I think I’m going to chronicle the next six months of AI stories on a weekly basis, because some of my fears about repeating the mistakes we made with the blockchain are full speed ahead.
Here’s three headlines that have some older cousins of their own that turned out to be….not so great.
- Mark Zuckerberg thinks AI will be your friend. The subtext there is that he believes it has the capacity to provide as much utility and emotional connection as a person. Does this story – without any grounding in how humans want to interact with each other in a post-pandemic world sound familiar? Yes, that’s the same Mark Zuckerberg.
- Apple is either over-complicating development or fully manufacturing out of thin air the use of AI in a new tool designed to increase battery life. Does it sound like the recently viral story about the Siri team taking a little more brand story than product development for Siri? Yes, that’s the same Apple.
- Microsoft announced another round of layoffs after its overconfidence in beating Google to dropping AI in a search product. Does it sound like another case of executives over-investing in talent after another squishy market signal? Yes, that’s the same Microsoft.
I have a ton of respect for Apple and Microsoft as product companies (including Bing which is criminally undermarketed), so this isn’t picking on them specifically. However, raising concern about how they’re positioning AI (and the business decisions around those products) isn’t back row criticism or hindsight anymore.
No one needs to be a visionary to see stories like those coming.
This next era in tech could be amazing. Let’s abandon the hype cycles and focus on actual problems it solves, use cases, and then the utility it provides.
Or we’re doomed to pretend once more that things like this are a real business.
Leave a Reply