Coatue Pt2. Open AI’s Kevin Weil Dives into All Things ChatGPT | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner

Episode Overview

• Kevin Weil, CPO of OpenAI, discusses the immense growth and future potential of the company and AI technology.
• The conversation highlights the rapid pace of AI model improvement, emphasizing that current technology is the "worst" we'll ever use from this day forward.
• They explore the evolution of user engagement with AI, from novelty to an integrated daily utility for solving real-world problems, such as interpreting medical results.
• The discussion touches on the importance of iterative deployment, personalization, and memory in making AI an indispensable proactive assistant.

Key Concepts

• Accelerating Improvement: AI models are on a steep curve of improvement. The capabilities of today's models will seem basic in the near future.
• Expanding Utility: The use cases for AI are rapidly expanding beyond simple tasks like writing to complex, real-world applications in areas like personal health, research, and data synthesis.
• Engagement as a Metric for Value: The shift from measuring monthly active users (MAU) to weekly (WAU) and eventually daily (DAU) reflects AI's growing integration and value in users' lives.
• Iterative Deployment: The strategy of releasing AI capabilities early and often allows the technology to evolve with societal feedback, making the integration smoother and more collaborative.
• Personalization and Proactivity: The future of personal AI involves it having memory and context about a user's life (contacts, calendar, personal data) to become a proactive and deeply integrated assistant.

Quotes

• At 00:05 - "The model that you use today is the worst AI model that you'll ever use for the rest of your life." - Kevin Weil explains the rapid and continuous improvement of AI models, suggesting that the future will always bring significantly more capable versions.
• At 01:19 - "I think it's bigger for sure than I realized... we have grown faster than anything I've ever seen." - Kevin Weil reflects on his first year at OpenAI, stating that the company's growth and the overall opportunity in AI have surpassed his already high initial expectations.
• At 04:30 - "The first thing I do, of course, is take a picture of it, upload it to ChatGPT and say, 'Hey, should I be worried about this?'" - Kevin Weil provides a personal example of using ChatGPT to interpret his son's complex medical report, demonstrating the shift of AI into a tool for immediate, practical, real-world problem-solving.

Takeaways

• Today's AI is the starting point, not the destination; expect exponential improvements in capability and utility in the coming months and years.
• The value of AI is increasingly measured by its integration into daily routines to solve tangible problems, driving engagement from occasional to habitual.
• Personalization is key to unlocking the next level of AI assistance, as models that understand individual context and memory can become proactive partners.
• As AI becomes more capable, it will reinvent nearly every product, service, and device we use, creating massive opportunities for both startups and incumbents who can adapt quickly.