Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, states that the emergence of generative AI such as ChatGPT is transforming the software industry
- ByStartupStory | March 4, 2023
Sabeer Bhatia, a seasoned veteran of the global tech industry and co-founder of Hotmail, has expressed his belief that generative AI technologies like ChatGPT will revolutionise the software landscape and that coding skills will not be a limiting factor in their adoption. This view is in line with the broader industry trend, which sees AI as the driving force behind the next wave of computing.
According to Sabeer Bhatia, “the impact of AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Bard on software could be as transformative as robotics was for manufacturing”. Drawing on Tesla’s example, where the majority of car production is handled by robots with only a small number of workers, Bhatia believes that “AI assistants will take care of many software-related tasks”.
To unlock the full potential of AI, Bhatia suggests that “younger generations must develop a more imaginative mindset and be willing to collaborate, as individual brilliance will no longer suffice. He also notes that India may not be fully prepared for this shift at the moment”.
Speaking at a panel discussion during NTLF 2023, Sabeer Bhatia expressed his concern that “India is not adequately prepared for the new economy that emphasises creativity and imagination”. He explained that “the current education system in India is primarily knowledge-based and relies heavily on rote learning, which is not conducive to developing the skills needed for the creative economy”.
Bhatia also noted that, in his opinion, “90% of the ideas currently being generated in India are merely copies of existing ideas”.
OpenAI, an AI research laboratory co-founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others, is the creator of ChatGPT. In 2019, Microsoft made a significant investment of around $1 billion in the startup. Recently, there have been reports that Microsoft has made another massive investment of $10 billion in OpenAI.
According to Sabeer Bhatia, an experienced entrepreneur and industry expert, the most challenging problem for the new generation of entrepreneurs is identifying a problem that needs to be solved.
He advises that “entrepreneurs should not create something solely to make money. Instead, they should focus on solving a fundamental problem that will help people, with financial gain being a natural consequence of this”. Bhatia suggests that “we need to encourage young people to shift their thinking in this way”.
In 1996, Bhatia was one of the co-founders of Hotmail Corporation, a web-based email company, and he held the position of CEO until Microsoft acquired the company for an impressive $500 million in 1997, which was Microsoft’s biggest acquisition at that time.
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