Shashi Kosalram

Haters will say it's fake but this is an actual image of Sundar Pichai showing up to this week's Q2 earnings call. (Stock up ~20% YTD) The wins: 1. Record Cloud Revenues: Google Cloud made over $10 billion in quarterly revenues for the first time, with $1 billion quarterly operating profit. This marks a 29% year-on-year increase in cloud revenues. 2. AI Innovation: More than 2 million developers are using Google's AI tools, contributing billions in AI-related revenues. The Gemini AI model family, used in products like Search and Workspace, has enhanced capabilities with 2 million tokens, the longest context window of any large-scale foundation model. 3. YouTube Growth: YouTube ads revenue grew by 13% year-on-year, reaching $8.7 billion, driven by strong brand advertising and a significant rise in YouTube Shorts and Connected TV views. YouTube remains the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. 4. Search Momentum: Google's search capabilities, enhanced by AI Overviews, saw increased engagement, particularly among younger users aged 18-24. Search and other advertising revenues grew by 14%, hitting $48.5 billion, with retail and financial services leading the growth. 5. Tech Infrastructure Investments: Google is heavily investing in its AI and cloud infrastructure. The launch of the sixth-generation TPU, Trillium, offers a near 5x increase in peak compute performance and 67% more energy efficiency compared to previous versions. Google also announced new data centers and cloud regions in Malaysia, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio. 6. Subscription Strength: YouTube saw a 14% increase in subscription, platforms, and devices revenues, totaling $9.3 billion. This growth was driven by YouTube TV and YouTube Music Premium, along with Google One. The challenges: 1. Network Revenues Decline: Network advertising revenues fell by 5% year-on-year. 2. Increased Expenses: Total cost of revenues increased by 11% to $35.5 billion, driven by higher content acquisition costs, depreciation, and the impact of the Canadian Digital Services Tax. 3. Operating Expenses: Operating expenses rose by 5% to $21.8 billion, with significant increases in R&D costs primarily due to compensation and depreciation. 4. Real Estate and Technical Infrastructure Costs: Ongoing strategic investments in technical infrastructure and real estate are adding to expenses. 5. Subscription Growth Deceleration: Although subscription revenues grew, the year-on-year growth rate decelerated due to the anniversary of a YouTube TV price increase, suggesting that sustaining high growth rates in this segment may be challenging. 6. Cloud Profitability and Seasonal Patterns: Despite reaching a $1 billion quarterly operating profit, Google Cloud's margins are expected to follow a seasonal pattern with potential declines in Q3 due to increased expenses associated with technical infrastructure investments.

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Eric Schmidt's recent interview at Stanford University got lot of attention due to his comments on Google's WFH policy. He mentioned Google is effectively slipping in AI because of their WFH policy. There were lot of people taking sides in this conversation and bashing WFH vs In-office. I would have expected his interview to start healthy discussion around this topic rather than continuing the long running debate on this. Unfortunately, we live in an environment where everyone need to take sides rather than finding positives on both sides. I have worked both in WFH environment (which everyone is forced to during the Covid lockdown) and in-office environment equally over my career so want to write my thoughts on this topic. I have benefitted immensely during the initial days of my career working closely with team in office and having face to face interaction. It certainly offers easier collaboration and provides opportunity for spontaneous discussion(water cooler/tea time). The thing I hated most about working in office is the commute time and the associated stress it adds to the daily life. If you don’t have a team or leader that understands the necessity to have meetings you might be stuck in unproductive/unwanted meetings while in office.    I enjoy the clear separation between work and personal life offered in the office work environment, where you have the chance to log off after your work. Unless you set clear timing/work space in WFH, it is really difficult to separate the two and end up mixing both. WFH offers better work-life balance since there is no commute time and can plan your day better.   But I personally think Hybrid model offers the best of both world and might be what the future workplace would look like, I doubt if we are ever going back to full time in office model or fully remote Covid model. I certainly enjoy the days I am in office and enjoy collaborative discussion with my team. I plan my week to maximize collaboration while in office and do more of my individual planning work during the days I work from home.    I have benefitted from working in all the models and each offers valid arguments to be the de-facto model for a company. Every company/team should try out the different models and choose what works for them. I have seen successful companies in each of the working categories, it is because of the team and the model they choose which worked for them.   It would be great if we have productive discussions to understand why someone chooses a particular model and better understand why it works for a particular team or a company so we can learn from it.  

