Full interview: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Summary

In this interview, the CEO of Microsoft discusses the company's new AI-powered search engine, Bing, which aims to redefine search with a more human-like conversational interface. They touch on the potential of AI to revolutionize knowledge work, the importance of safety and bias control, and the impact on jobs. The CEO expresses optimism about AI's role in driving economic growth and improving productivity, while acknowledging the need for societal and technological measures to ensure AI's responsible use.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The speaker is excited about the potential of AI to reimagine search and redefine massive categories like search with new technologies.
• 🌐 There's a belief that Bing, with its new AI capabilities, can offer a different approach to search that is more competitive and engaging.
• 💡 The new Bing incorporates a next-generation model that powers chat functionality, aiming to provide more natural, human-like responses.
• 🔍 The AI in Bing is designed to be an 'answer engine', providing summarized results for complex queries, making it more intuitive for users.
• 🛠️ AI copilot is integrated into the browser to enhance web activities, aiming to streamline multiple tasks into a single, efficient workflow.
• 📈 The speaker highlights the exponential growth in AI capabilities, with large models showing emergent behavior and learning new tasks like coding.
• 🔒 Safety and trust are prioritized, with the AI model being trained to avoid generating harmful content and to ensure results are grounded in search context.
• 🛂 The AI's responses are controlled to prevent the generation of biased or illegal content, aligning with societal norms and user responsibility.
• 💼 There's optimism that AI will drive economic growth by increasing productivity, potentially creating more jobs and enhancing job satisfaction.
• 🌟 The speaker envisions a future with AI as an intelligent agent or co-pilot, assisting with everyday tasks and enhancing human productivity and creativity.

Q & A

What is the significance of the new AI technology in the context of search engines?

The new AI technology is significant because it allows for a reimagining of search engines, moving from traditional search to an answer engine that can provide more direct and summarized responses to queries.

How does the new Bing with AI differ from Google in terms of search capabilities?

Bing with AI is differentiated by its new core ranking algorithm, chat functionality integrated into search results, and AI copilot that enhances web activities, aiming to provide a more conversational and comprehensive search experience.

What is the 'core ranker' mentioned in the script, and why is it important?

The 'core ranker' refers to the new algorithm for core ranking in Bing. It's important because it represents a generational improvement in search technology, which is crucial for providing better search results to users.

How does the AI in Bing handle complex queries, and what makes the response 'magical'?

The AI in Bing handles complex queries by providing summarized answers that include relevant details and advice, making the response 'magical' due to its ability to understand and answer queries in a way that feels almost human.

What is the role of the AI copilot in enhancing web activities?

The AI copilot in Bing is designed to enhance web activities by summarizing documents and aiding in various tasks, thus improving the overall efficiency and user experience during web browsing.

How does the new chat functionality in Bing compare to Chat GPT in terms of power and capability?

The new chat functionality in Bing is built on the next generation of the model that powers Chat GPT, indicating that it is even more powerful and capable, providing a more natural and human-like conversational experience.

What is meant by 'emergent capabilities' in the context of AI models, and why is it exciting?

Emergent capabilities refer to new abilities that AI models develop as they scale, such as software coding, without being explicitly taught. This is exciting because it demonstrates the models' ability to learn and adapt, leading to innovations and improvements in AI performance.

How does Bing with AI ensure the safety and trustworthiness of the information it provides?

Bing with AI ensures safety and trustworthiness by grounding responses in search results, incorporating safety measures into the model, and having policies in place to prevent the generation of harmful content.

What is the stance on AI and job displacement, and how does the new AI technology in Bing address this concern?

The stance is that AI, including the new technology in Bing, is expected to create more jobs than it displaces by removing the drudgery of knowledge work and making people more productive. It is seen as a tool that aids and enhances human work rather than replacing it.

What are the future expectations for AI in the context of personal and professional assistance?

The future expectations include AI acting as an intelligent agent or copilot, assisting with everyday tasks and guiding users through their day, thus becoming an integral part of personal and professional workflows.

How does the CEO of Microsoft view the potential of AI to drive economic growth and improve productivity?

