Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned about the risk of an AI bubble while hedging some of the industry's promises for the tech.
  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    132·
    2 months ago

    There’s clearly an AI bubble. Let’s just pop this shit and get it over with. The sooner the market corrects, the sooner it can start recovering.

        • Ummdustry@sh.itjust.works
          32·
          2 months ago

          These things come in cycles.

          six months after the bubble “pops” someone will come up with an AI that can grind minecraft for you or whatever, and that’ll spark a whole new wave of interest in “robust independant agents” until companies realise that’s also not worth 500 trillion

          • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            Here’s hoping that because they have crammed this version of ai into everything it could possibly go into, and even a bunch of things it can’t, the hype wagon for the next one is a honey wagon and everyone rightly stays away from it…

  • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
    60·
    2 months ago

    He’s CEO of a company that went all-in on forcing AI into everything, including all of MS internal procedures.
    They made it mandatory to use Copilot for internal performance reviews and writing progress reports. All coding must start with a prompt and devs are called into meetings with HR if they don’t use Copilot enough.

    He’s also in the position to see how little users interact with Copilot, how code quality took a nosedive, how productivity hasn’t increased after investing billions, and Linux desktop market share is showing exponential growth now.

    He’s right to be nervous.

  • shameless@lemmy.world
    58·
    2 months ago

    It only takes one of these large companies to walk away for everyone else to panic and the bubble will burst. I really hope MS takes a step away from it and actually tries to innovate something.

    • LordMayor@piefed.socialEnglish
      39·
      2 months ago

      Apple has been dragging their heels on AI from the start. They got sued by shareholders for not having enough AI in their products fast enough. Makes me wonder if they smelled the shit from the start and have been half-assing it on purpose.

      Microsoft has been the opposite. If both of them shrug and say “I guess we’ll just have slightly better digital assistants”, the market might wake up and go “oh, shit.”

      I think OpenAI and Anthropic could get bailed bought by MS/Apple/Google in a fire sale. Grok will just suck it or get propped up by Trump.

      • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
        15·
        2 months ago

        Having just paid Google a billion for them to back Siri, it seems like Apple’s play is to have the tick box feature but not develop it themselves.

      • wavebeam@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        This is a pretty uninformed take, and maybe entirely influenced by the intentional marketing/PR image they crafted, but I get the impression that Anthropocene was more of a “building a practical tool with this technology, and iterating on that practicality” and less “this will be digital god” sort of company. Maybe ther value wouldn’t crater as much since they’ve been selling as a reasonably practical corporate tool than a magical profit box?

  • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
    41·
    2 months ago

    He is effectively saying specialised ai has a possible future and llm are a huge waste of time and money. But he doesn’t know that he is saying that.

  • ObscureOtter@piefed.caEnglish
    34·
    2 months ago

    For anyone curious and lazy:

    Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Nadella pontificated about what would constitute such a speculative bubble, and said that the long-term success of AI tech hinges on it being used across a broad range of industries — as well as seeing an uptick in adoption in the developing world where it’s not as popular, the Financial Times reports. If AI fails, in other words, it’s everyone else’s fault for not using it.

    Nadella explained the pitfalls the AI industry would need to avoid, perhaps betraying his own anxieties about its future.

    “For this not to be a bubble by definition, it requires that the benefits of this are much more evenly spread,” Nadella said, as quoted by the FT. The “tell-tale sign of if it’s a bubble,” he added, would be if only tech companies were benefitting from the rise of AI. He gave the example of a pharmaceutical company using AI to accelerate drug trials; it doesn’t need to be used to discover the “magical molecule,” but provide some other tangible, less extraordinary benefit to developing the product.

    Nadella is adamant that these kinds of boosts that AI provides will justify AI and carry the industry, stressing less spectacular and more practical applications of the tech.

    “I’m much more confident that this is a technology that will, in fact, build on the rails of cloud and mobile, diffuse faster, and bend the productivity curve, and bring local surplus and economic growth all around the world,” he proclaimed.

    • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      I’m much more confident that this is a technology that will, in fact, build on the rails of cloud and mobile, diffuse faster, and bend the productivity curve, and bring local surplus and economic growth all around the world,” he proclaimed.

      Jesus christ i want to stuff him in a locker and roll it down a hill

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    29·
    2 months ago

    Once those companies will be held responsible for everything AI (copyright issues with training, resource waste and people getting harmed and killed from their output), they’ll have every reason to be nervous.

  • Bakkoda@lemmy.world
    26·
    2 months ago

    Omg our path forward on how to avoid the consequences of our actions isn’t aligned with our fundamental business needs of doing whatever we like with no consequences. If only my MBA training and Six Sigma/Lean Leader certs had prepared me for this. I better go post on LinkedIn about how GenZ did this.

    • someone somewhere at MS
  • ignirtoq@feddit.onlineEnglish
    26·
    2 months ago

    Nadella is adamant that these kinds of boosts that AI provides will justify AI and carry the industry, stressing less spectacular and more practical applications of the tech.

    This is a huge about-face on the earlier proclamation. I really wonder what changed his mind from “AI will radically transform every industry” to “it doesn’t need to be used to discover the ‘magical molecule,’ but provide some other tangible, less extraordinary benefit to developing the product.”

    Sure, everyone here has seen the writing on the wall for years, but until now his paycheck has depended on him not seeing it. I wonder if he’s getting internal pressure from some on the board of directors.