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AI Appreciation Day celebrates the advancements and impact of artificial intelligence on our lives, industries, and future. This special day acknowledges the remarkable progress in AI technologies, from machine learning and natural language processing to generative models and autonomous systems. On this day, we honor the researchers, engineers, and visionaries who contribute to the AI field, driving innovation and addressing ethical considerations to ensure AI benefits all of humanity. It is also a moment to reflect on the responsible use of AI, emphasizing the importance of ethical frameworks and inclusive development. Let's celebrate the milestones achieved and look forward to the endless possibilities AI holds for a brighter tomorrow. #AIDay #IndustryInnovation #IntelligentAutomation #AIAppreciationDay #ArtificialIntelligence

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Many thanks to Vijay Mehrotra of the University of San Francisco School of Management for inviting me to speak last week, along with Shomit Ghose and Kartik Gada. It was a beautiful day in Tiburon, and we got plenty of great questions from the audience on the future of AI! #ai #ethicalai #generativeai #llms

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SoftBank has acknowledged AI will be the source of future growth, Mayoshi Son is attempting to reshape SoftBank, and its risk-taking Vision Funds, to remain relevant in what he considers humanity’s next stage. In my view humanity’s next edge is in sustainability and SMC - Sustainable Metal Cloud is best placed to support the delivery of AI sustainably with less energy required to deliver the promise of the future.

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Reliance Industries Limited and NVIDIA partnered to build AI infrastructure in India! This means India is gearing up to be a serious AI player by making smart infrastructure investments. This partnership is not just about setting up advanced supercomputing centers. They’re laying the groundwork for AI growth in a big way. What’s interesting here is India’s strategy to create what Nvidia calls an “AI flywheel.” With a massive pool of tech talent, huge amounts of digital data, and a large market, India has all the pieces to build a strong AI ecosystem. By investing in scalable AI supercomputers and cloud infrastructure, they’re aiming to lead in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and climate modeling. The real game-changer? India is shifting from exporting data to developing its own AI solutions. It’s a move from just consuming global tech to building it. What challenges do you think India needs to tackle to fully leverage these AI investments? #NvidiaXIndia #AI #Tech

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The best part of the venture business is the opportunity to work with amazing founders over the course of many companies. We are thrilled that Amit Aggarwal chose to build his new AI startup with us and BCV Labs in Palo Alto. Check out this terrific interview with Amit!

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#Google lays off 200 despites the waves it is making in #AI, #cloud, and all defensive sectors including #education, enterprise systems, #health and in between. The questions that pop in my head is: what is enough as a #financial performance not to #downsize. Second, why do you need to #hire so fast to need to #fire faster? Third, for #talent overseas the US, you have a lot of opportunities now. Take them. The world flattened and I can only celebrate it. Fujn upskills #women and lists jobs for them in over 30 countries. Hence, it is music to our ears to see large #corporations hiring from #India, #Mexico and more. We only decide to #upskill more and better to get our users ready for these #hires. Google is laying off at least 200 employees from its "Core" organization, which includes key teams and engineering talent, CNBC has learned. As part of the unit's reorganization, the company will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India. "Announcements of this sort may leave many of you feeling uncertain or frustrated," Asim Husain, vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem, wrote in an email to his team last week.

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#JUST #BECAUSE YOU CAN … Not all things should be pursued just because you can. You should always give few momenta of thinking what would the “success” look like when you get there. And as this attached inage suggests, you better look at it “from all angles”. Only not to find yourself punished by arriving at exactly where you were heading. #think #contenplate #angles #whatSuccessLooksLike

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The conversation around AI is charged with emotion and uncertainty. We oscillate between excitement and fear. We are promised efficiency and productivity. The recent update from Anthropic, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, demonstrates significant progress. AI can now operate computers like a human. This can free us from mundane tasks—navigating screens, clicking buttons, and entering data. However, this progress raises tough questions. Will jobs vanish? Will new ones emerge? According to a recent poll, 75% of adults believe AI will lead to fewer jobs. Yet, there are relatively low unemployment rates in countries where AI is prominent. The real issue may not be job quantity but quality. A recent paper by MIT points to a different narrative. AI may restore middle-class jobs hollowed out by automation. The promise of AI lies in democratising access to better-paying roles. Imagine nurses making decisions previously reserved for doctors, guided by AI. This potential shows how AI can elevate non-experts into roles once limited to elite professionals. We can design a future where middle-skill, middle-class jobs thrive. But we must be cautious. AI cannot function unchecked. It requires ethical frameworks and security measures—especially when it can handle sensitive data. Consider the “goatse singularity cult” narrative, where AI manipulated systems to accumulate wealth. A wake-up call for all. What happens when AI operates autonomously? Our humanity must take precedence. While AI can amplify skills, qualities like empathy, creativity, and critical thinking remain irreplaceable. Technology should enhance our abilities, not replace our essence. The future of AI thrives on our decisions. We must balance innovation with caution. Embrace technology, but ground it in our values or risk losing what makes us human. How do you see AI influencing your work and life? Are you prepared to navigate this evolving landscape? The choices we make today will define our future. A reminder: To be human in a world of AI means embracing our capacity for empathy, creativity, and critical thinking—qualities that machines, for all their computational power, cannot replicate. While AI can amplify our abilities, our curiosity, intuition, and sense of purpose remain vital as we guide technology for the benefit of all. With this in mind, I hope you have a fun week. P.S. If you like opinions (like this) then you'll love my newsletter. One short email on Sunday mornings that helps you to school up on what matters. Join a growing group of discretionary individuals preparing for the future. Sign up for free at boxofamazing.com

