Key Points
- OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said the AI industry is “probably” in a bubble.
- He believes the hype is causing both “smart money” and “dumb money” to flood the market.
- Taylor sees this “messy competition” as a necessary part of innovation.
- He predicts a “correction” and “consolidation” in the AI industry over the next few years.
Bret Taylor, the chairman of OpenAI’s board and the co-founder of the AI startup Sierra, thinks the artificial intelligence industry is “probably” in a bubble. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Silicon Valley veteran said that the current hype is causing both “smart money” and “dumb money” to flood the market, funding competitors at every level of the tech stack.
“When everyone knows that AI is going to have a huge impact on the economy… money is plentiful,” Taylor told CNBC.
However, Taylor, who described himself as an “AI optimist,” doesn’t see this as a bad thing. He believes this “messy competition” is a necessary part of innovation. He predicts that over the next few years, we will see a “correction” and some “consolidation” as the free market ultimately decides which products are best.
Taylor is a major player in the AI world. His own startup, Sierra, which builds AI agents for customer service, was recently valued at $10 billion. He also has a long and storied career in tech, having served as co-CEO of Salesforce, chairman of Twitter, and CTO of Facebook. He even co-created Google Maps.
Despite his belief in a potential bubble, Taylor is confident that AI will have a “huge impact” on everything from e-commerce to payments. He just thinks it will take some time for companies to adopt the technology, for regulations to catch up, and for the necessary infrastructure to be built.
“I think we’re at the beginning of this curve,” he said.
