20VC: Bret Taylor: The AI Bubble and What Happens Now | How the Cost of Chips and Models Will Change in AI | Will Companies Build Their Own Software | Why Pre-Training is for Morons | Leaderships Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2024
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bret Taylor is CEO and Co-Founder of Sierra, a conversational AI platform for businesses. Previously, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Bret founded Quip and was CTO of Facebook. He started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps. Bret serves on the board of OpenAI.
In Today's Discussion with Bret Taylor:
1. The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Today:
- Does Bret believe we are in an AI bubble or not?
- Why does Bret believe it is BS that companies will all use AI to build their own software?
- What does no one realise about the cost of compute today in a world of AI?
2. Foundation Models: The Fastest Depreciating Asset in History?
- As a board member of OpenAI, does Bret agree that foundation models are the fastest depreciating asset in history?
- Will every application be subsumed by foundation models? What will be standalone?
- How does Bret think about the price dumping we are seeing in the foundation model landscape?
- Does Bret believe we will continue to see small foundation model companies (Character, Adept, Inflection) be acquired by larger incumbents?
3. The Biggest Opportunity in AI Today: The Death of the Phone + Website:
- What does Bret believe are the biggest opportunities in the application layer of AI today?
- Why does Bret put forward the case that we will continue to see the role of the phone reduce in consumer lives? How does AI make that happen?
- What does Bret mean when he says we are moving from a world of software rules to guardrails?
- What does AI mean for the future of websites? How does Bret expect consumers to interact with their favourite brands in 10 years?
4. Bret Taylor: Ask Me Anything: Zuck, Leadership, Fundraising:
- Bret has worked with Zuck, Tobi @ Shopify, Marc Benioff and more, what are his biggest lessons from each of them on great leadership?
- How did Bret come to choose Peter @ Benchmark to lead his first round? What advice does Bret have to other VCs on how to be a great VC?
- Bret is on the board of OpenAI, what have been his biggest lessons from OpenAI on what it takes to be a great board member?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think we are in a bubble. I am inherently skeptical of companies doing pre-training, |
| 0:06.6 | unless you are an AGI research lab doing pre-training on a model, I believe, is just burning capital. |
| 0:13.0 | Software is like a lawn. It needs to be tended to. It's not like you write software once, |
| 0:17.3 | and it just works forever. I think almost every company that has chosen to build their |
| 0:22.3 | own in a area of their business where there is a software as a solution service available has regretted it. |
| 0:28.1 | This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited to welcome one of the true OGs of Silicon |
| 0:33.2 | Valley to the show today. This is the most impressive CV in Silicon Valley. He co-created Google Maps. |
| 0:40.0 | He was the CTO of Facebook. He founded Quip and sold it to Salesforce for $800 million, where he was then |
| 0:47.1 | co-CEOOOOW with Mark Benioff of Salesforce. And now he's the CEO and co-founder of Sierra, |
| 0:53.6 | a conversational AI platform for businesses, |
| 0:56.0 | backed by Peter Fenton at Benchmark. |
| 0:58.0 | Enough said, the man is a hero, the best CV in Silicon Valley history right there. |
| 1:03.0 | But before we dive in, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite brands, Atio. |
| 1:08.0 | Attio is the next generation of CRM. Setting up Atio takes less than a minute, and in seconds of syncing your email and calendar, |
| 1:14.6 | you'll see all your relationships in one place, all enriched with valuable data. |
| 1:18.6 | Atio also lets you build Zapier-style automations, gives you powerful reports, and works perfectly |
| 1:23.6 | for any go-to-market motion from PLG to sales-led. |
| 1:26.6 | Atio is designed for the next era of companies like yours, |
| 1:30.8 | and companies like yours shouldn't have to deal with inflexible, one-size-fits-all CRMs. |
| 1:35.7 | Join industry leaders like 11 Labs, replicate, modal and more, |
| 1:39.6 | to scale your startup beyond the next level. |
| 1:41.8 | Head to atio.com slash 20V 20 VC and you'll get 15% off your |
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