Microsoft has been a leader in artificial intelligence (ai) by starting from something theoretical and turning it into something very real. The company laid out its plans in a 2019 blog post that more or less predicted the future.
“Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence was largely relegated to universities and research labs, a charming computing concept with little use in mainstream business. Today, ai is being integrated into everything from your refrigerator to your favorite workout app,” the company said. shared.
This is kind of a naïve way of framing ai that doesn’t include the many ways the technology can go wrong. To be fair, Microsoft (MSFT) – Get a free report has put creating responsible ai-based products as its core mission, which the company also explained in the 2019 blog post.
“Our ai tools and technologies are designed to benefit everyone at every level of every organization. They are used in workplaces, home offices, academic institutions, research laboratories and manufacturing facilities around the world, helping everyone , from scientists and marketers to farmers, software developers and security professionals,” the company wrote.
Microsoft leaders clearly understood where ai could fail and the dangers that come with it. They probably foresaw how the technology could be used for everything from cheating on a college paper to replacing actors with virtual actors (and many more nefarious potential uses for deepfakes).
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Satya Nadella has problems with Google
Satya Nadella has transformed Microsoft since taking over from former CEO Steve Ballmer. Instead of closing the company to rivals, Nadella has been open to working with companies that are also competitors like Apple.
The CEO, however, remains at odds with Alphabet (GOOGLE) – Get a free report and testified in a recent antitrust lawsuit against operator Google. Geekwire shared a ai-channels-the-ghost-of-lesser-seattle/”>partial transcription from that testimony where Nadella made it clear that he believes Alphabet uses its enormous influence to stifle competition. (That’s a charge Alphabet obviously disputes.)
“This whole notion that users have choices and go from website to website or search to search… is (completely) false. There are defaults… You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, and search on Google. And so, with that level of habit formation, the only way to change is to change the defaults,” he said.
Nadella also believes that Alphabet sells a false narrative that OEM partners have a choice when in reality they do not.
“Google has huge carrots and sticks… ‘We’ll kill Google Play if you don’t have us as your primary browser.’ “And without Google Play, an Android phone is a brick. And that’s the kind of thing that’s impossible to overcome. No OEM is going to do that,” he stated.
Satya Nadella shares his fears about ai
Nadell also shared a surprising fear about artificial intelligence that may not be what you expected.
“I am very concerned, even despite my enthusiasm, that there is a new angle with ai. I am very concerned that, in fact, this vicious cycle that I am trapped in could become even more vicious because the defaults are reinforced. Editor content may be blocked. And so, if there are exclusive content deals going on as we speak… all that content today, unless it’s trackable by everyone and usable through large model training, could become exclusive,” he shared.
Basically, the CEO is concerned that the content (really, knowledge) that is now available to everyone will become proprietary. It may not be angry robots enslaving humanity, but it is a subtler danger that is harder to protect against.