The CEO views AI as a catalyst for economic growth and improved productivity, believing that it will drive real innovation, make search more informative, and ultimately lead to the creation of new jobs and increased satisfaction in current roles.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Reimagining Search with AI

The speaker expresses excitement about the potential of AI to redefine search technology, suggesting that Bing is introducing a new approach to search that is more conversational and integrated with AI capabilities. They mention the development of a new core ranking algorithm and the addition of chat functionality and AI copilot to enhance the browsing experience. The goal is to create a more natural, human-like interaction with search results, moving from a search engine to an answer engine that can engage in intelligent conversations based on search queries.

05:04

🚀 Advancing AI Capabilities and Addressing Concerns

The conversation delves into the exponential growth of AI capabilities, where large models like those powering chat GPT exhibit emergent behaviors without explicit training, such as learning to code. The speaker emphasizes the importance of safety and the measures taken to prevent the generation of harmful content. They also discuss the challenges of bias and the responsibility of users in prompting AI, as well as the company's commitment to ensuring that AI-generated content is grounded in search results and adheres to safety standards.

10:06

🌐 AI's Impact on the Economy and Jobs

The speaker addresses concerns about AI's impact on the job market, arguing that AI will drive up productivity and wages by removing the drudgery from knowledge work, thus creating more jobs than it displaces. They give examples of how AI can assist in various tasks, improving efficiency without replacing human judgment. The discussion also touches on the potential for AI to generate misinformation and the company's strategies to mitigate this risk, emphasizing the importance of aligning AI with human preferences and societal norms.

15:07

🤖 The Future of AI and Human-AI Interaction

The speaker envisions a future where AI acts as a co-pilot, assisting with everyday tasks and enhancing human productivity without replacing human agency. They discuss the potential for AI to create more satisfying jobs and new job opportunities, while also acknowledging the need for societal and corporate preparedness to handle potential misuse of AI technologies. The conversation concludes with the speaker's optimism about the positive trajectory of AI development and its potential to drive economic growth and improve the human experience.

Keywords

💡Search Engine

A search engine is a tool that helps users find information on the internet by indexing web pages and returning relevant results based on a query. In the video, the speaker discusses the evolution of search engines, specifically mentioning Bing's new AI-enhanced capabilities that transform it from a simple search tool into an 'answer engine.'

💡Bing

Bing is Microsoft's search engine, and in the video, it is highlighted for its integration of AI to offer more interactive and intuitive search results. The speaker emphasizes how Bing now incorporates AI chat functionality to provide answers that feel more conversational and helpful, aiming to compete with Google's dominance in the search market.

💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)

AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines. In the video, the speaker discusses how AI is transforming search engines like Bing by enabling them to provide smarter, more intuitive answers and support human-like conversations. This AI-driven functionality helps users get better results and removes the drudgery of manual tasks.

💡Co-pilot

A co-pilot in this context refers to an AI-driven tool that assists users by automating certain tasks and enhancing their workflow. In the video, the speaker mentions AI co-pilot integration in Bing’s browser, helping users with tasks like summarizing documents or generating draft content, thereby improving productivity.

💡Emergent Capabilities

Emergent capabilities refer to new, unexpected abilities that large AI models develop as they are trained on diverse data. The speaker notes that models like GPT have shown emergent behaviors, such as learning to code, without being specifically trained for it, demonstrating the expansive potential of AI.

💡GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer)

GPT is a type of AI language model developed to understand and generate human-like text. In the video, the speaker explains how Bing’s AI is based on a next-generation version of the model that powers ChatGPT, making it even more powerful and capable of answering complex questions more naturally.

💡Bias

Bias in AI refers to the tendency of models to produce prejudiced or inaccurate results due to the data they are trained on. The speaker addresses concerns about bias in AI models, noting the steps Microsoft takes during training to minimize bias and ensure that search results are reliable and unbiased.

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency of completing tasks or generating output. The speaker argues that AI-enhanced tools like Bing will improve productivity by automating repetitive tasks, such as writing drafts or summarizing information, allowing workers to focus on more complex tasks and, in turn, driving economic growth.

