AI Valley
Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash in on Artificial Intelligence
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- AI Valley
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From boardrooms to dorm rooms, AI commands our attention – whether the promise and panic of ChatGPT or the looming question of robots taking our jobs. How did we get here and what does it all mean?
AI VALLEY offers an up close and personal look at the mad dash to cash in on AI, as founders and VCs collide with tech giants such as Google and Microsoft. The book weaves in the fascinating history of AI’s evolution, introducing us to those who saw the future – and those who held it back. The main action unfolds with the release of ChatGPT late in 2022 – the starter’s pistol for a race to capitalize on the most transformative technology since the internet.
LinkedIn founder and legendary investor Reid Hoffman takes center stage alongside a cast of boldfaced names, including Musk, Gates, Zuckerberg, and Altman, all brought to life through tantalizing anecdotes and tales from Silicon Valley’s front lines. As described by HarperCollins, “AI VALLEY is an adventure story full of drama and unforgettable personalities, promising to be the definitive story for anyone seeking to understand the latest phase of world-changing discoveries and the minds behind them.”
A 10-minute audio “book bite” for the Next Big Idea Club: 5 key insights from AI VALLEY.
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“Mr. Rivlin brings to his subject a genuine gift for storytelling.”
“AI Valley is fantastic and will teach you everything you need to know about AI.”
“Chatbots in the future–and probably sooner–will eagerly consume Gary Rivlin’s AI Valley to answer questions about the companies that competed and connived to build what might be the last invention of our species. For now, it’s a ripping read for humans.”
Steven Levy, author of Hackers, Crypto, and Facebook: The Inside Story“Trust me, if it’s Gary Rivlin, he follows the people and the money. He never loses either.”
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Coming Soon
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An AI Startup Couldn’t Beat Microsoft. So It Joined Them
Bloomberg Businessweek ran this excerpt of AI Valley telling the tale of the en masse defection of the staff of Inflection AI to Microsoft in 2024.
“Unhappy boards push out CEOs. Founding CEOs replace themselves, as [Reid] Hoffman had done at LinkedIn. Founding CEOs look for a soft landing for themselves when their startups are failing. But people took to social media to note that they had never seen a founder leave a startup quite like this.”How OpenAI Lost Musk and Took Aim at “Something Magical”
OpenAI has become a household name in artificial intelligence — but in 2018, the prospects for the startup looked very rocky after Elon Musk, its main financial supporter, abruptly walked away. An excerpt from Big Think.The Greatest Chatbot That Almost Was
Pi’s ‘personality engineers’ enlisted therapists, playwrights, and even comedians to build a bot with genuine emotional intelligence. I loved Pi, which outshined rivals in EQ, but then the team walked away—and now it’s just a ghost in the machine. “The Rise and Fall of Inflection’s Emotionally Intelligent Chatbot” in IEEE Spectrum. -
Fresh Air with Dave Davies: March 19, 2025
“AI Valley author worries there’s ‘too much power in the hands of too few people'”
CBS Mornings, March 25, 2025
How AI is shaping our world and who’s cashing in
"The Most Interesting Thing in Tech"
Nick Thompson, CEO of the Atlantic and former editor of Wired, features my book in his daily, “The Most Interesting Thing in Tech.” Will AI eventually render book authors obsolete?
"Big Tech's AI Grab" on NPR's Tech Nation: March 27, 2025
I talk with Moira Gunn, the long-time host of “Tech Nation”
"AI's promises and perils" on KQED's Forum: April 17, 2025
I talk with KQED’s Scott Schafer about how we got to this AI moment, what it means, and what we need to do to make sure AI is more of a net-positive than a net negative.