00:00Precision delivery of medicine
00:02entertainment franchise games absolutely
00:05exploding small modul reactors and the
00:07nuclear Renaissance plus AI moving into
00:11very complex workflows now these were
00:14just a few of the major Tech innovations
00:16that Partners at a16z predicted last
00:19year and our partners are back we just
00:21dropped our list of over 40 plus big
00:24ideas for 2024 a compilation of critical
00:27advancements across all our verticals
00:30from Smart energy grids to Crime
00:31detecting computer vision to
00:33democratizing Miracle drugs like gp1s or
00:36even AI moving from blackbox to clear
00:40boox you can find the full list of 40
00:42plus Builder worthy Pursuits at
00:46az.com bigideas 2024 or you can click
00:50the link in our description below but on
00:53Deck today you will hear directly from
00:55one of our partners as we dive even more
00:57deeply into their big idea what what's
01:00the why now what opportunities and what
01:02challenges are on the horizon and how
01:04can you get involved let's dive
01:07in as a reminder the content here is for
01:10informational purposes only should not
01:12be taken as legal business tax or
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01:16any investment or security and is not
01:18directed at any investors or potential
01:20investors in any a6z fund please note
01:24that a16z and its Affiliates may also
01:26maintain investments in the companies
01:28discussed in this podcast for more
01:30details including a link to our
01:31investments please see
01:39disclosures hi I'm Anisha charia I'm a
01:41GP on our consumer investing team
01:43looking at all things AI apps um my big
01:46idea for this year is that voice will
01:49actually be a new sort of emerging way
01:52to interact with technology and at the
01:54heart of a new set of productivity apps
01:57so the theory here is that you know
01:59voice is the way that humans have
02:00communicated with each other since you
02:02know really the day that communication
02:04was born but voice has never really
02:06worked as an interface for technology
02:08and I think one of the reasons for that
02:09is that when you interact with uh a
02:12product using voice you sort of have the
02:14unconscious expectations that you have
02:16would have of a human so you expect it
02:18to actually be pretty flexible
02:20cognitively sophisticated and really be
02:23able to interact with you and most of
02:25the systems that exist today or at least
02:26have historically existed are very
02:28inflexible you know there's just these
02:30sort of like logic trees and if you
02:32don't navigate them perfectly then they
02:34just don't work and we've all
02:35experienced that with you know Alexa and
02:37some of the past generation voice
02:38assistants so I think the the go forward
02:40idea is that Ai and large models really
02:43unlock human's ability to interact with
02:45technology I think the other thing
02:47that's very interesting for productivity
02:49apps is that you know you could imagine
02:51some of the incumbent productivity
02:53providers you know Gmail for email for
02:54example they're going to build a lot of
02:56the obvious features AI features for
02:59those apps and experiences but it's less
03:01obvious that they would prioritize
03:03something that's voic firste because it
03:04requires you rethinking the entire
03:06experience from the ground up so I
03:08really think this it's an interesting
03:10area because it has previously never
03:11worked and now this technology allows it
03:13to work and it's not something the
03:15incumbents are obviously going to build
03:17so that's uh what I expect to see hope
03:19to see and invest in in 2024 all right
03:22so Anish I feel like that sounds really
03:24exciting but voice has been pending for
03:26quite some time you address this a
03:28little bit but I actually went back back
03:30I looked up the Gartner hype cycle over
03:32the last decade speech recognition
03:34popped up in 2010 and that was actually
03:36in the plateau of productivity and yet
03:38despite a lot of investment from a lot
03:40of big companies we're talking Amazon
03:42Google Apple feels like we're still
03:44waiting and you addressed that maybe
03:46there's some new technology on the
03:47horizon but what would you say has been
03:49the limiting factor thus far I mean it's
03:53simply that the old technology
03:54architecture doesn't allow you to get to
03:56the level of fidelity that you need so
03:58if you look at it kind of the last 10%
04:00is where 99% of the effort goes and this
04:02is true of a lot ofum AI problems that
04:05were built on the old architecture so
04:07you know self-driving is a great example
04:09of this sort of true interactive voice
04:11is a great example of this you can get
04:12to 90% you just can't get to 99% and
04:15this new technology really lets you get
04:17to 99% and you can see that if you've
04:18interacted with chat GPT via voice it's
04:21very compelling if you used 11 Labs I
04:23mean their work is very compelling so
04:25it's clear that this now works and
04:27really what we needed was a technology
04:28shift not a sort of set of like
04:31financial resources that incumbents have
04:33historically provided to make this work
04:35yeah and you mentioned that existing
04:37apps aren't necessarily equipped to
04:39build these experiences maybe you could
04:41just elaborate on that and maybe also
04:44think through like what would a voice
04:48like yeah that that's a great question
04:50so first you know existing apps are
04:52built with a set of existing workflows
04:54and anytime you modify the workflow you
04:57have to think about how that affects all
04:58of the existing users this is why you
05:01know I'm sure there's a lot of creative
05:02people at gmail but it's very hard for
05:04them to go to a dramatically different
05:06Paradigm like a superum and of course
05:08Google tried this with inbox and ended
05:10up shutting it down but you know there's
05:11a set of consumer expectations and a
05:13huge audience that just expects a
05:15product to work a certain way and to do
05:17something like a voice first inbox for
05:19example you're just going to need a
05:20completely different set of workflows so
05:23if Google does decide to do that they're
05:24going to have to start from scratch
05:26along with everyone else um so it's not
05:28obvious to me that that an incumbent
05:30will build this um in terms of what the
05:33experience would look like you know a
05:34great example is a lot of Executives
05:36that I know when they're driving into
05:38work in the morning they'll phone uh
05:40their executive assistant and they'll
05:41say hey let's go through my inbox
05:43together let's talk about what seems
