AI: A 100x Force Transforming Our Lives
This document explores how artificial intelligence enhances human capabilities, proposing that AI combined with human intelligence equates to an exponentially improved form of human potential.
AI: A lOOx Force Transforming OurLives 2 AI+ Human Human
Welcome to the golden age of AI. We are living through a sea change in how we use software to navigate our world. We can now chat with it using English or our native language. lt can go beyond processing to thinking or reasoning. As a result, ar ti昀椀cial intelligence can become intelligent augmentation, liberating us to forge new relationships and adopt innovative behaviors. 2 We are technology optimists at May昀椀eld. Our view on AI can be summarized as AI + Human = Human , as in Human Squared. We believe that AI teammates will work alongside humans to automate tasks, accelerate productivity, augment capabilities, and amplify creativity, advancing humans to superhuman leveis. As a result, we will see the rise of a new hybrid workforce, with AI teammates for every business persona. Having lived through multiple paradigm shifts, we have identi昀椀ed the model through which AI will be deliv ered and consumed, which we have named Cognition-as-a-Service (CaaS). This follows prior mega waves of laaS (lnfrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Our AI focus is on ali six layers of the CaaS stack - semiconductors/infrastructure, models, data, middleware, applications and teammates. We refer to the bottom four layers as cognitive plumbing which are the tech nologies required to build AI enabled apps and agents/services. With AI optimism as our foundation, CaaS as our thesis, the cognitive plumbing layer as our primary focus, $1.2 billion in available capital across three funds, conviction on leading rational 昀椀nancing rounds, and with a proven craftsperson approach to early stage investing, we have built a vibrant portfolio of 20+ companies which are well capitalized and executing on their missions. We have been advocating our POV with our community of founders, CXO/enterprise buyer leaders, technol ogy luminaries, academics and researchers, peer investors, and the press. Our POV along with our reputa tion as a 昀椀rm built for founders, by founders, who partners with founders for life, has resonated with many extraordinary founders. We are looking forward to partnering with them to build enduring companies that establish AI as a ubiquitous force for good.
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OUR FOCUS Embrace the Future: 氀栀e 5 As of CaaS AI may not be coming for your job anytime soon, but it surely is coming to work alongside you. lntroducing your new teammates: Devin, the AI software engineer; Hippocratic, the AI healthcare worker; Outreach Kaia, the AI sales assistant; Evenup, the AI legal assistant; and Hawkeye, the AI ITOps engineer. Reflecting on conversations with hundreds of entre preneurs, we're witnessing a shift from Automation to Augmentation. Arti昀椀cial intelligence isn't about replacing humans; it's about augmenting intelligence. ln this new era, AI liberates us to forge new relationships and adopt innovative behaviors. Despite fears of AI replacing humans, we recall the discussion about offshoring two decades ago. Then, as now, there were concerns about the impact of technology on humans. However, unlike the offshoring wave, we 昀椀rmly believe AI teammates will not only boost productiv ity but also enhance, amplify, and elevate human capabilities. Take Hawkeye, unveiled by NeuBird. An e-commerce company may notice that its website is performing poorly at populating shopping cart suggestions. Traditionally, this would require assembling a cross-functional team involving IT, web developers, and data analysts to investigate the issue, a process that can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Using NeuBird, the sa爀渀e company can simply ask: "Why is my website running slow?" and "How can I resolve that?" NeuBird's Hawkeye will diagnose the is sue, contextualize potential reasons for the problem, share steps needed to resolve it, and even write code to 昀椀x it. This frees ITOps engineers to assist a great number of customers and tackle more complex issues, showcasing the power of Al-human collaboration. Welcome to the era of AI teammates. 吀漀gether with humans, they automate tasks, accelerate productivity, augment capabilities, and amplify creativity, advancing humans to superhuman leveis.
