A leader in the data economy explains how we arrived at AI--and how we
can navigate its future
In The Datapreneurs, Bob Muglia helps us understand how innovation in
data and information technology have led us to AI--and how this
technology must shape our future. The long-time Microsoft executive,
former CEO of Snowflake, and current tech investor maps the evolution of
the modern data stack and how it has helped build today's economy and
society. And he explains how humanity must create a new social contract
for the artificial general intelligence (AGI)--autonomous machines
intelligent as people--that he expects to arrive in less than a decade.
Muglia details his personal experience in the foundational years of
computing and data analytics, including with Bill Gates and Sam Altman,
the CEO of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and others that are not
household names--yet. He builds upon Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics to
explore the moral, ethical, and legal implications of today's smart
machines, and how a combination of human and machine intelligence
could create an era of progress and prosperity where all the people on
Earth can have what they need and want without destroying our natural
environment.
The Datapreneurs is a call to action. AGI is surely coming. Muglia
believes that tech business leaders, ethicists, policy leaders, and even
the general public must collaborate answer the short- and long-term
questions raised by its emergence. And he argues that we had better get
going, because advances are coming so fast that society risks getting
caught flatfooted--with potentially disastrous consequences.
