AI today is like the internet in 1988: Salesforce AI CEO

The AI industry could be on the brink of a significant breakthrough, according to Salesforce AI’s Clara Shih.

The current state of development in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms is comparable to the early days of the Internet, according to the CEO of Salesforce AI.

Clara Shih compares today’s AI landscape to the year 1988, when the internet was still in its infancy.

Speaking at a panel discussion at Viva Tech Paris 2024, Shih said:

“Today is like 1988 for AI… The first wave [of AI] automates mundane and repetitive tasks… When the technology becomes mature, we will invent new business models.”

Shih’s comments suggest that society is on the brink of a potentially groundbreaking AI advancement, as 1988 was the year before the invention of today’s World Wide Web.

Before the World Wide Web, the Internet was relatively primitive, only comprising around 60,000 users, mainly limited to universities and government offices.

The internet started becoming more available internationally in 1988, after Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were connected to the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET).

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AI is updating current jobs, not replacing them: Salesforce AI CEO

Working-class professionals have been concerned about a potential dystopian future where AI systems automate and overtake most human labor, rendering the biological workforce obsolete.

However, AI is updating today’s work roles instead of replacing them, much like the internet, according to the Salesforce AI CEO. Shih said:

“With the Internet, some jobs were replaced… but across the board, people needed new job descriptions. And we’re living that now [with artificial intelligence].”

The CEO noted that she expects a similar transformation to the early 2000s, when professionals were forced to learn to use the internet and the Google search engine to make their jobs easier. Google was first launched in September 1998.

Shih’s predictions align with those of the AI division behind Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, commonly known as LVMH.

The luxury conglomerate is also aiming to use AI algorithms to complement human workers, not replace them, according to Axel de Goursac, the director of AI Factory at LVMH. He said:

“We don’t want to replace but augment humans with artificial intelligence…”