OUR FOCUS lhe Rise of the Cognitive Plumbing Layer 氀栀e Plumbing Layer Rises Again. May昀椀eld's conviction in infrastructure investmenting began 25+ years ago. We've been a believer in the power of plumbing to help consumers and businesses realize the bene昀椀ts of technology waves. During the Web era, Navin joined a long line of tech industry school dropouts to co-found his 昀椀rst company in 1996 with his PhD advisor at Stanford University. VXtreme made it possible to stream vídeo over the Internet, and after its acquisition by Microsoft, endures as Windows Media. While at Microsoft, Navin invested in Akamai, which delivered infrastructure to scale the Web. ln 2014, as the cloud era got into full swing, May昀椀eld partnered with Armon Dadgar and Mitchell Hashimoto, the open source superstar founders of HashiCorp, whose mission was to elevate the devops professional with a simple and comprehensive multi-cloud infrastructure platform. HashiCorp's public offering in December 2021 valued the company at $15 billion, and it continues to power major cloud-based businesses today. Over the last de cade, we have partnered with many bold enterprise founders including those at CloudSimple, CloudGenix, Elastica, Gigya, Portworx, NUVIA, Ranch er, StorSimple, and Volterra who successfully realized their mission to cloudify the world. As AI shifts from early adoption to widespread enterprise use, the importance of the "plumbing layer" is resurgent. The transformative potential lies in four layers of the tech stack: models/middleware/tools, data, infrastructure, and semiconductors/systems. The breakthrough of GenAI is in elevat ing humans by providing a natural language interface and performing cognitive tasks - an era we think of as Al+Humans = Human Squared. ln this context, cognitive plumbing unlocks the easy creation of agents, applications, and services that can be built on this foundational technology. ln the future, we're looking forward to partnering with many more cognitive plumbers of the AI age.
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OUR PERSPECTIVE How AI Can Usher in an Economy that Puts People First lt's hard to overstate the impact that arti昀椀cial intelligence (AI) is going to have on every aspect of business and the econ WORLD omy. ln the tech industry, we have long understood its potential. Much of the rest of the world woke up to its transforma tional power more recently, particularly following last year's launch of ChatGPT. Naturally, that awesome power has raised EC )NOMIC a slew of questions. What are Al's potential bene昀椀ts and downsides? Will the former outweigh the latter? What will AI do to productivity and jobs? Will it exacerbate inequality? Where is it going to take us? Will we be able to control AI, or will it F DRUM control us? Each of these questions merits a healthy debate. As a veteran of the tech industry and as an investor whose 昀椀rm's motto is "people 昀椀rst," 1 bring an unabashedly optimistic perspective to the conversation. But optimism doesn't mean complacency. Everyone in business - from the startups cre BY NAVIN CHADDHA ating AI technologies, to the companies adopting machine learning algorithms to supercharge their products or opera FEBRUARY 1, 2024 tions - has a role to play in ensuring AI is truly a force for good. Here's why l'm optimistic, and what I think companies big and small should be doing today to ensure a positive outcome. AI will augment humans, not replace them Those of us who have been around the tech industry for years have seen it again and again - powerful emerging technol ogies raise fears aboutjobs. And certainly, new forms of automation eliminate some jobs. But they also create ef昀椀ciencies and streamline repetitive tasks, allowing humans to move up the value chain. Ultimately, more jobs are created. Personal computers, for example, eliminated some jobs for typesetters but helped to create far more employment through desktop publishing. 1 am convinced that AI will have that kind of effect, but on a much larger scale. lt will create massive productivity gains that will allow businesses to invest more, innovate more and generate new jobs along the way. But that's just one part of the story. 1 also believe AI will give us new superpowers that will make our work more satisfying and our lives richer, leading us into an era I think of as "human squared." How? First, our way of interacting with technology will change. Going forward, our primary way to communicate with com puters will be through rich and layered conversations. Perhaps more importantly, for the 昀椀rst time, technology will be able to perform cognitive tasks that augment our own capabilities.
