AI Startups vs. Big Chatbots — With Olivia Moore
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What is the overall outlook on AI startups competing with big chatbots?
I think that every tech company is gonna be an AI company and every AI company is gonna be an agent company. And so the sooner that you as kind of an employee or a business owner can kind of get on board and learn how to use that to your advantage, probably the better. We haven't seen anyone crack AI social yet. I think it's gonna be really tricky. I would say at the highest level, kind of how we view AI is not just as a market, but as the reinvention of the whole technology industry, which means that similar to how we have many tech companies that are worth hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars now, I think that's gonna be the case for AI, where in my opinion, at least it's not winner-take all.
ChatGPT has 900 million users. It's still growing. And get fifty-seven percent of American voters say the risks of AI outweigh the benefits. So can anyone compete with the big AI chat box? The labs have the compute, the talent, and the distribution. They keep shipping features that wipe out entire startup categories overnight. Image generation used to be a crowded market. Now ChatGPT and Gemini handle most of it. But the labs are constrained. Every hour spent on creative models is an hour not spent on coding agents or AGI. And the gaps between platforms are widening. ChatGPT is going mass market with ads. Claude is building for finance and science. Gemini spikes when a new model drops. In this conversation, originally aired on Big Technology Podcast, Olivia Moore, partner at A16Z, talks with Alex Kantrowitz about where AI startups can still win.
Welcome to Big Technology Podcast, a show for cool-headed and nuanced conversation of the tech world and beyond. We have a great show for you today. We're going to talk about whether there is room for startups and maybe other companies in the economy to compete with the AI chatbots as they continue to grow and get more capable. And we're going to do it with the perfect guest. Olivia Moore is here. She is an AI partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. Olivia, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for being here. Let's just begin with this because it's topical.
Yeah.
You are investing in AI applications at Andreas and Horowitz. And typically they need a lot of people to use them to pay off.
Yes.
But the mood right now in the United States is very negative towards AI. Actually surprisingly negative.
Yes. Yes.
Um, this is from a new NBC news poll out this week. Fifty-seven percent of voters thinks the risks of AI outweigh the benefits. Um, and then if you look at the total p positive versus total negative sentiment of AI. in in general. Uh it ranks so low. It is a negative twenty, uh, in terms of the negatives uh are uh twenty p p uh percentage points lower sorry twenty points lower than the positives. They are only popular uh more popular than the Democratic Party in and Iran uh in this poll. Colbert, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Sa Sanctuary Cities Trump, Republican Party, even ICE all uh out outrank. AI. Why do you think AI is Viewed with such
Why do American voters view AI more negatively than other technologies?
Disdain and negativity in the United States and what are the implications of that?
Yeah, no, it's a great question. Um Maybe first of all, the why, I would say there's been a lot in the media in the US more broadly, these kind of very catchy statements about things like AI uses so much water um that that have kind of made people really concerned about leaning in on the technology. I think also the US is more indexed in a positive way towards things like the creative fields. And those are jobs that I think people feel especially sensitive about AI use. Um, so the numbers I've seen I think track closely with with what you're saying versus something like a China or like, you know, half as trusting in AI if you if you look at some of these surveys. I think it's going to change and it's already changing.
I was just talking with someone this morning who is not in the tech industry and they were saying the same lines like AI is evil, it's gonna watch us, like it's using all the water and then they were like, but ChatGPT really helps me and it has like great answers.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the overall outlook on AI startups competing with big chatbots?
0:00–3:20
2
Why do American voters view AI more negatively than other technologies?
3:20–10:47
3
How can AI startups still win against the resources of the big labs?
10:47–22:46
4
What are the key differences in strategy and focus among ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini?
22:46–39:59
5
How does OpenClaw work and what unique value does it bring to developers?
39:59–56:21
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The a16z Show
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