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Artificial Intelligence in Consulting: How Can It Help and What Are the Risks
Sep 17, 2024
3 minutes read
Reports are circulating that Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire a controlling stake in OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence software that has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022 thanks to its next-generation capabilities.
Early investors in OpenAI included both Elon Musk and Microsoft, but it appears that Microsoft is seeking to acquire a dominant position in the company, an acquisition that would buck the trend in Silicon Valley as fellow tech giants such as Amazon, Meta (Facebook), and Twitter are currently downsizing.
An earlier product from OpenAI, Dall-E 2, which uses artificial intelligence to create digital images on demand also saw success, and Microsoft has already integrated the product into several of its applications.
If the chat about Microsoft’s acquisition of OpenAI is accurate, the company may seek to integrate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine in order to better compete against the search giant, Alphabet (Google) which is why the New York Times has already dubbed ChatGPT the “Google Killer.” Other potential uses for ChatGPT include integrating its features into Microsoft products such as Outlook and Word.
As the talks about the possible acquisition escalate, both the software giant and the ChatGPT creator have declined to comment. However, in late January, Microsoft Inc. announced “the third phase of our long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world”.
AI and the Evolution of Expert Networks
Since its public premiere, ChatGPT has already been used to author novels, cheat at university exams, and write essays and poems, but one of its most powerful uses may be to revolutionize the Expert Networks industry.
Although a great deal has changed since GLG upended the industry twenty years ago, much of how Expert Networks are created, maintained, and accessed has altered little since the days of paper Rolodexes and stacks of business cards.
When an investor begins a search for a qualified expert to talk to, the procedure begins by first screening the potential candidates to create a shortlist followed by reaching out to them and beginning the laborious process of scheduling a mutually agreeable time to talk and then signing agreements on terms and conditions.
AI software such as ChatGPT can literally completely transform every step of the process prior to the actual call taking place. A well-trained AI software program could mine databases to create a suitable shortlist, use automated scheduling features to schedule the call for a mutually agreeable time and date, and then handle all the necessary paperwork.
AI can even be used to record and automatically transcribe voice calls, or even summarize a call and be able to identify the important ideas and facts of the conversation.
Other potential uses of AI in the use of Expert Networks include analyzing online databases and resources (such as LinkedIn, currently owned by Microsoft) to identify new experts, devising new metrics to score or qualify potential candidates, and handling the opening parts of the conversation at both ends (including availability, suitability, and interest) leading up to the actual phone call.
However, it may be a few years before ChatGPT or a rival AI service can fully automate the Expert Network industry, primarily due to privacy regulations (such as GDPR), proprietary control over key databases (such as LinkedIn), and increased competition between companies currently vying to dominate the Expert Network industry.
Should ChatGPT or another type of AI program start taking over many of the screening and scheduling functions now undertaken manually by people, this could result in the better and faster identification of relevant experts and a reduction in transaction costs, something that would be quite welcome in an industry that exceeded US$2 billion in revenue last year.
OpenAI
OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) was founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, the former president of the famous start-up incubator company, Y Combinator. Originally founded as a non-profit company, OpenAI switched to a “capped for-profit” model in 2019 in order to attract investors. Early investors included Peter Thiel (formerly of Google), Elon Musk, and Reid Hoffman (who co-founded LinkedIn).
OpenAI currently has around 200 employees, information gleaned by journalists, interestingly enough, by directly querying the ChatGPT software.
According to Tom Goldstein, a professor at the University of Maryland’s computer science department, OpenAI is currently spending US$3 million dollars a month to operate ChatGPT. “It’s not cheap to run,” said Professor Goldstein, adding that a partnership with Microsoft could provide some much-needed help in defraying operating expenses.
Right now, ChatGPT is available to use for free on a limited basis, but the company has stated that it plans to operate a paid version in order to generate as much as US$200 million in revenue. ChatGPT is currently hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, making it all the more credible that acquiring OpenAI would be a strategically smart move for the tech giant.
