Satya Nadella Predicts AI Revolution to be as Impactful as the Internet
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has compared the recent development of artificial intelligence to the Internet boom of the 1990s. He referred to a 1995 memo by Bill Gates in which he described the Internet as a “tidal wave” and said artificial intelligence will similarly have a major impact on society.
In a conversation with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on The Circuit, Satya Nadella compared the potential of AI to the impact of the Internet in 1995, saying he believes AI will be “as big” as the Internet.
He added, “We in tech are classic experts at overdoing everything,” and what motivates him is that he wants to “really use this technology to do what I think at least we’re all about in technology. democratize access to it.”
In 1995, when the dot-com era was taking shape and Microsoft was just about to launch Internet Explorer, Bill Gates stated in a memo that he wanted to “make it clear that our focus on the Internet is vital to every aspect of our business.” He went on to say that the Internet is “the single most important development since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981”, calling it a “tidal wave”.
Now – almost three decades later – it seems that things have come full circle as Satya Nadella comments on how artificial intelligence (AI) is now considered the modern internet in terms of hype and industry focus.
To the uninitiated, Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI – including GPT LLM and its ChatGPT chatbot. According to CNBC, Microsoft has invested more than 13 billion dollars in OpenAI.
In particular, Microsoft’s new Bing chat uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model, and the company has also developed Azure OpenAI, a platform that allows developers to quickly implement and deploy their AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI and Microsoft have a “great relationship.”