Responsible AI is a practice, not a checklist Rather than merely speed up and automate repetitive tasks, AI will generate net new things much like humans do. The result is that we'II be able to multiply our Just like the companies creating AI technologies, those that are deploying them have choices to make and, 1 would argue, a duty to do so responsibly. l'm encour own capabilities with a human-like assistant. Whether you call it an intelligence agent (AI becomes IA), copilot, teammate, coach, genie or something else, it will aged by what l'm seeing and hearing. make us immensely more capable, regardless of the task we are performing. 1 be lieve that we are witnessing a whole new layer of cognitive plumbing that is being Whether it's through our annual survey of CIOs (chief information o昀케cers) or in built to drive this wave. conversations across the industry and at events like the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davas, 1 have noticed a sense of collective urgency among many business leaders to do the right thing. Founders should build trustworthy companies from day one The entrepreneurs creating tomorrow's AI systems and applications all face choices in how they develop and harness the technology. That's why, as an inves But that's easier said than dane. lmplementing responsible AI practices across an organization is a challenge that requires resources, commitment and leadership. tor in startups, 1 encourage all founders to build trustworthy companies from day one. What do I mean by that? One of the 昀椀rst things I do when I meet founders is Like anything in business, it must begin with an adequate budget and a mecha to probe their values. 1 want to know whether they are driven by human-centric nism for accountability. mission, and whether their vision for how to deploy technology is aligned with ours. The person or group that oversees it needs to have the visibility and stature within the organization to be able to convene stakeholders - across tech, legal, compli These are probing and broad ranging conversations that inevitably cover a few ance, audit, and other functions - and in昀氀uence decisions. lmportantly, the CEO keytopics: and board should know how those groups are working together and the roles each has to play. Trust and safety can never be an afterthought. ln the past year, the poten tial pitfalls of AI - whether it is hallucinations, lack of transparency, inequity, Some companies are waiting for regulatory regimes to force their hand. 1 think bias, deep fakes, copyright infringement or other issues - have been well publicized. lf AI is going to be a force for good, founders must not only be that's a mistake. Deploying AI responsibly, and doing it in a way that doesn't slow the pace of innovation, is not like flipping a switch. aware of them but also determined to address them. They must evaluate the trustworthiness of the models they develop and use, and ensure that they are Those who aren't laying out thoughtful plans today are already behind. For those compliant with a nascent but rapidly growing regulatory regime. who don't know where to start, a growing number of certi昀椀cation programmes Data privacy is a human right. AI is fuelled by data and companies should from organizations like the Responsible AI lnstitute can help lead the way. The time to do so is now. treat that data responsibly. That means not only complying with regulatory regimes, but also embracing ethical practices around its use. That ranges AI is already improving our economy and wellbeing in myriad ways, including high from transparency about what they will and won't do with it, to the handling, classi昀椀cation, and security of sensitive data, and the careful inventory, lineage, er worker productivity, more accurate health diagnoses, new forms of drug discov ery, and better decision-making, to name a few. But that's just the beginning. retention and consent to use of everything that goes into AI models. The time to put guardrails around data practices is now, not after breaches or privacy violations are exposed and it's too late to prevent harm. 1 am certain that businesses and entrepreneurs will be able to harness AI tech nology in new ways that will unlock untapped human potential and bene昀椀ts on an Startups should not only dedicate themselves to AI safety, accountability, and unprecedented scale. We just need to approach innovation with the right motiva tions and accountability mechanisms to ensure that promise becomes reality. averting harms, but also state their commitments publicly, as, for example, Anthropic has dane, which should serve as a model for others to emulate.
