SOFTBANK Group founder Masayoshi Son sketched out one of the most aggressive timelines for the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) yet, envisioning a near future where the technology would run entire households.
AI will soon be able to monitor the health of family members, call the doctor when needed, do grocery shopping, make reservations, judge optimal investments and tutor young children, Son said in a speech at an annual forum for enterprise clients on Thursday (Oct 3). He moved up his expectation for when artificial general intelligence – the long-term goal for developers from OpenAI to Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google – would arrive to within the next two to three years.
Son heads up Japan’s biggest tech investor and has made hundreds of bets on startups and companies developing new technologies and services powered by AI. His rosy view of the technology’s potential has in past years come with a warning to sceptics that they may be left behind if they do not embrace the coming revolution in how humanity lives and works.
“We can design AI personal agents who understand your emotions and whose greatest reward is your happiness,” Son said. “Artificial superintelligence is something that wants you to be happy.”
The 67-year-old’s comments underline his willingness to keep investing billions of US dollars in the field. SoftBank, which is sitting on a formidable cash pile, is contributing US$500 million to OpenAI’s US$6.6 billion fundraising round that values the startup at US$157 billion. Son did not mention the investment during his speech, but he praised OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT model, called 01, and its ability to process information to mimic human reasoning.
The SoftBank chief said he asked the model difficult questions, hoping to stump the AI, but got good responses within 45 seconds. His queries included how he can increase his savings account to 100 million yen (S$882,000) and how to extend the range of electric car batteries.
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“The human brain consists of some 100 trillion synaptic connections, and that number will not change – while generative AI is creating new synapses at a furious pace,” Son said.
A reasoning AI will need to be able to talk and negotiate with others when conducting complex tasks such as settling on a price for a service or making sure the bath is full and at the user’s desired temperature at the right time, Son said. All that will drive the need for more connectivity and require more chips using technology from SoftBank’s Arm Holdings, he added.
SoftBank plans to invest further in AI semiconductors, data centres and robots, while also helping to build out Japan’s AI ecosystem. The company’s telecom unit has announced plans to build data centres in both northern and central Japan, and was early to secure a stockpile of Nvidia graphic processing units shortly after the chip company launched its Grace and Hopper architectures in 2022.
One of Son’s plans is to deploy US$100 billion into AI-related chips, Bloomberg reported in February. The billionaire warned shareholders in June that his next big endeavour could be a massive hit or a terrible flop, but that SoftBank had no choice but to try.
Following a string of losses on startup bets, a humbled Son has largely shied away from the spotlight to focus on chip unit Arm. The Tokyo-based tech investment firm remains saddled with hundreds of loss-making startups on its books. The majority of that portfolio is made up of non-listed young companies, looking to Son for guidance to navigate a fast-changing tech landscape. BLOOMBERG
