Everybody Wants AI - Race To Acquire More Market Share

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most discussed topics of recent years, if not the most discussed one. The speed of advancement in this field cost us by surprise in the recent years with all the tools available for public to use. AI has been something very familiar to us for decades, but also was so distant as we couldn't expect things to develop this fast. Autonomous cars are no longer a fantasy, efficient robotic tools in manufacturing, medicine, construction, and many other fields is no longer a dream. Smart homes and facilities, automated workflows, efficiently brainstorming of ideas, solving problem that hadn't been solved before are among benefits we see with advancement of this technology. While it may seem like a big leap, all of this seems was inevitable to happen with cumulative knowledge, tools, hardware developed in computer technologies over the last few decades.

Now that it seems and feels real that AI is here, although at its very early stages, all major tech companies want to be involved in one way or the other. Innovation in tech is not a result of having a lot of money, know-how, resources, networks, and connections. While these won't hurt and would almost always help, there is no guarantee of success. Many big tech companies have failed in the past when they attempted to create and build something that wasn't their initial success. For example, let's take Google. Google success probably among the most impressive ones. Coming up with a best solution for a much needed search tool and algorithm, beating all the competition, and being available at the right time made Google one of the leading tech companies. Google has dominated the internet. The brand became a verb in our vocabulary. Have you googled this yet? It has done great. Using this success the Alphabet diversified their investments and influences. It started acquiring smaller companies, invested in startups, participating building infrastructure, etc. Some were successful endeavors, others were not.

When social media platform became a thing, Google wanted the market share as well. They have made several attempts in creating their own social media platform, and buying others. They all failed, even after spending crazy amounts of money. Remember Google+? They also wanted to become the platform for video sharing. That too didn't do that great. Instead they bought Youtube, and that became one of their best acquisitions. Others have attempted similar things. Microsoft spent billions and billions for the mobile device market share. Also failed. It is ok to fail. These big companies can afford that. But when one of these attempts work out as expected, this investment pays off for all the failed ones before. Microsoft failed a lot in last couple of decades. But their bet on cloud tech and AI, more specifically Azure and OpenAI paid off, and will continue doing so for years to come.

So if they have money they will indeed try to participate. Not doing so may be a mistake. AI is among the leading technologies, and it is evident it will play a big role in our lives in near and far future. Not participating in the technology would be a mistake for any big tech company. Today we see this interest is growing, and nobody is hiding how badly they want to be in this space. Look at Elon Musk. Perhaps one of the most financially successful human being in the world. At the top of rich lists, runs impressive companies, participates in innovation. In the latest news Elon Musk was mad at OpenAI about the deal they had in the past. He was mad so much so he had to express it publicly and also file a lawsuit. I heard the lawsuit was dropped after OpenAI revealed Musk's emails on the topic. I don't know the details of this quarrel, but Musk was offended so much so that he had to invest in his own AI tools. It sounded like he regretted missing out on being part of OpenAI.

We know Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others are in a big race to be the players in the AI technologies and shaping how the future will look like. Apple has been late in the game. They too had ambitions to be part of this innovation. Of course they had ideas when they bought Siri and started building a personal assistant on their devices. In my opinion they failed in building this tools. Alexa came in later but performed a lot better than Siri. Sooner or later Apple had to jump into the race as well. One way would be to build their own. They have resources. But again failing is an option. Another option is partnering, and utilizing already existing tools. They have partnered with OpenAI and will be implementing ChatGPT. I am not sure how they will utilize and if they will simultaneous develop their own solutions, but it is clear that OpenAI will be something that Apple can benefit from. Sometimes partnerships are much better option than competing, especially when you are so far behind. Musk wasn't happy about this either, lol.

It is so obvious that everybody wants AI. For this big companies it is about market share and their profits. Gaining more profits, not losing market share of things they already do. Google has dominated search for many years. There is no competition. But advancements in AI tech changes this. Now it is clear that Google's dominance in search may not last very long, if they don't participate in AI race. So they have been doing. Apple's devices may fall behind the newest innovation if they don't utilize AI tech, hence lose their current market share in computers, mobile, and other devices. They all have something to lose, or at least there is a possibility. It would be nice to also have the market share of AI market, but first they may need to defend the markets they already are in. Because AI will have influence in all markets and all fields.

There are opportunities for all in this space, big and small companies, various organizations, groups and individuals. Not everybody will be involved in building core AI tools, but many will be involved in other ways by building tools that are powered by core AI tools, be it software, hardware, or robotics.

Microsoft found itself is a really good position. They made end up being their smartest business decision. Microsoft was already heavily invested in their cloud tech, and Azure. What AI needs is a lot of computing power, cloud computing power. Investing in OpenAI was smart, because not only they become pioneers in the innovation but also they get to sell their cloud computing power and demonstrate how advanced their cloud tech is. Who knew they didn't really have to build their own in house AI devision and compete with others. Just pick the winner, and ride along the the successful journey.

I used to avoid writing on the topic of AI for one reason. Everybody is writing and talking about AI everyday everywhere. It is such a vast subject, there are may topics to think, write, and discuss about. This is an important technology that will be shaping the future of the humanity. There will be many benefits, but there will also be negative effects. I have come to a conclusion that this subject and developments in this space shouldn't be ignore. At the very least we can write, share, and discuss about it and be part of the developments. I may actually make this a regular topic and revisit from time to time, as time allows and explore many interesting and not so interesting ideas and developments in this space.