SoftBank’s outspoken founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son has been quiet for months as his tech conglomerate suffers huge investment losses.
But as the world races to adopt artificial intelligence (something that has fascinated him for years), Mr. annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, on a special day, restate his determination To be a leader in cutting-edge technology.
“We are ready to go into attack mode,” Son told investors and analysts, adding, “I want SoftBank to lead the AI revolution.” It brings back the kind of spectacular presentation he has long favored. “Coronavirus Valley” slides Will there be flying unicorns in 2020? — Asked the head of SoftBank.What is mankind?“
The answer is clearly something that could benefit from the technology behind chatbots, which have already sparked an investment boom. (To be fair, the potential of AI was one of several central themes behind SoftBank’s first $100 billion Vision Fund.)
“I think when your grandchildren are our age, they will be living in a reality where computers are 10,000 times smarter than all human wisdom put together,” he said Wednesday. Told. He added that SoftBank would be well suited to be “the architect of the future of mankind.”
Technology industry leaders have warned that AI systems could one day pose an existential threat to humanity and called for the creation of an international oversight body to regulate AI technology.
Son argues SoftBank has better days ahead. SoftBank has since saved more than $35 billion in cash in ‘defense mode’ and is ready to invest it, even though its Vision Fund has suffered heavy paper losses as startup valuations have fallen. said there is. (The company also stands to benefit from the upcoming initial public offering of its own chip design company, Arm.)
And Son said that after a slowdown last year, he is excited again. “There were times when it felt very empty,” he told investors. “Is this enough?” ‘ I cried and cried for days and couldn’t stop crying. ‘ Now he added, ‘It’s too much fun.
