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Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future

(steveblank.com)
128 points ArmageddonIt | 5 comments | 08 Jul 25 13:41 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jampa ◴[08 Jul 25 15:43 UTC] No.44501089[source]▶
I like Steve's content, but the ending misses the mark.

With the carriage / car situation, individual transportation is their core business, and most companies are not in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

I say this as someone who has worked for 7 years implementing AI research for production, from automated hardware testing to accessibility for nonverbals: I don't think founders need to obsess even more than they do now about implementing AI, especially in the front end.

This AI hype cycle is missing the mark by building ChatGPT-like bots and buttons with sparkles that perform single OpenAI API calls. AI applications are not a new thing, they have always been here, now they are just more accessible.

The best AI applications are beneath the surface to empower users, Jeff Bezos says that (in 2016!)[1]. You don't see AI as a chatbot in Amazon, you see it for "demand forecasting, product search ranking, product and deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations."

[1]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2016-letter-to...

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1. jayd16 ◴[08 Jul 25 15:56 UTC] No.44501192[source]▶
It may be true but Bezos' comment is also classic smoke blowing. "Oh well you can't see us using <newest hype machine> or quantify it's success but it's certainly in everything we do!"
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2. anon7000 ◴[08 Jul 25 15:59 UTC] No.44501228[source]▶
But it’s completely true — Amazon undoubtedly has a pretty advanced logistics set up and certainly uses AI all over the place. Even if they’re not a big AI researcher.

There are a lot of great use cases for ML outside of chatbots

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3. janalsncm ◴[08 Jul 25 23:35 UTC] No.44504983[source]▶
> There are a lot of great use cases for ML outside of chatbots

To be slightly provocative, most of the ML applications that are profitable are not chatbots.

To stay on Amazon, their product recommendations, ads ranking, and search likely make Amazon way more than their little AI summaries or Rufus chatbot.

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4. hattmall ◴[09 Jul 25 03:55 UTC] No.44506203{3}[source]▶
But also, like, how much of that is really "AI" in the general sense as it applies to things like ChatGPT today? Do you really need a massive resource intensive system for products recommendations and things related to Amazon's marketing.
5. airstrike ◴[09 Jul 25 10:44 UTC] No.44508360[source]▶
It's not "generative AI" which is what most people mean when they say "AI" today, outside of "old school" AI/ML folks.

So at best technically correct on his part but still semantically incorrect