IA: “You will no longer go to Amazon”, predicts Bill Gates

With the artificial intelligence of tomorrow, “you will never go to Amazon again”, “you will never go to a search site again”. If it comes true, Bill Gates’ prediction could well and truly turn the entire tech industry upside down. Even bury the powerful GAFA…

For the Microsoft co-founder, who was speaking at the AI ​​Forward 2023 conference in San Francisco earlier this week, the tech race to win is now the development of an AI-enabled personal istant capable of performing certain tasks instead of everyone else. Whoever wins, it will be a major challenge capable of upsetting the ecosystem of search engines, e-commerce sites, etc.

This istant with artificial intelligence (AI), which has not yet seen the light of day, will be able to understand the needs and habits of a person and will help them to “read the things that you do not have the time to read,” the billionaire said at an event hosted by Goldman Sachs and the SV Angel fund on the subject of artificial intelligence, reports CNBC .

According to him, however, it will take some time before this powerful digital agent of the future is ready for use by the general public. Until then, companies will continue to integrate so-called generative AI technologies into their own products, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Super-personal istant giving access to the different sites

“AI is a revolution in the way we access different sites. The whole question is whether each site will create its own ChatGPT-type tool – or integrate ChatGPT directly – or if we will go through a super universal personal istant, which will give access to everything else, “decrypts Nicolas Gaudemet, Media partner and AI at OnePoint.

On the other hand, the specialist cites the example from Expedia : thanks to a plug-in in ChatGPT, users can create and organize in the OpenAI tool their travel itinerary (routes, accommodations, visits etc.). “In fact, we remain in the ChatGPT ecosystem,” he explains. One of the possible future scenarios will be that ChatGPT – or another actor that will emerge – operates as a kind of Apple’s App Store then allowing access to apps”. In other words, to buy a dress or tableware, the user will no longer go through Amazon, but through simple requests on ChatGPT to help him choose his garment, which will then send him back to Amazon to order.

Consequence: “a loss of direct access for the sites behind it, and potentially a commission to be paid to the AI ​​tool, as apps do for Apple”, foresees Nicolas Gaudemet.

At the same time, sites and technological tools seek to keep their users by adding a dose of AI. Many sites like Zalando (online commerce) have implemented new features in this regard. Similarly, Microsoft has announced that it will integrate ChatGPT into its clic office tools like Word, Excel, etc. A virtual istant will be able to respond to e-mails, generate a PowerPoint presentation, summarize a meeting, etc. “For software or sites with an important customer service and many features, one can imagine that users remain in the latter’s environment… but for the others? “, continues the OnePoint specialist.

Inflect AI

As to who will take the lead in the AI ​​race tomorrow, the game is open. Bill Gates thus indicated that he would be disappointed if Microsoft did not enter the game. For him, there is a 50% chance that the first actor to emerge will be a start-up, reports Reuters.

This AI advocate, who believes that new tools are also as “revolutionary” as the mobile phone or the Internet, said that the company Inflection AI had impressed him. This young American company, which created “Pi”, was launched by former DeepMind (owned by Google) and one of the founders of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman.