“Development Trajectory of the Internet and AI – Will History Repeat Itself, or Just Rhyme?” WebMD founding COO Michael Heekin draws comparisons to the early days of the Internet to discuss the rapid dynamics of Artificial Intelligence and how it may impact business operations in the next ten years before a July 23, 2024 meeting of The Economic Club of Florida.

Show Notes (for complete Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts-and-summaries/)

Michael Heekin first took the Club on a nostalgic trip through the history of the internet featuring names such as America Online, the first internet connection many people had, Alta Vista and Yahoo, early search engines, and Netscape, an early browser.

He discussed how electrical energy demands from Artificial Intelligence (AI), various data centers, electric vehicles, among others will be huge. Previous Club speakers have addressed the energy needs as well.

“AI does not think like the human brain,” Heekin said. “Data is the key. It does not have instincts, emotions or consciousness.”

He said that as far as we know, AI is not capable of innovative thinking. He acknowledged that while AI might replace humans in performing some tasks, it’s power will be helping humans work more efficiently.

“It can take the works of the Beatles, and it can compose a new song and have Paul McCartney sing it,” he said. “It sounds like the Beatles because it’s got the same meter and the same interplay of instruments. But, it’s not capable of, and I’m going to guess never will have original thought. It’s not going to recreate a masterpiece like the complete works of Shakespeare or the City of God by Augustine.”

Heekin, who specializes in the management and development of growth-stage health and technology companies, talked about how we saw internet companies succeed and fail, and through the booms and busts, we’ve seen what they needed to succeed. AI companies will be similar in that there will be successes as well as dashed dreams and lost investment money.

“Access to good data and good data curation is what’s going to be really key,” he said. “Getting good data, curating it, and then stuffing it into the algorithm.”

He said that regulatory good faith is necessary for AI to grow, and he praised President Bill Clinton and U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich for their light regulation of the Internet in the 1990s.

“The government needs to not kill this thing in the crib. It has great potential for good, and great, great potential for threats. But that’s the same with a lot of things, wi-fi, life in general. The genie’s out of the bottle. If it’s not AI, it will be something else.”

He also looked at social media and regulation as a model for AI.

“Social media is like giving kids a pack of cigarettes. It’s clear AI is going to need some regulation, but it should be ex-post, not in advance. People in Washington don’t have a monopoly on good sense.”

He said AI will be a commodity product.

“There will be some wrinkles to it, but it will be a commodity. We will have access to AI, but most AI companies will not own the AI algorithms. Thay may own developments of it. They may have prompt engineers that can tell the AI algorithm what to do, but they will not own the algorithm lock stock and barrel.”

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