SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son thinks his firm will ‘rule the world’ thanks to its AI investments. Believe it or not, that’s not as far-fetched as his previous claims.

Son began the presentation by saying he did not feel his job was complete quite yet, as he reflected on his time running SoftBank over the past year. Instead the CEO, now 65 years old, envisions spending his final years as an executive and an “architect building the future of humankind.” 

In his presentation, he asked, “what is a human?” before answering that it’s the most intelligence animal on earth.

A core thesis of Son’s presentation is that AI will far exceed human intelligence in the near future, an idea commonly referred to as “singularity.” The idea that  AI is anywhere near the ability of humans has been widely contested by industry experts. 

The latest generative AI technology, Son said, could multiply human intelligence thousands of times over.

He added that everything will be connected to AI, with AI-powered robots replacing humans for many tasks and making resources like food and housing more accessible.

AI will bring with it faster human evolution than seen during the agriculture or industrial revolutions, according to Son. This will lead to superhuman capabilities, he added.

Son believes AI has the potential to find solutions to complex problems that have been intractable for humans thus far, such as predicting natural disasters. The technology could analyze large amounts of data to recognize patterns associated with earthquakes faster and more accurately than humans could, he suggested as an example. 

In one slide, Son offers self-driving cars as one way AI will improve society and allow people to live longer, healthier lives.

Companies like Google have invested in autonomous vehicles years. Google has only recently began public testing of its vehicles, and in limited regions. Son’s optimistic predictions about AI may come true, but perhaps on a longer time horizon. 

Son’s presentation highlighted the company’s Arm investment. Arm designs chips for systems that run massive AI algorithms. These designs are inside chipsets produced by leading players in AI including Nvidia, which has seen its hardware in wild demand as its chips are built for running complex AI algorithms. And just about every smartphone on the market today, including Apple’s iPhone, incorporates Arm designs.

Arm will “accelerate the evolution of AI,” the presentation said. It says more than 258 billion Arm-based chips have been shipped as of 2022. 

SoftBank says Arm’s latest Cortex-X4 architecture is 40% more power efficient than the previous generation. That’s important because critics say generative AI requires lots of energy, making it cost prohibitive for some uses and potentially harmful for the environment. 

Son noted that some might believe he’s been publicly quiet in recent months out of embarrassment over the significant losses of SoftBank’s investment arm. He countered the idea by saying he’s been busy putting SoftBank on the offensive.

“What I am working on most, what I am focused on most is the AI revolution,” he said.

To encourage companies within SoftBank’s portfolio to capture the potential of generative AI, the firm is holding monthly contests where the best ideas result in cash prizes. The idea is that generative AI could supercharge existing company’s products, such as B2B and productivity apps, before competitors come onto the scene with better offerings. 

Despite Son’s hubris, he has also reflected on his mistakes. SoftBank and its Vision Fund put more than $10 billion into WeWork under the belief that the office sharing company could use technology, including AI, to create a more efficient model for leasing space.

After the company’s disastrous fall from grace in 2019 when it canceled an initial public offering, Son told investors his “judgment in investment was not right in many ways.” WeWork eventually went public, but has struggled to turn a profit due to low margins and high operating costs.

The technology industry now faces a historic downturn, but excitement for AI is pushing investors to focus their dry powder on startups that can get in on the trend early. 

SoftBank isn’t the only company making big predictions about AI. The consulting firm McKinsey recently published a report predicting that generative AI could add $4.4 trillion of value to the global economy annually. Still, that company made similar claims about blockchain and the metaverse in the past, and those predictions have not come to fruition. 

It remains to be seen how transformative generative AI will truly be, and whether startups or tech giants will succeed from this AI boom. 

You can watch the full presentation here:

SoftBank’s annual shareholders meeting.