20VC: Microsoft CTO on Where Value Accrues in an AI World | Why Scaling Laws are BS | An Evaluation of Deepseek and How We Underestimate the Chinese | The Future of Software Development and The Future of Agents with Kevin Scott | The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch | Podwise
20VC: Microsoft CTO on Where Value Accrues in an AI World | Why Scaling Laws are BS | An Evaluation of Deepseek and How We Underestimate the Chinese | The Future of Software Development and The Future of Agents with Kevin Scott
This episode explores the evolving landscape of AI and its implications for entrepreneurship and technological advancement. Against the backdrop of current uncertainty regarding the future of AI value, Kevin Scott, CTO of Microsoft, emphasizes the importance of focusing on product development rather than solely on model creation. More significantly, he argues that the current confusion mirrors previous technological paradigm shifts, highlighting the need for active exploration, rapid iteration, and a willingness to discard unsuccessful ideas. For instance, the discussion contrasts the value of high-quality data and human feedback in model training with the limitations of relying on vast quantities of low-quality data. As the discussion pivoted to inference, Scott underscores the ongoing progress in optimizing model performance and the surprising public reaction to Microsoft's DeepSeek R1 release. This highlights the importance of providing developers with more choices and control over the "how" of AI implementation. Ultimately, the conversation concludes with Scott's vision of a future where AI agents become increasingly sophisticated, capable of handling complex tasks asynchronously, and fundamentally changing the nature of software development and engineering teams. What this means for the future is a world where even non-programmers can create applications and the most valuable contribution will be in the creative design and problem-solving aspects of software development.
