Shunned Jehovah’s Witness Becomes a Billionaire AI Evangelist

Asking too many questions has reshaped Andy Konwinski’s life more than once.

First, his doubts about the Jehovah’s Witness religion cost him his family and his faith. Then, curiosity helped him become a top computer researcher and co-founder of Databricks, one of the world’s most valuable startups. Next, he helped build Perplexity, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine designed to answer questions better than Google.

The ventures have made Konwinski, 42, a billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Databricks, which develops software to manage and analyze large datasets, was valued at over $100 billion in its last funding round, while Perplexity is worth $20 ...