💡Safety

Safety in AI refers to ensuring that the AI does not generate harmful, biased, or inaccurate content. The speaker emphasizes Microsoft's focus on building safety measures into Bing's AI model to prevent the spread of harmful information or illegal content, and ensuring a robust process for quickly addressing any potential issues.

💡Human Agency

Human agency refers to the capacity for individuals to make their own decisions and control their actions. In the video, the speaker stresses that AI, particularly in Bing, is designed to support human agency by empowering users to make better decisions, improve their productivity, and control how AI assists them in their daily tasks.

Highlights

New AI technologies allow rethinking massive categories like search, creating opportunities to redefine how search engines function.

Microsoft introduces a new core ranker with Bing, offering a generational improvement in search through a more advanced algorithm.

Bing integrates a chat functionality, making search results more conversational and human-like, enabling follow-up questions in a natural flow.

The AI-powered Bing can quickly summarize complex queries, providing structured responses like ferry schedules with relevant tips.

The next-generation AI model in Bing is even more powerful than ChatGPT, demonstrating exponential improvements and emergent capabilities.

Microsoft’s AI models show emergent behaviors, such as learning to code independently, by training on diverse datasets.

Bing's AI search functionality is grounded in search results, providing more accurate and trusted information based on real web content.

Microsoft emphasizes safety measures in the AI model, designed to prevent harmful content and ensure responsible AI usage.

AI-generated content is monitored for bias, with pre-training and post-training safety mechanisms in place to reduce biases.

Microsoft is focusing on enhancing human productivity through AI, reducing drudgery in tasks like coding, emails, and document summarization.

The AI aims to democratize knowledge work, allowing non-technical workers to create apps or workflows, enhancing both job roles and wages.

Human judgment and oversight will remain essential even as AI takes over tasks, such as editing drafts or software development.

While the AI has powerful generative capabilities, Microsoft highlights the importance of user responsibility in prompts and interactions.

AI will create more jobs and increase productivity, as tools like Power Platform empower non-IT workers to create digital solutions.

Satya Nadella emphasizes the importance of staying ahead of adversarial attacks, ensuring AI remains a safe and beneficial technology.

