Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that AI should be more affordable, more widely available and not controlled by just a small group of companies. Speaking in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nadella shared his views on the future of AI. He expressed his concerns about the current situation of the AI industry, where a few major companies are leading the development of advanced AI models. He did not directly name any company, but he was likely referring to OpenAI and Anthropic.
He also questioned the idea that AI should mainly be used to replace human workers. He also pushed back against claims that AI will remove large numbers of white-collar jobs or cut costs. “You can’t say, hey, all white-collar jobs are gone and this could even be a weapon and we will use all the power to build data centers,” Nadella said.
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Instead of focusing on replacing workers, he suggested that companies should find ways to combine human skills with AI tools. In his view, companies should rethink how work is organised and create new opportunities for employees as technology evolves. “No, how about we think about reorganising the jobs?” he said.
The Microsoft CEO also stressed that people are unlikely to support a future where only a handful of companies control the world’s AI system and knowledge.
He believes that making promises about AI’s benefits will not be enough for the companies to gain public confidence. “No amount of just narrative is going to do it because where we are now, we have to sort of walk the walk. We now have to do the hard work in earning the social permission,” Nadella said.
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As per Nadella, AI’s long-term success will depend not just on technological progress, but also on whether its benefits are shared broadly across society.
Recently, Nadella also said that companies should build their own “learning loop” rather than constantly chasing the best AI model. “The real opportunity is not in picking the best model but instead in building a learning loop on top of models where human capital and token capital compound,” he said.
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