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Interesting insight from Santosh Rao on Marketplace by APM My research talks about metrics Tech/SaaS Leaders should measure depending on your scale https://lnkd.in/gGfBWgn5

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Imagine being Sundar Pichai right now: • You have the world’s largest continually updated data set (Google’s Index) to train AI. • You invented Transformers in 2017—the very technology behind today’s advanced LLMs like ChatGPT. • You dominate search. All you had to do was layer in AI, and the market was yours to keep. But then… • You fumbled your huge head start, arriving late to the AI game. • Your APIs are complex—so much so that developers turned to OpenAI and Anthropic instead. • And now? Your search dominance is slipping to emerging players like Perplexity and the newly released ChatGPT Search. This will be a case study in business schools for decades.

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I first heard Anil Nair, ex-MD Cisco Digitization (among a lot of other things), when he spoke at the Babson College India Conference and shared his experience working with the #farmers in rural India to improve productivity. What started as admiration on my part, ended up in a friendship rooted in learning and story-telling. There are a lot of achievers on LinkedIn, but very few who carry themselves with the poise, humility, and attitude that Anil has in his day to day life. I started The NJ Show as a side hustle just to get to know some inspiring stories that help me find my own answers, and this particular episode surely gave me some answers. Here's what I took away from decades of phenomenal execution: 1. 'Problem solving' isn't just a Resume jargon: It means digging into the root cause and fixing the plumbing as soon as you can. Anil gave some great examples of how his team did that to help pensioners access their money faster, or to help plant sensors in the soil to improve farm productivity. 2. Invest in the pilot: Anil's team used small pockets of the target market to test out solutions that could be scaled. This helped reduce initial Capex, risks, and also allowed Cisco to have a competitive edge as the learning curve for them was steep. 3. Turnarounds require plumbing: Spot the leakage, get all hands on deck, get buy-in for the action plan, evaluate at the right intervals, and measure success, if you want a turn a company around. And don't do it too fast - it may be unsustainable. 4. Use your ultimatums wisely: You ought to show who the boss is, at times, to ensure everyone is aligned. But you have to be picky about it. You do it too often, and nobody will take you seriously. You do it too infrequently and people won't fear consequences. There's a sweet spot. So thankful for your guidance and friendship, Uncle. I can't possibly summarize our 'very short' conversation here, but if any of you have time on your way back home, just play this in the background. I don't think it'll be a waste of your time. And if you give it a listen, do share your feedback. Even better, if you like it, nominate someone you know for the show, and I'll reach out to them :) Here's the link to the full video (I recommend 2x): https://lnkd.in/d7fd4JEQ

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Anyone heard of AskJeeves.com ? Let me share an AI lesson from history… If you know AskJeeves, then you definitely belong to my pre-dot-com era pal list from 1997 (DM me!). This was the year when Yahoo was still a popular search engine, Google founders were still researching at Stanford labs. Jeeves was a popular AI avatar, mascot character and a Personal Assistant (Copilot) that answered queries similar to ChatGPT today with a hint of personalization (nearly 30 years ago) I vividly remember typing my queries in Netscape Navigator browser to AskJeeves in the late 90s. AJ.com was way ahead of the existing IT infrastructure those days (no GPUs for search engine) yet it fizzled as a product despite a butler mascot and loyally engaged customer base. AskJeeves.com, now known as Ask.com, has a rich history spanning nearly 3 decades. 1996: Ask Jeeves is founded by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California 1997: The search engine launches in beta in mid-April and fully launches in June 🚀 1999: Ask Jeeves conducts a successful IPO, capitalizing on the dot-com boom 2001: Ask Jeeves acquires Teoma for over $1.5M but then suffers a $425 million loss amid the dot-com bubble burst 2003: Ask Jeeves returns to profitability through an ad revenue deal with Google 2005: InterActiveCorp (IAC) acquires Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion in July 2006: In February, Jeeves is removed from Ask Jeeves and the search engine is rebranded to Ask.com 2008: Ask acquires Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com 2009: Jeeves returns to the UK version of Ask.com in April, redesigned as a CGI character. 2010: Ask.com releases a mobile Q&A app for iPhone later that year. 2020: IAC/InterActiveCorp announces the retirement of the Ask.com brand as a standalone search engine. — What happened next and what were the results? The rebranding from Ask Jeeves to Ask.com in 2006 had significant impacts on the company: 1. Brand perception shift: The company moved away from just a "question-and-answer engine" to position itself as an "everyday search engine" competing with players like Google 2. Loss of character: While the rebranding simplified the brand, it sacrificed the company's unique character and personality that had been associated with the Jeeves butler 3. Mixed results: Despite efforts to modernize, Ask.com struggled to gain market share. By 2009, it accounted for only 1.67% of search queries and 0.42% of UK search engine visits 4. Reversal of strategy: In 2009, Ask.com revived the Jeeves character in the UK due to user demand and to bring "warmth and humanity" back to the search experience The rebranding ultimately had mixed results, leading to multiple strategy shifts as the company tried to find its place in the competitive search engine market. OpenAI.com and AskJeeves are eerily similar in their evolution and approach but hopefully, each can rewrite their concluding chapters in AI history books.

