Satya Nadella says AI is yet to find a killer app that matches the combined impact of email and Excel
- Reference: 1740558247
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/02/26/microsofts_nadella_wants_to_see/
- Source link:
"Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that's just nonsensical benchmark hacking," the chief executive said during an [1]appearance on podcaster Dwarkesh Patel's YouTube show this month.
Nadella thinks a better benchmark for AI's success should be its ability to boost a country's gross domestic product. "When we say: 'Oh, this is like the industrial revolution,' let's have that industrial revolution type of growth. That means to me, 10 percent, seven percent for the developed world. Inflation adjusted, growing at five percent, that's the real marker."
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Few nations achieved that pace of growth in 2024.
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Nadella suggested that growth hasn’t eventuated because it's going to take time before folks understand how to use AI effectively, assuming they find a use for it – just as it took some years for the personal computer to find its feet.
"Just imagine how a multinational corporation like us did forecasts pre-PC, and email, and spreadsheets. Faxes went around, somebody then got those faxes and then did an inter-office memo that then went around, and people entered numbers, and then ultimately a forecast came out maybe just in time for the next quarter," Nadella explained.
Who said my life's goal is to triage my email?
"Then somebody said: 'Hey, I'm just going to take an Excel spreadsheet, put it in an email, send it around, people will go edit it, and I'll have a forecast.' The entire forecasting business process changed because the work artifact and the workflow changed. That is what needs to happen with AI being introduced into knowledge work," the CEO said.
[5]IBM plans to buy open source Cassandra wrangler DataStax
[6]Hurrah! AI won't destroy developer or DBA jobs
[7]Despite Wall Street jitters, AI hopefuls keep spending billions on AI infrastructure
[8]US Dept of Housing screens sabotaged to show deepfake of Trump sucking Elon's toes
Investors who have watched Microsoft spend billions on AI infrastructure, and announce plans to spend tens of billions more, may find Nadella’s view that artificial intelligence is yet to find a niche concerning.
Even after AI finds its place at work, Nadella doesn't think it will outright replace knowledge workers.
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"Don't conflate knowledge worker with knowledge work," he said. "The knowledge work of today could probably be automated, [but] who said my life's goal is to triage my email?"
Instead, he argues AI agents will allow workers to focus on higher-value tasks. Whether this is actually how it'll play out, or whether enterprises will take this as an opportunity to reduce costs by cutting staff remains to be seen.
Do you have any reservations or fears about the way your organization is using AI? Tell us in confidence [10]here , or via Signal securely: tobiasmann.01
Even if AGI or so called "AI superintelligence" – theoretical machines with cognitive capabilities that exceed human brainpower – turn out to be more than hype, Nadella still doesn't expect them to replace humans anytime soon due to legal issues.
"Today, you cannot deploy these intelligences unless and until there's someone indemnifying it as a human," he said. ®
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GLSzuYXh6w
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z770W4V9VxBt4bCF0GoOrAAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/25/ibm_datastax/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/25/bls_ai_job_impacts_predictions/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/25/shaking_off_wall_street_jitters/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/24/hud_trump_toe_sucking/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z770W4V9VxBt4bCF0GoOrAAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/Author/Tobias-Mann
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Sad
Just like religion... the leaders always make such enormous claims how god helps everyone...
If you have to advertise and preach about it, you can be sure the opposite is true.
Nobody goes around advertising or hyping up how blue the sky is...or how wet water is.
Re: Sad
Don't hold your breath. The best-case scenario for the current "AI" is that it increases productivity. Increments in productivity never result in more free time for workers. That's not because of evil overlords; it's just the way economy works. See the real industrial revolution, which brought productvity increases that dwarf any that could ever come from AI, but at the same time the ordinary folk got worked nearly to death.
There are systems that, historically, actually work to give workers more free time and other benefits. They were used successfully to eventually bring some sanity to the industrial revolution, for example. Functional unions. An informed electorate. A state that's stronger than companies. Things like that. Not coincidentally, these structures have been being systematically discredited, corrupted and dismantled for a while now. The final nails are getting driven into the coffins as we speak.
AI is yet to find a killer app that matches the combined impact of email and Excel
Email has given us [1]Reply to all , To or CC instead of BCC and simply sending an email to the wrong person. A top ten list of [2]excel disasters misses out that 20% of genetics papers have errors introduced by [3]Excel autocorrupt .
I am sure AI is yet to find a killer but is is doing well at [4]false accusations . Given a bit more time AI should be able to generate spectacular news headlines, just like email and Excel.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_storm
[2] https://sheetcast.com/articles/ten-memorable-excel-disasters
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/18db20d8-7726-43e2-87f1-c5861ad3dff5
[4] https://innocenceproject.org/when-artificial-intelligence-gets-it-wrong/
AI and 3D TV
Killer app...
I'm looking for that too... An app that effectively kills all of this so-called "A.I." bullcrap once and for all !
Clippy
"You appear to be writing an article that seeks to justify your continuing revenue stream from your tired old legacy applications. Perhaps I can make some suggestions?"
I got an idea
You scrap what ya got at windows 11. Stop the shenanigans, and release a bright shiny new os 12 from all the lessons and terrible mistakes you've made in the past.
Of course, the billionaire class might have to forgo their billion dollar paycheck or 100 million dollar bonus for a couple of years. Some hardship would have to be endured by the 1% I'm afraid.
A reset may be in order tho.
What a shocker, who would have guessed our microsoft friend would say that.
Sad
Isnt it sad that the only use these people can think of for AI is to make yet more money. No mention of using it to reduce the work for ordinary folk... not so much those lovely 1950's images of our 'robot helpers', far more the terminator style robot overlords, but funneling the money to the select few. bah.