OUR PERSPECTIVE A People-First 嘀椀ew of an AI-First Economy Today marks nine months since ChatGPT was released, and six weeks since we announced our AI Start seed fund. Based on our conversations with scores of inception and early-stage AI founders, and hundreds of leading CXOs, 1 can attest that we are de昀椀nitely in exuberant times. ln the span of less than a year, AI investments have become de rigueur in any portfolio, new private company unicorns are being created every week, and the idea that AI will drive a stock market rebound is taking root. People outside of tech are BY NAVIN CHADDHA becoming familiar with new vocabulary. Large language models. ChatGPT. Deep-learning algorithms. Neural networks. AUGUST 30, 2023 Reasoning engines. lnference. Prompt engineering. CoPilots. Leading strategists and thinkers are sharing their view on how it will transform business, how it will unlock potential, and how it will contribute to human fiourishing. While there are still many unknowns, and it is prudent for us to be aware of the risks as well as the potential of any new technology ("Oppenheimer," anyone?), one 昀椀rm conviction makes me optimistic. We are guided by a "people-昀椀rst" phi losophy at May昀椀eld, one in which the startup founder's bold vision elevates the customer of their product and ignites a community. When applied to AI, people-昀椀rst has even more powerful resonance. 1 believe that two dynamics will combine 2 to establish AI as a powerful force that will allow any human to become what I call Human - as in, "human squared." First, our main form of interacting with computing devices will change. lt will become conversational. Whereas we once relied on a command line, then the GUI, the browser, and the mobile device, we are now going to primarily communicate with computers through rich and layered conversations. The impact of that change will be compounded by a second one: For the 昀椀rst time, technology will be able to perform cognitive tasks that augment our own capabilities. Rather than merely speed up and automate repetitive tasks, AI will generate net new things much like humans do. The result is that we'II be able to multiply our own capabilities with a human-like copilot - or teammate, or coach, or assistant, 2 . And precisely because the potential and power of AI is so great, the need to focus on or genie. AI x Human = Human responsible development is paramount. Human > Automate Cognitive Tasks > Accelerate Productivity > Amplify Creativity > Superhuman We have customized our people-昀椀rst framework to apply to AI companies and are using it to guide our investment deci sions. Today, we are publishing the 琀椀ve key pillars of that framework in the spirit of fostering responsible AI investing:
Data privacy is a human right Mission and values count We believe that privacy requires its own focus and cannot just be subsumed un Founding values drive culture. They are not something that can be bolted on as a company grows. We saw this in the missions of three of our most successful der trust and safety. Fortunately, given the myriad of regulations like CCPA, DGA, DMA, DPA, GDPR, PIPA, and PDPO that emerged in recent years, companies are companies over the last decade. Lyft was dedicated to improving people's lives with the best transportation; Poshmark put people at the heart of commerce, already working on putting data controls in place. This is especially important in the age of generative AI, when models produce new data from training sets, and empowering everyone to thrive; HashiCorp built criticai infrastructure that allowed the unauthorized use of training data has become a signi昀椀cant intellectual prop others to innovate. This time around, we are having similar discussions with Al-昀椀rst founders to see if they have a human-centric mission and authentic values. We erty concern. Regulations for the ethical use of data, which provi de assurance and risk management, are now emerging across the globe. want to understand what drives their thinking about the impact of their technology and ensure we're aligned. Governance areas that have to be addressed include discovery and inventory of ali data; detection and classi昀椀cation of sensitive data; understanding models' GenAI has to be in your DNA access and entitlements by users; consent, legal basis, retention, and residency The recent explosion in AI has been driven by innovative thinking by researchers, understanding; and quality and lineage. model builders, ethicists, and technologists. We believe that founders who have been steeped in that world understand how to design and build people-昀椀rst AI Paying attention to these things is criticai. We are asking founders to do so and businesses. encouraging them to build guardrails now. lt will be too hard to act once the pro verbial data horse has left the barn. So when we meet with founders, we are looking for: A fundamental belief that AI will augment humans, not replace them - Superhuman impact can be scored AI is a teammate or even a co-founder. We believe that people-昀椀rst AI will truly elevate humans, and we are working on a A founding team that has worked in the academic or applied generative AI 昀椀eld, or one that has a unique insertion point into the generative AI wave. design framework to measure that potential when meeting founders. Going back to our company examples, Lyft, Poshmark, and HashiCorp elevated drivers, sei ler A passion for design and user experience to bring out the invisible AI capabilities to ali human-computer interaction and workflows. stylists, and cloud practitioners, respectively, enabling them to grow into vibrant communities. They had to make tough decisions to stick with their commitment Solutions that are powered by generative AI elements like LLMs, propri etary models and datasets, and a chatlike natural language interface. but ultimately were rewarded by the satisfaction of having achieved their missions An overall value proposition that involves the cognitive offioading of of empowering and elevating people. repetitive tasks. As an inception and early-stage investor, our focus is to champion entrepreneurs and help them build iconic companies. We believe that bringing a people-昀椀rst Trust and safety cannot be an afterthought As we already know, there are some harmful effects of AI. Some we have identi昀椀ed approach to fostering generation-de昀椀ning AI companies will result in enduring companies and a richer, better world. include hallucinations, poisoning, lack of transparency, inequity, injustice, bias, deep fakes, IP and copyright infringement, and violations of privacy and security. We are asking founders to evaluate the trustworthiness of the models driving their innovation, and encouraging them to look at pioneering work on holistic model evaluation such as that being done at Stanford. We believe founders need to evaluate this not only at the time of model selection but also in the whole lifecy cle of a model, from development, to testing, and deployment. At the sa爀渀e time, compliance with the growing regime of regulations, guidelines, and frameworks for the responsible use of AI is paramount.
