Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
100
Generative AI means things that were always possible at a small scale now become practical to automate at a massive scale. Sometimes a change in scale is a change in principle.
a year ago

Improve your reading experience

Logged in users get linked directly to articles resulting in a better reading experience. Please login for free, it takes less than 1 minute.

More from Essays - Benedict Evans

AI’s metrics question

With every platform shift, we want to measure the growth but we’re confused about what to measure. That’s partly a problem of data and definitions, but it’s really a question about what this is going to be.

a month ago 25 votes
GenAI’s adoption puzzle

Generative AI chatbots might be a life-changing transformation in the nature of computing, that can replace all software, but so far, most of its users only pick it up every week or two, and far fewer have made it part of their lives. Is that a time problem or a product problem?

2 months ago 35 votes
What kind of disruption?

Software ate the world. Uber and Airbnb didn’t sell software - they disrupted and redefined markets. But what kind of disruption are we talking about ?

4 months ago 40 votes
Apple innovation and execution

It matters that Apple’s new Siri will be late, and it matters more that Apple didn’t realise. Is it more than that?

4 months ago 43 votes
The Deep Research problem

OpenAI’s Deep Research is built for me, and I can’t use it. It’s another amazing demo, until it breaks. But it breaks in really interesting ways.

5 months ago 49 votes

More in startups

MAGA doesn't build anything

Why I think this political movement isn't going anywhere in the long term.

19 hours ago 3 votes
Saudi Aramco wants a Google spinoff to turn its waste into wealth

The world’s biggest crude producer is partnering with SandboxAQ to turn captured carbon into profitable products.

2 days ago 4 votes
Is SoftBank Still Backing OpenAI?

Earlier in the week, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank and OpenAI's "$500 billion" "AI Project" was now setting a "more modest goal of building a small data center by year-end." To quote: A $500 billion effort unveiled at the White

3 days ago 5 votes
Should Democrats go back to neoliberalism?

To some degree, yes. But what they really need is a development state.

3 days ago 6 votes
Unleashing the AI jobs revolution in Africa

While there are concerns that AI will eliminate jobs, in many developing countries, it can help create jobs that never existed before.

3 days ago 6 votes