ChatGPT: Platform or Destination? Please, *please* not a destination!
(original post at Searchblog)
Do generative AI innovations like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s LaMDA represent a new and foundational technology platform like Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS or the Internet? Or are they just fun and/or useful new products that millions will eventually use, like Google Docs or Instagram? I think the answer can and should be “both” — but to get there, the Valley is going to have to forego the walled garden destination model it’s employed these past 15 or so years.
The question of OpenAI’s ultimate business model has dominated nearly every conversation I’ve had this week, whether it’s with reporters from the Economist and the Journal, senior executives at large-scale public companies, or CEOs of ad-tech and data startups. Everyone wants to know: What’s the impact of generative AI on the technology industry? Will OpenAI be the next Google or Apple? Who wins, and who will lose?
It’s been a minute since Silicon Valley has captured the world’s attention at this level — I can think of just two examples over the past decade. The first crested in 2018, and the narrative was an ugly one: the Cambridge Analytica story catalyzed a five-year decline in Silicon Valley’s popularity. The other has to be the rise of TikTok, and that story been similarly snake-bit…