OUR FOOTPRINT lnspiring Early Stage Founders 吀漀e VIDEO Fund Build Scale Corner O昀케ce PODCAST SERIES ■ Episode 6: Episode 1: Understanding Privacy Building Trust with Your What is Cognition-as-a-Service lnception lnvestor and Compliance (CaaS)? Episode 7: Episode 2: What is Cognitive Plumbing? Communicating Your Vision Digging Your Moat: Customer Discovery + PLG for AI Startups Episode 8: What We Look for in Founders Scaling to $1M ARR and Beyond Episode 3: Tapping into the AI Episode 9: Developer Community How to Take Your AI Startup from Research to Reality Episode4: Fundraising from Both Sides Episode 10: of theTable Enduring Strategies for lnception-Stage Founders Episode 5: Breaking into Enterprise Sales and lnvestors
OUR FOOTPRINT Expanding Our Ne琀眀ork May昀椀eld has built a global network of C-level executives and business leaders from across all industries. who need access to new ideas to compete in their own mar kets. This is a highly engaged global netwerk whose members engage with our portfolio, join our events, and provide their own top oi mind priorities in formal reports. > � aws accenture ANTHROP\C 䌀谀 ⸀娀 databricks ---- ----- -- - -- --- - - - --- ⸀尀 Hugging Face Google DeepMind Google Cloud 㘀䐀 LangCh�n --- - - - ------ ---·- ⸀ⴀ• MISTRAL McKin ey&Company «�nVIDIA @OpenAI 伀伀Meta Í吀嬀Azure AI Ca爀渀egie Mellon (漀⤀ snowflake Qualcoꐀ University • 1
OUR FOOTPRINT E渀最aging with our C堀伀 Ne琀眀ork CXO Survey CXO of the Future Podcast Each year May昀椀eld completes a comprehensive CXO survey Even before ChatGPT, one-third of CIOs say their or based on the pressing topics of the day. ln 2024, that topic ganization had already deployed arti昀椀cial intelligence was of course generative AI, and how it's beginning to push (AI) technologies, and 15% more believed they would the boundaries of human ingenuity, reshaping industries at an deploy AI within the next year, according to the 2023 unprecedented pace. ln this dynamic environment, IT leaders Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey. But face the criticai task of aligning their AI and IT priorities to navi deciding how best to proceed means factoring AI into gate the digital frontier and ensure their organizations thrive. business value, risk, talent, and investment priorities. As a next step, CIOs and other organizational leaders must create an AI strategy roadmap that synthesizes the enterprise's vision for the future: outlining poten tial bene昀椀ts, while mitigating risk, capturing KPls, and implementing best practices for value creation. We speak to leading CXOs across a variety of industries to CXO Insight Calls learn more about how they are enabling a technolo �-- Ma昀eld CXO lnsight Call gy-driven transformation for the business. Pr愀Ⰰctical AI: Early Use Cases in the En1erprise T oday We host quarterly educational calls designed speci昀椀 cally for our network of CXO practitioners. These cal Is are a chance for us to dive deep with our community into a range of relevant topics that shape today's A퐀鼀n JoNI Rob ⸀ꈀrden Rom Venkotesh Vln Sho爀洀o Pre$1den1 and CEO Founder and CEO Founder and CTO Co-Founder and CEO tech landscape, equipping executives to tackle both 㨀븀 猀攀cu椀i Scm椀栀4.ai Scma+.ai vi il 1 technological advancements and pressing business challenges. Recent cal Is have included topics ranging from early AI use cases in the enterprise today, to how to effectively score and implement early AI initiatives.
