AI is the Next Big Platform
AI is breaking out. A flurry of AI-based products are experiencing tremendous growth: ChatGPT, Stability Diffusion, Leisa AI, Jasper, to name a few. They are all leveraging AI breakthroughs that are accessible for startups & developers.
Are we witnessing the emergence of an important new platform technology that will have a massive impact on tech & society over the next decade?
I think so.
AI’s flurry of compelling products creates a stark contrast with crypto. The value of a new platform should jump up and slap you in the face - that’s happening right now with AI. If advocates have to work hard to sell their new platform, as crypto advocates have been doing for many years, I’d argue that it’s not actually an important platform technology. For AI, no advocacy is required. Play around with ChatGPT or a generate art tool and the magic is obvious.
The last time we saw a major new platform emerge was mobile, circa 2009. Actually, mobile had been around for many years before the platform hit liftoff - the true breakthrough was the ecosystem started by Apple’s App Store.
AI is similar. Flavors of the tech have been around for years - but now we are seeing a moment of extraordinary liftoff. OpenAI & the global open source community are playing the enabling role that Apple’s app ecosystem performed with mobile.
One major difference with mobile is that this new AI ecosystem will be better for b2b startups. It’s easy to overlook that the great startups from mobile - Uber, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, Tinder - are all consumer. Mobile-native b2b software giants don’t exist. I would argue that Apple’s 30% App Store tax had a stifling effect on mobile-native b2b software startups, pushing b2b innovation to the desktop web browser. With no greedy gatekeeper like Apple, the AI boom to be much friendlier to b2b startups.
One last note - while many feel an urgency to take advantage of the momentum of AI, keep in mind that mobile took many years to play out. ByteDance, creator of Tik-Tok and arguably the most valuable mobile-native startup, wasn’t created until 2012. Tik-Tok itself wasn’t launched until 2016.
There will likely be a window of at least a few years, probably even longer, for breakout AI startups to start & develop. It promises to be a very, very exciting period in tech.
The AI vs crypto as a platform point really resonated with me. I used midjourney recently for the first time and was able to produce an image that I could use in a blog post. I replaced a stock photo I paid $30 for with a free midjourney rendering. Versus being a believer in crypto for years but I still haven’t actually used it for any actual utility for it in my own life.