Bret Taylor, CEO and Co-Founder @Sierra: Why Pre-Training is for Morons & Companies Will Build Their Own Software

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?