In defence of the second-mover advantage

A NOTE of threat has crept into the otherwise optimistic language of those who champion the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

You can hear it in the rhetoric of UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, who told workers and businesses in June: “Act now, and you will thrive into the future. Don’t, and I think that some people will be left behind.” You can hear it in the marketing spiel used by software companies such as Salesforce: “Companies that fail to leverage AI in their business risk being left behind those that do.”

And you can hear it in the way some chief executives are beginning to communicate with staff. “AI is coming for your jobs,” Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman wrote in a memo to staff in May. “Are we all doomed? Not all of us, but those who will not wake up and understand the new reality fast, are, unfortunately, doomed.”