Transcripts

how excited are you about what the world

is about to see we're very excited

because

um you know I've always thought that you

get to rethink or redefine even what our

massive

current categories like search uh with

new technologies and so today is one of

those days where we get to reimagine

everything uh related to search with AI

there is talk about Google facing a

challenge in search really for the first

time in decades do you think that's

accurate well I mean I'd say I'm most

excited about starting a new race uh

when it comes to thinking about search

with Bing uh today and uh we

fundamentally believe that people should

go try out Bing as a way to think about

search differently right the fact that

we now have the core ranker right you

know it's only generationally that

search gets better and we have a

complete new algorithm for core ranking

we have Incorporated a new chat

functionality in the context of your

search result and then we've also made

the browser better by adding AI copilot

to it right so that all your web

activities enhanced so I feel like we've

now really taken a complete new approach

which I think is going to be very very

competitive when you ask the new Bing

something it responds in a natural

Almost Human way and then you can follow

up and it can really quite quickly feel

like a conversation with a human

presence do you feel that when you do

yeah I mean there are two things that I

feel like one is it's more of an answer

engine right off the gate when I ask it

even a complex query like if I say find

me the fair you know ferry schedule to

uh the San Juans and it'll come back

with an answer which has the results

with the winter schedule summarized with

even the wash DOT cameras and in

advising me to get reservations early

both ways and that answer is magical

right so it's more like less you know

it's from going from being a search

engine to even an answer engine then I

can ask it further questions to your

point right it could be like having a

real intelligent conversation but still

grounded yeah in the search results in

my query context uh and then I can even

take one of the documents that may come

back and I can use the co-pilot to

summarize it so it's sort of a very it's

bringing what I would have done maybe

three or four different places into one

flow so chat GPT if people are familiar

with any chat bot out there they're

familiar with that one created a

sensation when it it was released and my

understanding is this new chat function

in Bing is the foundation is more

powerful even than chat GPT is that

right that's right so we are basically

taking the next generation of the model

uh that today powerschat GPT and

building it in right into big is the

growth you know a step process or is it

more of a takeoff process all of these

are actually exponentials because each

time we have scaled these models we have

seen new emergent capabilities so we're

really excited about putting this next

Generation model and by the way the pace

here is going to be fast so we're

excited about this next phase so

emerging capabilities this is a phrase

that that I heard and then when I

understood what it meant my mind was was

blown so this is something correct me if

I'm wrong that you did not actively

teach the machine to do but that It

produced or came up with on its own do I

have that that's right so one of the

things that these large models have

exhibited right which is going from

let's say gpt25 to 3 three to three five

they've learned new capabilities like

coding for example software coding so

yes these large language models are

showing scaling effects where they show

emergent behavior and you don't teach it

to code it teaches itself to code that's

right because in some sense by training

on diverse set of data pre-training on

diverse set of data it builds up a

general circuit that is capable of

solving multiple tasks I mean the simple

intuition for me is let's say you have

one of these large models you train it

on let's say a lot of math formulas it

gets good at math but if you train it on

all the math formulas and you train it

on all of literature it gets better at

math why does it because fundamentally

like when you and I went to school we

learned math we learned language we

learned history and the general circuit

got better so a little bit of the same

intuition that if you train these models

on a lot of diverse data you then can

pick up new tasks so let's talk about

trust right people use the internet to

search for information they want to to

rely on it

can you trust what Bing now produces

using chat first of all a couple of

things one is we are grounding these

results in chat using the search results

so one of the differences between chat

GPT and this model Incorporated right

into being is the fact that it's in the

context of what you prompted it or the

search query itself right so that's one

the second thing is we are taking safety

as our first class consideration right

so we're building safety into the model

safety around the model how are you

defining safety so this is about just

making sure that say something like

harmful content right so you're making

sure that you are pre-trained in the

pre-training phase and then even at the

run time that harmful content is not

getting generated so if you ask it to

help you do something illegal what are

you saying it will not it will not and

and if it does we will immediately do

take down so in fact today in search

engines we have similar policies there

are always the web is full of the

internet is full of lots of different

content and then we do have robust

processes uh and Tech checks to ensure

that nothing harmful gets propagated so

the speed also will matter so with chat

GPT the other concern or any other

concern is is bias right it's trained on

billions of words produced by us which

means it contains the best of us but

also potentially the worst of us how can

you even begin to control or police that

in chat well I mean it's the same thing

again in today when you search on the

web you get what's available on the web

and so to some degree we are at the end

of the day going to take what is

available on the web and make sure that

any bias that is there that is in the

generative side of it is what we avoid

right so one of the things that we will

have is with if it is we in the

