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Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

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Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#151
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

i found good use for ai but no one cares about my world changing ambitions because they can't see unicorns anymore.

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#152

As for me, ChatGPT and Claude were able to diagnose and fix health issues that multiple doctors failed to fix. I trust LLMs more than random doctors and blogs. Cause they are able to search the web deeply, search for up to date info/research and synergize all that. You can have back and fourth for as long as you need. The issue is that using LLMs properly requires a certain skill that more people lack.

Interesting to see people creating throwaway accounts for comments :)

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#154

LLMs and their capabilities are very impressive and definitely useful. The productivity gains often seem to be smaller than intuitively expected though. For example, using ChatGPT to get a response to a random question like "How do I do XYZ" is much more convenient than googling it, but the time savings are often not that relevant for your overall productivity. Before LLMs you were usually already able to find the in…

> For example, using ChatGPT to get a response to a random question like "How do I do XYZ" is much more convenient than googling it, but the time savings are often not that relevant for your overall productivity. Before LLMs you were usually already able to find the information quickly and even a 10x speed up does not really have too much of an impact on your overall productivity, because the time it took was already…

Why not have the LLM generate the library?

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#155
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

You are exactly right!

However, i would say Satya Nadella is quite different from other American CEOs (whose mantra is "greed is good") in that he comes from an Indian middle class family whose focus was on education/good-work and also being forced to take care of a son who suffered from cerebral palsy. All of these shaped his worldviews to be more empathetic of the "common man" which is reflected in his style of leadership.

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#156
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

> We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibly useful things. I don't think you meant "ostensibly".

You're right, maybe the better word would have been "presumably."

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#157
post #130
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

> We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibly useful things. And there a ton more use-cases discussed in the comments here and elsewhere. But because of the headline the discussion is missing the much more important point! There has to be gold in the West! Look at all of the prospectors moving there to ge…

Cryptocurrency startups were just ways to bring "novel" trading strategies into the world of unregulated finance. The only "innovation" there was freedom from regulation and accountability, which turned out just as you'd expect. (Also there are still a surprising number of crypto companies plugging away out there.)

"Uber but for ..." apps were either just bad ideas, or ended up serving niche markets or reincarnating as features in Uber, DoorDash and the like. The only innovation there was new facets of the gig economy, which is still expanding BTW.

Now if you look at the AI gold rush, the differences are stark:

1. A lot of AI startups are already making a lot of money and growing at a record pace. Some of the numbers out there are bonkers.

2. The domains they are targeting are all over, including accounting, education, energy, games, healthcare, sales, pharma, drug discovery, agriculture, legal, customer support, semiconductor design, travel, retail... you name it.

3. The demand is so high, AI hyperscalers have TRIPLE-DIGIT BILLIONS EACH in backlog, i.e. commited revenue they could not realize because of severe capacity crunch.

4. Literally all the world's major governments, which typically take ages to catch up to technological change, are scrambling to get in on the AI wave.

All within only ~3 years.

I'd say there's some utility there.

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#158
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

You are exactly right! However, i would say Satya Nadella is quite different from other American CEOs (whose mantra is "greed is good") in that he comes from an Indian middle class family whose focus was on education/good-work and also being forced to take care of a son who suffered from cerebral palsy. All of these shaped his worldviews to be more empathetic of the "common man" which is reflected in his style of lea…

Agreed on all counts; despite his stilted style of talking, he does come across as much more human than the rest.

That said, he's competing in circles dominated by absolute sociopaths. I can't imagine how you could battle with monsters in the abyss and not get Nietzsche'd at least a little bit.

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#159
post #106

This will sound pedantic but I'll explain why it matters: the exact wording is "We need to do something useful with AI", because the current (editorialized) submission title (of an already slanted article) makes it sound like people don't know what to do with AI. We already know many useful things to do; there are already 10,000 startups (9789 out of YC alone, 4423 of which are coding-related) doing various ostensibl…

I'll explain it even better, trying to find something useful for the AI to do is the same is trying to find something useful for humans to do. Think that one through. You see, in a room that used to be just you and the boss now includes these whole other new entity called AI. Your boss is really interested in this new thing. That is all.

Yes, but I think that is the exact attitude Satya's advising against: Where many leaders are looking inward to see how they can optimize their own businesses, they should be looking outward to see how they can improve the world.

Re: Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI"

#160
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll explain it even better, trying to find something useful for the AI to do is the same is trying to find something useful for humans to do. Think that one through. You see, in a room that used to be just you and the boss now includes these whole other new entity called AI. Your boss is really interested in this new thing. That is all.

Yes, but I think that is the exact attitude Satya's advising against: Where many leaders are looking inward to see how they can optimize their own businesses, they should be looking outward to see how they can improve the world.

LOL! Does anyone think CEO's of major corporations are trying to improve the world? Honestly that's funny. Sorry if you really are this earnest. I wish you the best and hope you can maintain your outlook despite how disconnected from reality.
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