We’re doing it! We’re getting to the point where science fiction becomes science fact. Aside from innovations with hardware, there’s AI. This technology is a passion that people like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have. However, while the thought of an AI-driven future can facilitate some starry-eyed fantasies, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, has a grounded point of view of AI.
In case you don’t know, Microsoft invested a hefty amount of money in OpenAI. It’s already injected $13 billion, and it might add another billion at some point. In return, OpenAI’s technology powers Microsoft’s AI products. We’ve seen Nadella talk about the benefits of AI technology and how it could change the world. It’s not much different from what we’d hear Sam Altman or Sundar Pichai talk about.
Of course, we know that AI has some pretty substantial implications for the future. As such, we expect these CEOs and others to have passionate and fanciful outlooks on the technology.
However, Satya Nadella has some grounded views on AI
We’d expect Mr. Microsoft himself to dream of a future right out of Detroit Become Human (without the cryptic robot religion) where man and AI live in harmony. However, according to his comments on Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast. Rather than talking about the idealized future where AI has actively improved the world, he speaks about more achievable milestones.
“…when we say this is like the Industrial Revolution, let’s have that Industrial Revolution type of growth.
That means to me, 10%, 7%, developed world, inflation-adjusted, growing at 5%. That’s the real marker.”
So, Nadella isn’t thinking about a future where every person has an AI agent. He’s thinking about a future where AI technology starts to have a bit of an effect on the economy. Helping the economy stabilize a bit would be a more achievable milestone.
“Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking to me.”
That last statement was pretty bold, as it mentions the biggest goal that most AI companies have, which is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This is an AI that’s as smart as a human. The definition varies depending on who you ask, but that’s the gist of it.
So, it shows that Satya Nadella has more realistic goals in his mind. One can only wonder if this is the right approach to have in this case. Instead of chasing a dream, remaining focused on smaller and more attainable goals. With this approach, let’s hope that Microsoft will be able to develop the technology safely.