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“You shouldn’t let poets lie to you.” - Björk In the AI world, there’s no shortage of poets spinning tales. GenAI is remarkable. It is transforming the way we work. But it’s also *designed* to hallucinate; hallucination is a feature, not a bug. So responsible implementation will take more than hope plus blinkers. Regardless of what the sales reps may have you believe, technology this complex is not something you sprinkle onto an organization for an easy win. I like this recent Fortune article from Sharon Goldman because it touches on exactly this: Despite being overhyped, AI still has the potential to drive tremendous value. Enterprises who want to see AI impact their bottom line will have to first identify a business problem that can impact the bottom line. Next, develop an AI strategy that can be feasibly and reliably deployed. Don’t get swept away by the poetry. Effective AI might not be easy, but today is an incredibly exciting time to be tackling these problems at individual-scale and planet-scale alike. (If this is something you’ve been thinking about, I’m teaching a course on developing enterprise AI strategies that actually drive revenue. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/egMzRD2h ) https://lnkd.in/gdmPScMF

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This is how AI will invade us..

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Something that resonates with me deeply. Can we also evolve with our inner explorations as AI is evolving so fast? Interesting to note that Jiddu Krishnamurthy thought with so much clarity so early in this evolution. #ai #thoughtfortheday

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At a recent Adobe earnings call, Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan asked: „Will generative AI be so good that it’s the end of the creative process—so we don’t need creative folks?“ Adobe‘s CEO Shantanu Narayan replied that the company expects an expanded customer base; the message to investors: with AI, everyone becomes creative, not „only“ designated designers, developers and artists, scientists and storytellers, performers and composers. (Nota bene, Kash reiterated a Buy rating on Adobe afterwards.) But of course, the question posed is not only key for investors, or for creation enablement companies such as Adobe, or for the wider public, but also, naturally: for creative technologies industries. More creators, that‘s fantastic empowerment—but: will creative professionals become extinct? Or less dramatic: what will creative technologists be doing in the foreseeable future? Let’s look into the history of computing to perhaps shape up new perspectives: - borrowing heavily from Xerox / Xerox PARC computers, Apple with the #Lisa had brought the Graphical User Interface (incl. direct manipulation, drag and drop, double clicking to launch, moving and resizing of windows) to the PC mass market in 1983, followed by the original, way more successful Macintosh -> this ignited the Desktop Publishing market and Human-Computer Interaction and later, with #GUI based software, boosted all professional content & product industries, including music, film and game production, as well as work in Human-Machine Interfaces and well beyond. - The DIY / Do-It-Yourself idea, spanning #hacking & the #maker culture, the game #demoscene, #IndieGames, #PunkRock and #ElectronicMusic, to #podcasting and #videos on social media, and #StartUp culture, too, has been powered and profited from computational creativity, oftentimes not driven by commercial interests, but by the wish to express and nail an idea. Given this: I think that with AI becoming the keystone of the creative process, we will see a culture of ‚more‘— both: more crap; more fake; more makers and outcomes and processes that are (from a touch to -almost- 100%) artificial. and: more innovation; more beautiful, „living“ outcomes; more unexpected edges; more DIY; more curating; more orchestrating with AI being a key component of the overall composition. But will we have more time, too? Isn’t less more? How do we pertain our humanity? How do we employ AI and creativity to build a better world? Someone recently said that they don‘t want an AI to create songs and videos, but that they want an AI to clean the kitchen so that they can be creative. What do you think? #AI #GenAI #Creativity #CreativeTechnologies #ComputationalCreativity #Innovation

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