Microsoft's Suleyman: "Conversational AI is the next web browser"
I was in the middle of a strategy workshop with a financial services firm when I saw this one pop up in my feeds. I wanted to make sure that I documented this one. It's already in my client awareness presentations!
The Verge sat down with Microsoft's AI Head Honcho, Mustafa Suleyman, to discuss many things, not least his joining the company, Microsoft's OpenAI relationship and the opportunity to say a few more things.
One of those things was his pronouncement on Conversational AI being the next web browser.
I think he's absolutely right.
Indeed, it's rather helpful that individuals with Mustafa's platform are discussing these topics – it gets the word out!
This is the operative section from the fantastic interview by The Verge's Nilay Patel:
I think that if we can get this right, if we can really reduce hallucinations to de minimis amount… I think we’ve already demonstrated that they don’t have to be toxic, biased, offensive, and all the rest of it. It’s pretty good. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting much much better, and I think it’s only going to get better with more stylistic control. Then these conversational interactions are going to become the future of the web. It’s quite simple. This is the next browser; this is the next search engine.
And he continues:
It is going to be 100 times easier for me to just turn, by voice, to my Copilot and say, “Hey, Copilot, what’s the answer to this?” I already do it five times a day. It is my go-to. It’s my bottom right-hand app on my iPhone. My thumb instantly goes to it. I use the power button to open it. My favorite app, like I did with Pi. I mean, it is clearly the future, that conversation interaction. So, to me, the utility is phenomenal, and I think that is going to weigh into the cases as they make their way through the court.
Fully with him.
I've long been a user of Pi – and I hope we'll see even more positive iterations of Copilot to Pi level of capabilities and beyond, very soon.
Do listen to the full interview or listen to the podcast.
It's both instructive in terms of Mustafa's vision – given he's supervising Microsoft's ongoing agenda with Copilot, and really helpful in terms of discussing these kinds of topics with the senior executives of your clients.
Nice work Nilay and The Verge!
