Satya Nadella says AI is yet to have its Excel moment

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Microsoft CEO says we need a rethink on how AI should be measured

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella AI Tour London
(Image credit: Microsoft)
  • Microsoft CEO says AI is yet to have its Excel moment
  • The real benefits should be measured in its GDP contribution
  • AI will allow knowledge workers to focus on knowledge work

Satya Nadella has said that AI should be measured on its benefit to GDP, rather than “self-claiming some AGI milestone,” the Microsoft CEO said on Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast earlier this month.

“That's just nonsensical benchmark hacking,” he continued, stating AI was yet to find the application that would make the years of hype a reality.

“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,” Nadella said.

Boosting GDP, enhancing “knowledge work”

Nadella used Microsoft Excel as a comparison for how AI is yet to find its proper place in the modern workplace, with physical documents and faxes delivering being an arduous task that would present a forecast “maybe just in time for the next quarter.”

“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,” Nadella said.

But the Microsoft CEO doesn’t think AI will replace knowledge work, but rather free up more time for knowledge workers to focus on higher-value tasks, asking “who said my life's goal is to triage my email?”

Many workers already live in fear of being replaced as companies see AI as a tool to reduce costs and increase profits. Luckily for us, the main obstacles to prevent AGI - or AI models with cognitive capabilities that exceed the human brain - from replacing human workers are legal issues.

“Today, you cannot deploy these intelligences unless and until there's someone indemnifying it as a human,” Nadella said.

Via TheRegister

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict has been writing about security issues for over 7 years, first focusing on geopolitics and international relations while at the University of Buckingham. During this time he studied BA Politics with Journalism, for which he received a second-class honours (upper division), then continuing his studies at a postgraduate level, achieving a distinction in MA Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy. Upon joining TechRadar Pro as a Staff Writer, Benedict transitioned his focus towards cybersecurity, exploring state-sponsored threat actors, malware, social engineering, and national security. Benedict is also an expert on B2B security products, including firewalls, antivirus, endpoint security, and password management.

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