yamauchi studies at Tokyo Gakugei University International Secondary School. Also by day, the 16-year-old is the CEO of a bitcoin company. He aspires to build a business empire that "surpasses" that of Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank Group.

Son has big dreams for Yamauchi as well. The high-schooler is among 96 young people Son sees as having the potential to be mankind's leaders after "the singularity," a point in the future when technology accelerates at an exponential rate, and machine intelligence will be far more powerful than human intelligence.

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