The ROI on GenAI might not be so great, after all
Anyone remember this piece?
What if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud?
With the possible exception of the quick to rise and quick to fall alleged room-temperature superconductor LK-99, few things I have ever seen have been more hyped than generative AI. Valuations for many companies are in the billions, coverage in the news is literally constant; it’s all anyo…
We are starting to see some signs in that direction. The WSJ recently reported that Microsoft Copilot was perhaps underwhelming some customers.
Today Stephanie Palazzolo The Information asked:
A longer story there (that she pointed to in the above)) was full of quotes from people trying to ratchet back expectations:
All of which raises a question: why $7T, if the ROI isn’t yet clear? I gave one answer, Dave Troy another; both might have an element of truth.
Gary Marcus apologizes to all for the typos in the last essay (and perhaps this); he has been traveling with only a very few minute to write.
The average AI CEO has the greatest motivation to keep the hype train going for as long as possible. “So powerful it could destroy the world” is a bit more of a head turner than “pretty useful for summarising meeting notes”.
Not only is ROI overstated, but liability is understated. How many companies using Open Ai without even knowing their risk? They're paying for a third party service using OpenAi on the backend and could be a potentially liable for all kinds of stuff. Copywrite issues, potentially publishing false or defamatory information. Guarantee CEO dude does not ask questions about API keys and training data.