Person
1 episodes · 20 quoted claims
Don Tapscott describes the first phase of modern generative AI as AI that could generate content such as text, data and graphics, used as a tool.
“AI has really gone through three phases modern generative AI. The first was gen AI, where AI could generate content with amazing capability text, data, graphics, all kinds of stuff.”
Don Tapscott says the second phase of AI gave agents the ability to manage tasks and pursue goals without being prompted.
“Then AI went through a second phase where it acquired some agency, where agents could act, and they could manage tasks, they could pursue goals without prompting it with questions or requests.”
Peter Diamandis, founder of XPRIZE, told Tapscott and his co-author that his AI agent Peterbot is like having an infinite number of vice presidents.
“as Peter, uh, Diamantis, the founder of XPRIZE, said to us in an interview, he's got Peterbot, and it's like having an infinite number of vice presidents.”
Don Tapscott says he fed about 500 documents of his own writing, speeches and interviews into his personal AI agent, 'digital Don'.
“I've input about 500 documents, everything I could find that I've written, my speeches, my PowerPoints, my, you know, books and articles and interviews and all kinds of stuff like that.”
Don Tapscott says Claude is currently one of the leading platforms offering a capability to build your own agent.
“Claude right now is one of the leaders, Claude, excuse. It's got a capability to build your own agent.”
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan famously argued that execution is strategy, a point Tapscott says breaks down in an era of identic AI.
“you were editor of HBR when Larry Bossidy and Ram Shankarm famously argued that execution is strategy.”
Don Tapscott recalls Peter Drucker describing middle management as the boosters of the faint signals that passed for communication before the information age.
“Drucker, the founder of management science, uh, referred to middle management as the boosters of the faint signals that pass for communication in the pre-information organization.”
Don Tapscott says his 1994 book The Digital Economy was the first big book about the web.
“I don't know if you remember, but in 94, in the digital economy, it was the, I guess, the first big book about the web.”
Ronald Coase won a Nobel Prize for explaining that firms exist because of transaction costs, including the costs of search and coordination.
“and he won a Nobel Prize for saying this, the answer is transaction costs. He defined these broadly, the cost of search, of finding all the right people to do something, the cost of coordination.”
Don Tapscott says blockchain produced decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which often lack traditional management and use tokens as incentives.
“the DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization. In many cases, they're organizations without a traditional management structure, and that use tokens as mechanisms for incentive rather than the traditional command and control.”
Don Tapscott explains that DAOs run on smart contracts, which are agreements between people made in software.
“these DAOs function on something called a smart contract, which is basically a contract, an agreement between people made in software.”
Don Tapscott says AI engineer Harper Carroll is chief engineer at a company that was sold to OpenAI.
“There's a AI engineer named Harper Carroll, the chief engineer at a company that was sold to OpenAI.”
Citing Harper Carroll's framing, Don Tapscott says that when an employee leaves, their agent could keep personal patterns and skills but lose the company's proprietary data.
“The agent retains the patterns and skills and the knowledge about the individual, but it loses the proprietary data that's unique to the company.”
Don Tapscott argues that identic AI must be self-sovereign, owned by individuals and not by technology companies.
“We argue strongly that no, identic AI needs to be self-sovereign. We need to own our own super intelligence.”
Don Tapscott names Mark Zuckerberg and Google as examples of parties he does not want to own people's personal AI agents.
“the biggest question for me is who's going to own digital Audi? Mark Zuckerberg? Google?”
Don Tapscott says building self-sovereign identic AI would require reinventing the AI stack, which he believes is feasible technically, socially and economically.
“that means a modest little undertaking reinventing the AI stack. And we think that that's feasible technically, and it's achievable socially and and economically.”
Don Tapscott says hearing Joan Osborne's song 'What If God Were One of Us' led him to think about living in a world where humans are not the apex intelligence.
“What if God were one of us? Remember, that was, uh, Joan Osborne.”
Don Tapscott says that during the internet era people outsourced the storage of information to the web, whereas AI now lets them outsource thinking.
“During the period of the internet, we outsourced storage of information to the web.”
Don Tapscott recalls Peter Drucker saying stable times need good management while times of change need good leadership.
“he talked about in times of stability, you need good management, and in times of change, you need good leadership.”
Don Tapscott says he planned a speech with himself on one screen and his AI agent 'digital Don' on another to help answer questions.
“I'll be giving a speech in a week where there's going to be me on this one screen and digital Don on the other screen”