One of the world’s most powerful men was trapped in a central London basement this morning. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, had come down to the lower ground floor of Chatham House to talk to the former chief mandarin of the Foreign Office about artificial intelligence. He had precisely 40 minutes, our host said, because he needed to catch a plane to Davos. ‘Thank you for choosing Chatham House for your London destination’, Nadella was told, in the same way that passengers are thanked for ‘choosing’ Ryanair to Dublin. Chatham House was the perfect stage: if you want somewhere to talk about the impact of things, how to harness things, and how to discover the potential of things, you come here. This is lanyard Valhalla.

Nadella is arguably the most impressive CEO of the 21st century after Microsoft earlier this year overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable company. He was born in Hyderabad, India, moved to the US, and joined Microsoft as an engineer in 1992. Three decades on, a quarter of a million people work for him and I am writing this on one of his platforms (Word). He became CEO in 2014, reinvigorating a company that had fallen behind Apple as it launched the iPhone and the iPad. Nadella has done that by buying things. In nine years, he has completed 326 deals worth more than $170 billion, with Microsoft buying its crown jewels of GitHub, LinkedIn and most recently Activision Blizzard, following a two-year back and forth with antitrust regulators. Microsoft’s revenue has tripled and its share price is eight times higher under his leadership. As one commentator put it, ‘he edges out Steve Jobs simply because he turned around Microsoft without the benefit of the clout that comes from being the founder.’

He’s an unassuming man – despite being one of the richest people in the world, he could probably use the Tube without being recognised.

QOSHE - AI won’t be humanity’s ‘co-pilot’ - Angus Colwell
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AI won’t be humanity’s ‘co-pilot’

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15.01.2024

One of the world’s most powerful men was trapped in a central London basement this morning. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, had come down to the lower ground floor of Chatham House to talk to the former chief mandarin of the Foreign Office about artificial intelligence. He had precisely 40 minutes, our host said, because he needed to catch a plane to Davos. ‘Thank you for choosing Chatham House for your London destination’, Nadella was told, in the same way that........

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