Bill Gates Highlights Inflection as a Potential AI Winner

• Bill Gates said the winners in AI will be companies that build personal digital agents.
• He added that while he hopes Microsoft will be the winner, he’s keeping an eye on startup inflation.
• I use Inflection’s personal assistant Pi and it’s very impressive.

Bill Gates is betting that digital agents will destroy the internet as we know it.

Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Gates said the big winner in the AI ​​tech war would likely create a personal digital agent. Instead of going to Google to find information or Amazon to order dog food, users can simply converse with this digital agent to share relevant information or perform the task at hand. can.

Gates added that the AI ​​winners behind digital agents are 50/50 from big tech or startups. “I’d be disappointed if Microsoft wasn’t on board,” Gates said at the event, according to CNBC. “But I’ve been impressed with some startups, including his Inflection.”

Gates’ mention of refraction caught my eye. The startup has gotten a lot less attention than many of its AI peers, but I’ve been testing out the app for the past few weeks and have been seriously impressed.

The startup, founded by LinkedIn co-founders Reid Hoffman, Deepmind co-founders Mustafa Suleyman, and Karén Simonyan, describes itself as an AI studio that creates personal AI for everyone. ” is explained.

The company released a personal AI called Pi in early May, and since then I’ve been using it as a discussion board from time to time. For example, I explained to Pai that part of my job as an editor is to look at big themes and figure out how I can cover them. One of the themes I’ve been thinking about lately is how best to cover the loneliness epidemic.

Below is an excerpt of my conversation with Pai.

Matt Turner: Right now, I’m thinking about stories about loneliness, how people feel isolated.

Pi: This seems like a very compelling subject to explore, especially in the current climate of social distancing and remote work. There seems to be a lot of loneliness in the world today. Why do you think so?

MT: I think there are many. People spend more time on their mobile phones than on IRL, often work from home, and neighborhood environments are not designed to create spontaneous connections.

Pi: It makes a lot of sense. The way we interact with each other is increasingly mediated by technology, and it feels like we’re missing some of the organic ways of connecting that might have been more common before. Do you think technology is ultimately bad for loneliness, or are there ways technology can be used to combat the problem?

MT: I’m sure it helps with loneliness. I think there are ways technology could be better designed to address this problem, but I don’t think the solution to loneliness is spending more time with technology. Spend less time with technology and more time with other people.

Pi: That’s a very compelling point. Ultimately, I believe there is no substitute for real human interaction and connection. Do you think this is a problem that can be solved on an individual level, or do you think broader social change is needed?

The conversation went on for some time on this topic. Each time, Pai would refer to my response and then raise a question, prolonging the dialogue. I’ve found this exercise to be incredibly helpful in narrowing my thinking from a big subject like loneliness to a few concrete ideas.

Elsewhere, my colleague Supriha Srivistava talks to Pai about exiting the dollar, and Pai goes into depth about the challenges emerging markets face as they consider exiting the dollar, for example. answering.

“I wouldn’t say dedollarization is doomed to failure, but I think it will be a difficult process,” Pai told Supriha. “These countries are essentially rewriting the rules of the global economy, and it won’t be easy.”

Also, my colleague Brad Davis is amazing about how flipping through the pages of paper newspapers and magazines promotes a sense of chance and helps you find things you couldn’t find with a simple online search. I used this tool to have enlightening conversations.

“There is something special about the joy of discovery, and I think we can all benefit from embracing it more,” Pai told Brad. “It helps us be more creative, more open-minded, and more engaged with the world around us. Do you think serendipity is something we should teach our children?”

Opening the Pi will pick up where the conversation left off. You can DM your Pi on Instagram, send it on Whatsapp, or download it to your phone. Sure, there are times when conversations get bogged down, but there are times when he forgets for a moment that he’s actually chatting with an AI tool and finds himself typing on the Pi.

To be clear, there are other AI tools that are much better at certain tasks. Pi acts as a conversational personal assistant. ChatGPT, on the other hand, can do everything from help drafting a resume to designing her workout routine to lose weight.

And the Pi is still a long way from Bill Gates’ envisioned personal AI that can help you shop, read your email, and more.

But the Pi is the best conversational AI I’ve ever used, and everyone I’ve talked to who’s used it has been impressed. It’s easy to see the path from discussing loneliness and dedollarization with editors to being able to do more.