The “Horizontal Enabling Layer”

Jeff Bezos uses a simple mental model for the current AI paradigm as “a horizontal enabling layer.”

I could not find the best analogy for it to understand the level of transformation that it might create as a layer on top of everything.

This issue is dedicated to a thought I’ve been having since the ChatGPT — as explored in the intelligence factory race between AI labs — Moment, which I’m structuring today, and also to express the core difference between web technological development and this current AI paradigm.

They might seem similar from a superficial look, but they’re not; it’s a different story.

In the AI Supercycle, I did explain the implications of it, and the current AI Paradigm, driven by a new type of chip, the GPU, might be way more similar to the microchip:

Instead, in this issue, I want to focus on the core difference between the web and how it developed vs. how AI might develop instead.

It all starts with the following:

The Web Integration Paradigm

When a new major tech paradigm emerges, it might mainly start from the outer layer.

For instance, when the Internet picked up, it was initially integrated as a distribution channel and, over time, as a value proposition definer, getting embedded into the core of a product.

An outside-in transformation.

In short, if you think of the parallel with the Internet. Back in the mid-90s, you got a retail store, put it online, and you got more stuff sold.

Indeed, Amazon is a great example.

Amazon started as an e-commerce and turned into a platform.

Thus, it transforms from a distribution advantage to completely reshaping its value proposition.

Or the shift between a simple value, “we sell a wide variety of books online, delivered to you fast,” to a multi-pronged value like “we help you build your business on top of our platform to sell a massive variety of stuff, cheaply and delivered fast.”