pre-training phase itself the diversity

of data helps but during the design side

of it right because that ultimately you

prompted it it didn't generate it so the

human is responsible ultimately for what

they prompt and what they see and

accepting what they see but so will

there be guidelines or limits though so

if somebody prompts it to write a joke

that might have been popular in 1975 but

would get you fired today for example

will it write the joke yeah and so that

well first of all I would even say the

you know this is where human agency is

at a premium uh you will always be able

to trip any new AI model uh because you

prompted it so I think we start with the

responsibility each of us as users have

to take and yes we will have many many

mechanisms to ensure that nothing biased

nothing harmful gets generated but it

there's potential in this new era that

we're in for the AI to produce things

that are inaccurate potential uh

potentially biased or hurtful and

potentially harmful

but it's on the user to know going in

that if you prompt it this may happen

that's correct and but in all of those

cases it's just not about the user

knowing but let's take the

inaccurate this is where grounding in

the search results matters so that means

it's not coming out of thin air but it's

coming from the search results

themselves second for bias you really

take steps during the training phase and

post training so that it's not biased or

same thing with harmful content or even

if you make a mistake and if somebody

notifies us what's the takedown policy

and how fast is it all of these things

are the things that are true today in

search engines and we'll apply the same

even going forward what's your biggest

worry now that this thing is going to be

Available To The World At Large I

wouldn't say it's

it's worry I would say the

the thing that I feel like here we are

in 2023 if you adjust for inflation

right

the world's GDP is negative so my

biggest worry is we need some new

technology that comes out of this very

celebrated Tech sector that starts

driving real productivity it's time for

some real Innovation so to me making a

category that all of us use every day

right which is search to be more

informed do research better that's a big

deal so therefore I am more worried of

us not innovating or more importantly

getting out there in the real world

making sure that we're producing

technologies that ultimately are driving

economic growth so economic you think on

the whole this is going to make

economies stronger larger grow faster

and therefore create more jobs than it

takes away in the long run I absolutely

think so which is that you know for

example I don't fall I don't buy this

lump of Labor fallacy right yeah there's

a fixed amount of jobs there's no I

think there will be more jobs in fact if

anything the more we democratize

knowledge work there will be more

knowledge work and if the more we can

take the drudgery out of knowledge work

the more productive we will be in the

work we do right whether it's sorting

through email and email responses or

writing code or searching all of these

categories I think can be redefined by

AI but have having seen what the AI can

do with composition with writing a

social media post with writing a cover

letter with writing a marketing plan uh

you know there are people making livings

right now doing jobs like that what do

you say to people watching who are

worried that what you're building might

make the economy grow but will disrupt

their job and their life in ways they

cannot predict first of all it's a great

point and I think even there I feel like

if you what this does really is create

the draft

but the draft has to be read by somebody

has to be edited by somebody approved by

somebody it's just that the throughput

maybe will improve right so it's the

same thing in software coding when we

introduce GitHub co-pilot what do you do

to software developers it removed the

drudgery of software development and

made it more enjoyable and of course it

will also bring more software developers

into the fold I think that will be the

case even in all these other fields

right so I think that some of the work

that we do today will be helped with

these draft Creations but at the end of

the day I think human judgment and

humans editing what these AIS produce

are going to be still at a premium do

you think it'll drive up wages

that's a great book I do believe it'll

drive up Pages because productivity and

wages are related so for example one of

the things that I love a lot about is

this one tool we introduced called Power

Platform this is where a domain expert

now can create an app or a workflow not

non-it people right so this is somebody

in the front lines maybe in healthcare

and Retail in manufacturing are able to

use think about it a natural language

prompt to create essentially an app what

does it do to them as soon as they go

from sort of you know being a Frontline

worker to having now created their some

digital artifact they become part of it

and that's wage support

I have to say uh I I was surprised first

by what the chat function could do how

natural it was there is a human presence

I know it's not a person but you feel it

I was also surprised though the

limitations there were times where I

couldn't answer there were times when I

answered wrong we corrected it it said

oops which is new

but it raises the question is this ready

are you confident for wide release

the only way for any new technology is

to be really perfected is to be in the

market with real human feedback if

anything is in particular with AI it has

to get aligned with human preferences

both personally and societally in terms

of the norms and that's why we want to

launch it we want to have all the safety

we want to have all of the things that

will make sure that no harms are created

but we need it out there in the real

world so yes we do feel the one other

thing I'd mention is the fact that it's

Incorporated inside a search that design

context matters uh it's not again an

open-ended tool it's in the context of

what you're searching for and as long as

it's useful in that context I think it's

going to be a great way for us to learn

and make these AI safer we have a major

election coming up in 2024 we've had

very contentious elections for two

cycles running and technology has been a

major disruptive Force

