In a 1995 document, Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft Corp., referred to the internet as a “tidal wave” that would be essential to every aspect of the company’s operations. Nearly two decades later, Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, stated that he thinks artificial intelligence would have an equally significant influence.
On the current episode of The Circuit With Emily Chang, Nadella said, “The Bill memo in 1995, it does feel like that to me. “I believe it to be as big,”
OpenAI Inc., a startup whose generative AI technology has generated so much attention that it landed a $13 billion commitment from the software giant, is at the center of the most recent attempt to overhaul Microsoft.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said on The Circuit, “We have a wonderful relationship. “These large, significant agreements between IT giants frequently fail. This is an illustration of how effectively it functions. We are very appreciative.
There are many who oppose the alliance. The most vocal is Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman and later left the organization due to differences in opinion on its direction and the addition of a for-profit division. According to him, OpenAI is currently “effectively controlled by Microsoft.”
When asked about Musk’s criticisms and the possibility that Microsoft would buy OpenAI, Altman responded, “Company is not for sale. I’m at a loss for words to be any clearer than that.
The fear of Google monopolizing AI was a factor in the development of OpenAI and Microsoft’s support of it, just as Netscape served as the inspiration for Gates’ internet manifesto. Google created the transformer architecture, which is used by Microsoft’s Bing chatbot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft and OpenAI are regarded as the early leaders in AI, despite the fact that Google is still a competitor.
Naturally, Microsoft’s web browser forced Netscape out of the market following Gates’ directive and sparked a costly antitrust case from the US government. Altman claimed that OpenAI’s place in AI is far from certain. This is not just a competitive environment, but, in his opinion, it’s also the most competitive one in technology right now.
A Microsoft representative said the business is open to talking with governments about maintaining competition in AI. The actual impact of AI, Nadella warned in the Circuit interview, is yet unknown.
The Microsoft CEO stated, “We in the tech business are classic specialists at overhyping everything. What drives me is my desire to use technology to democratize access to it, which is what I believe at least all of us are in the industry for.
