The first shot has been fired. The AI war has begun.
Microsoft’s opening salvo in the AI wars is directly aimed at Google. By forming a strategic partnership with OpenAI. Satya Nadella has orchestrated a seismic shift in the search world by combining OpenAI’s ChatGPT and expansive language model into Bing, Microsoft’s search engine.
So, what are the crucial lessons from Microsoft’s bold declaration of war to dominate search and its potential ramifications? What are the implications of this first battle of the AI Wars?
Lessons for Entrepreneurs
· Develop platforms in emerging unicorn industries. Platforms offer a way to benefit from multiple streams of revenues, reduce risk, and gain domination.
· Partner with leading-edge companies if you can. And be willing to pay for it. Microsoft invested billions in the partnership with OpenAI, although a lot of it was used to pay itself for the equipment. The results so far have been astounding.
· Prove your technology. Nadella was asked about how he decided to “go all in.” Nadella noted that he was in when he saw that ChatGPT was able to translate the poetry of Rumi into English while maintaining the integrity of the original poetry, which is very difficult. This proof of ChatGPT is also consistent with the 4 Aha’s of Unicorn-Entrepreneurship. The second Aha is proof of Technology, and Nadella moved forward when he saw this proof. Now he is working on the third Aha, which is Strategy Aha, i.e., he needs to find the right strategy to achieve his goals, which is to dominate search.
· Focus. The mistake that many entrepreneurs make is in thinking they can reduce their risk by diversifying. What they do not realize is that diversification is for risk-reducing financiers – not entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs do not have the time, resources, or bandwidth to go to two wars and win. Interestingly, Nadella thought the same way – even with the vast resources of Microsoft at his disposal. Rather than pursuing five foundational models, he focused on the one that “captures the imagination of the world.”
· Hit the enemy where it hurts. Nadella focused on search where it is a distant second to Google, and it seems to have shaken Google.
· Help everyone develop skills. Nadella’s goal is mind boggling – it is to help everyone become a developer. He cites the example of an Indian entrepreneur who used one of the early GPT versions to build an app that helps farmers use their cell phones to fill out all the government documents in a language they do not know – and get government subsidies to survive and succeed.
· Never quit. Nadella tried to succeed in search at Microsoft, starting about 14 years ago. Now he is trying again with a new technology. And this time he may draw blood, Google’s blood.
The final lesson for entrepreneurs: If you want a chance to build your unicorn, get into an emerging industry as it emerges. Every billion-dollar entrepreneur I have financed, interviewed, or researched entered an emerging industry. An emerging industry creates many growth opportunities.
Lesson for Google.
· You are never safe. It is noteworthy that Microsoft is going to the heart of Google’s empire – search. Just because Google has a 90% market share does not mean that Microsoft cannot make a dent.
· Attack Microsoft where it can really hurt. Sundar Pichai is now facing perhaps the most important fight of his life and he seems to be playing a cautious game. He should take the fight to Microsoft’s heart and prevent them from using all their profits from the cloud, servers, and business software. Find a way to reduce Microsoft’s profits in these areas. Dell started to sell printer cartridges because they wanted to take the fight to HP.
MY TAKE: Will AI help improve the world’s standard of living like the PC and the Internet, or is this the start of Armageddon? Satya Nadella of Microsoft is said to be ecstatic that he beat Google to the launch of an AI product that has captured the imagination of the masses and helped Bing to narrow the gap with Google. But he has also unleashed the AI wars. Google’s co-founder and leading thinker, Larry Page, seems to think that anyone who is cautious about the potential of AI robots controlling humans is a “speciesist” because we should also be concerned about the rights of the robots (really?). And VCs are eagerly looking forward to the billions they will be making – while financing a potentially lethal weapon.
So, what can go wrong?
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