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Opinion | ChatGPT’s rise amid tech lay-offs bodes well for start-ups – and a new AI dawn
- ChatGPT has pushed AI to a commercial tipping point, just as tech lay-offs push thousands into the market for start-ups, with the potential to revolutionise our lives
- But to enjoy this bright AI-powered future, regulation urgently needs to catch up
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Amid a gloomy economic outlook, massive lay-offs have been the theme of the tech sector as we entered 2023. Many are pessimistic about the future of the tech sector but the recent tech lay-offs are arguably the darkness before the dawn for the era of artificial intelligence, for two reasons.
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First, as exemplified by ChatGPT, the development of AI technologies has reached a tipping point, ready for large-scale commercialisation. Second, tech lay-offs have released tens of thousands of talents into the job market. Many of them possess the precious knowledge and experiences of the development and commercialisation of AI technologies.
These two factors combined will give rise to many AI start-ups, applying AI technologies to revolutionise our daily lives, similar to how the mobile internet changed the way we live.
Historically, many great tech companies were forged in crisis. When the 2008 global financial crisis hit, tech giants such as Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp laid off tens of thousands of workers in Silicon Valley. It was a desperate atmosphere, but mobile internet start-ups also sprang up like mushrooms. Airbnb was founded in 2008; Slack, WhatsApp, Square and Uber were founded in 2009; Instagram and Pinterest were founded in 2010.
These companies gave rise to the mobile internet era. But the interesting question is why these mobile internet companies all started to emerge during the financial crisis. I summarise two reasons.
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First, mobile internet technologies were at the tipping point for large-scale commercialisation around 2008. The first iPhone came out in 2007, Android 1.0 was released in 2008, and mobile connectivity was transitioning from 3G to 4G during the period.
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