INFLECTION.AI CEO EXPLAINS HOW TO CATCH A RIDE ON THE 'COMING WAVE' OF TECH

If you have watched a telecast involving basketball superstar LeBron James during the past 20 years, you probably have heard an announcer declare: “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.” That sentiment sums up how Inflection. ai CEO Mustafa Suleyman feels about artificial intelligence — a technology that he helped advance as a co-founder of DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014.

After leaving Google last year, Suleyman started Inflection with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in an effort to create artificial intelligence, or AI, that won’t veer into racist, sexist or violent behavior. Inflection’s first proof point is an AI-powered assistant named “Pi” that’s touted as a safer alternative to better known chatbots such as Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

Now Suleyman has co-written a book, “The Coming Wave,” focused on AI’s promise and need to limit its potential perils. He expanded upon his ideas in a recent interview:

Q: HOW SHOULD WE BE THINKING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT THIS JUNCTURE?

A: I honestly believe we are approaching an era of radical abundance. We are about to distill the essence of what makes us capable — our intelligence — into a piece of software, which can get cheaper, easier to use, more widely available to everybody. As a result, everyone on the planet is going to get broadly equal access to intelligence, which is going to make us all smarter and more productive.

Q: ISN’T THERE ALSO A RISK THAT PART OF THE HUMAN BRAIN STARTS TO ATROPHY AND WE COLLECTIVELY BECOME DUMBER?