The real business in AI

PEDDLER OF HOPE

- GEORGE ROYECA

The future of entrepreneurship in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised for a leapfrog moment – akin to the invention of the plow, the rise of electricity, the advent of mass-produced cars, mobile phones and the internet. These groundbreaking shifts didn't just revolutionize technology; they reshaped society and opened up untold opportunities for those ready to innovate. Today, we are at the cusp of another transformative era, with AI and, more specifically, large language models (LLMs), taking center stage.

To understand the significance of LLMs, let's simplify. Imagine a vast library where every book, article and piece of knowledge is instantly accessible, and you could ask a librarian any question in your own words and they'd find the perfect answer or write you something entirely new. That's what LLMs like ChatGPT do – they're trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human-like responses. But while these models are incredibly powerful, their raw potential is not where the magic happens. Just like the internet, they need a bridge to connect with people's everyday needs.

The real business opportunity lies not in creating new LLMs, but in building the tools, platforms and systems that make these models useful for specific industries. Think of the internet in the 1990s: it was a revolutionary infrastructure, but its transformative value came from the applications that made it accessible and practical. Amazon didn't invent the internet, but it leveraged it to create a new way of shopping. Similarly, entrepreneurs today can carve out niches by customizing LLMs to serve industries like customer support, advertising, health care and more.