In an ideal world, what kind of chatbot would you like to build? You’ve just launched a bunch of updates to Copilot. How do you get the balance right when you’re building a chatbot that has to compete in a market where people value human-like interaction, but you also want to avoid seemingly conscious AI?
This is a good question. With group chat, this will be the first time a large group of people will be able to talk to an AI at the same time. It’s really a way of emphasizing that AIS shouldn’t cut you off from the real world. They should help you connect, bring your family, your friends, community groups, etc.
This is going to be a very important differentiator in the next few years. My vision of AI has always been one where you have AI in your corner on your team.
It’s a very simple, clear statement, but it’s not about transcending humanity and replacing them – it’s about serving us. It should be a test of technology at every step. Does it actually, you know, represent the quest for civilization, which is to make us smarter and happier and more productive and healthier and things like that?
So we’re just trying to build features that remind us to ask that question, and remind our users to push us on that issue.
Last time we spokeyou told me that you are not interested in building a chatbot that will play the role of personas. This is not true of the wider industry. Elon Musk’s Grok is selling such a flirtatious experience. Openei has said it is interested in exploring new adult interactions with ChatGPT. There is a market for it. And yet it’s something you’ll stay clear of?
Yes, we will never make sex robots. It’s kind of sad that we have to be so clear about it, but that’s not our mission as a company. The joy of being at Microsoft is that for 50 years, the company has built software to empower people, to put people first.
Sometimes, as a result, this means the company moves slower than other startups and is more deliberate and more cautious. But I think that’s a feature, not a bug, in this age, when it’s really important to pay attention to potential side effects and long-term consequences.