what's to say that this AI is not going

to be a kind of geyser of misinformation

disinformation since it can write posts

constantly well first of all what we're

lodging today is not about generating

posts it's about being able to search

the content and if anything quite

frankly to be able to sift through it

and get more of the authoritative

content to be summarized so that you're

not clicking on links that may not be as

authoritative so if anything this is a

tool to help with this information as

opposed to create more disinformation

fair point to where we are today however

one concedes the Nazis not too distant

future where

these Bots are capable of generating

essays papers whatever you the user want

to have generated

are you concerned about it being

hijacked in a way that produces lies

spam scams all sorts of trouble of that

magnitude and for sure we are and and

the way to and that happens today and so

these adversarial attacks and the

adversarial attackers can probably use

the same technologies that we are

talking about today to you know increase

the velocity of their attacks and we

have to stay ahead of it right so in

some sense we already have technologies

that are detect what was generated by a

bot was versus what was fact checked or

by a human being or what is an

authoritative Source who actually took

something that was generated but then

verified it so those are all things that

we already are going to be able to put

in place and so this at this point it's

out it's so it's going to happen the

question is can we as a society and we

as companies that are generating

products deal with these attacks and the

only way to do it is to be on the

Forefront of it so where is this all

going I know this is a major Milestone

today and I don't want to get away from

that fact however I do think it's also a

moment when you can see a little bit of

into the future you mentioned a co-pilot

is there a Moment In Time In Our

Lifetime where we are constantly moving

through our day with a kind of

artificial intelligence presence

alongside us helping us guiding us

answering our questions that to me is I

think what is going to happen right

which is I I think about this is not

about the human agency somehow going

away in fact if anything it'll put more

of a premium on how we spend our time

what we spend our time on and where our

attention goes and if anything these

co-pilots right whether it's when I'm

writing code when I'm searching or when

I'm doing a document I can stay more in

the flow because the co-pilot helps me

with some of the tasks and so that I

think is definitely the one pattern that

I see the other one is what you

described I think it's the age of

intelligent agents in fact what we are

just launching is a first version of it

where you have intelligence agents

intelligent agents agent it's something

that knows you helps you with your

everyday tasks uh that I think is

definitely something that we can look

forward to I'm closing out here but how

close are we to General artificial

intelligence a machine that can do all

the things a person can do I

I we're quite far from it this is very

early days okay these are powerful

models compared to sort of what was

there before but I don't think that

we're talking about this as AGI at all

if anything I think of this as

technology that truly helps us with

removing drudgery of everyday knowledge

work and net net you think it will

create more jobs than it will take I

believe it creates more I'll call it

both satisfaction in current jobs and

net new jobs

and then I have to ask and I sound a

little bit silly I feel a little bit

silly even contemplating it but some

very smart people ranging from Stephen

Hawkins to Elon Musk to Sam Altman who I

just saw in the hallway here your

partner at open AI have raised the

Specter of AI somehow going wrong in a

way that is lights out for Humanity

you're nodding her head you've heard

this too yeah is that a real concern and

if it is what are we doing look I mean

look runaway AI is if it happens it's a

real problem and so the way to sort of

deal with that is to make sure it never

runs away and so that's why I look at it

and say something let's start with

before we even talk about alignment and

safety and all of these things that one

should do with AI let's talk about the

context in which AI is used so and and

the design choices we make I think about

like the first set of categories in

which we should use these powerful

models or where humans unambiguously

unquestionably are in charge and so as

long as we sort of start there

characterize these models make these

models more safe and over time much more

explainable then we can think about

other forms of usage but let's not have

it run away it's very clear why people

would be excited right now but your

reputation as a leader is for having a

tremendous amount of empathy as well for

the people out there who are not excited

they're on the side of scared this feels

like a lot of change very quickly with

unknown consequences

what do you say to them

I would see

take some of what your real like in in

particular with something like being in

search

take your everyday usage what is it that

you expect from a search engine and see

if it's useful because here is the

interesting data point one third of the

time I go to a search engine today I get

results that are not satisfying so if we

can give you time back and you make it

much more useful to you then we'll

produce something of use we clearly are

in a kind of arms race when it comes to

AI it seems like everybody is coming out

with new products this year I think

you're the first with a major

announcement uh where is this going

well as you said it's a new race and

it's a new race and the most important

software category or the largest

software category in search uh let's

face it uh Google dominates it we are

thrilled to be here launching Bing to

compete and so we are really looking

forward to what the it's going to

rapidly evolve and so every day every

week every month it's going to get

better and so we're looking forward to

the the new search Wars would you rather

be you right now or the CEO of Google

well I'm thrilled to be CEO of Microsoft

all right the the car of humanity is at

a Crossroads to the left is dystopia to

the right is Utopia the blinker is on

which way is it pointing it's Utopia