05:44like it's a priority what seems like
05:46it's important but not urgent what's
05:48clearly spam what are internal versus
05:50external asks and they will together
05:53sort of prioritize so that when that
05:54executive arrives they're sort of ready
05:56to go with everything they need to do so
05:58an experience like that I think would
06:00make enormous sense except now it's
06:02available to everyone not just
06:03Executives who have a dedicated
06:05assistant yeah definitely and you
06:07mentioned two specific areas that you're
06:09looking to in 2024 including
06:12companionship and productivity curious
06:14to know what you're already seeing built
06:16there like are you already seeing
06:17Builders create apps that are live and
06:20working and are voice first tell us a
06:21little bit more about what you're seeing
06:23there yeah there's a lot of cool
06:26exploration that's happening in the
06:27voice space so one of the ones that I'm
06:29the biggest fan of is a product called
06:31tab so tab has gotten a bunch of heat
06:34online and it's a it's a very
06:35interesting founder and a very
06:37interesting product idea where it's a
06:38pendant that you wear that sort of
06:40passively captures your conversations
06:42throughout the day and then it allows
06:44you to interact with all of that context
06:46ask questions ask it to summarize so
06:49it's a great example of someone who's
06:50really thinking about this from a first
06:52principal perspective a voice first
06:54perspective I think the second most
06:56interesting product you know outside of
06:57something like 11 is is actually just
07:00chat gpt's voice module and their voice
07:03sort of interface so I I guess I
07:05encourage everyone to go take a walk and
07:07just have a chat with chat GPT and
07:09you'll be amazed at how quickly you sort
07:11of forget that you're talking to an AI
07:14and you fall into the flow of a
07:16conversation so I'd say between tab chat
07:18GPT and certainly what the team at 11 is
07:20doing there's a lot of cool stuff to
07:22check out yeah and as this Tech gets
07:24better I think what I'd love to hear
07:26your perspective on is really like the
07:29unlikely or maybe unexpected is the
07:32better word uh type of experiences that
07:35right now don't seem obvious but I mean
07:38I think it's easy for people to imagine
07:40oh yeah I can send an email oh yeah I
07:42can start a song with my Alexa but if
07:44we're really talking something
07:46foundational or voice becomes the the
07:49primary potential modality for
07:51interacting with some of these
07:53applications can you just like think
07:55through like what are the different
07:56contexts or like what might we imagine
07:58to be on the horizon horon that's a
07:59little more significant than what we
08:02imagine with voice today I mean it's
08:05it's TR to site this but I will anyway
08:07which is simply the movie Her Like
08:09that's it you know which is a passive
08:11sort of experience that has all the
08:13context that you have where voice is the
08:15primary modality of interaction and then
08:17you can fall back to a screen if and
08:19when needed so I I like if we look back
08:22in 10 years and that's the way that we
08:24interact with technology it it won't
08:25feel like such a leap yeah well I mean I
08:29think the important question then is
08:32that currently is not the primary
08:34modality and so you have all of these
08:35companies who really rely on a website
08:39or an app or a graphical user interface
08:42which may become moot if if we really
08:44are moving in that direction I mean
08:46curious to know your perspective there
08:48on how Builder should be thinking about
08:50that potential Paradigm if it really is
08:52voice first like how do how do existing
08:54companies integrate this thoughtfully I
08:57don't know if it is mot I think that
08:59there's room for both like there's a lot
09:00more te technology penetration to be had
09:02so if you're a developer and you work in
09:05an IDE you're probably faster Hands-On
09:08keyboard with screen than you're going
09:10to be with voice um at least for now and
09:12and maybe the answer is some you know
09:14combination of the two so I actually I
09:16think that there is a lot of room for
09:18existing products and existing sort of
09:20modalities for interaction on the other
09:22hand if you're maybe a senior citizen
09:24you know you simply I mean maybe you're
09:26interacting with technology but you're
09:27really struggling with it and this locks
09:29every product for you potentially so I
09:32think it's a Market expansion positive
09:34sum story not a zero sum story but I
09:37tend to always think that so yeah no I
09:39agree I think it's positive some but how
09:41would you for example if you're an
09:42application that does not have a voice
09:44first interaction mode should all
09:47Builders be thinking about that in
09:49corporation or or how would you think
09:51about that if you're an existing Builder
09:53without this on your road map I think
09:56the customer and the sort of of
09:59interaction pattern is so different that
10:01if I had an existing product I would
10:03probably focus on you know playing from
10:06my place of Advantage which is nonvoice
10:09workflows rather than trying to rethink
10:11my product from the ground up around
10:12this and look there may be uh the answer
10:14may be in the Middle where there
10:16actually are some workflows that are
10:19voice enabled that extend the existing
10:21workflow um but again I think this is a
10:24sort of like a Market expansion net new
10:26customer story rather than someone
10:30yeah and if Founders are thinking about
10:32creating in this new environment are
10:34there any challenges you'd call out um
10:36from your experience with some of these
10:37tools like 11 labs in terms of just um
10:41maybe where we are in this Arc and what
10:43can and can't be done look I think you
10:45have to retrain people uh they need to
10:47know how to interact with these systems
10:50and by default their expectations are
10:52going to be very high it's going to be
10:53like look I should be able to interact
10:55with this in the exact with the same
10:56level of fidelity and responsiveness
10:59and sort of flexibility that I can with
11:01a human um so if that's not what you're
11:04able to offer or what you intend to
11:06offer then it will require sort of
11:07training your customer to interact with
11:09you in the right way so I do think that
11:11there's an onboarding question and then
11:12look I think there's also a just sort of
11:14a social patterns question where you
11:18know is it going to be socially
11:19acceptable to be sort of talking Into
11:21Thin Air now arguably people already
11:23doing that with their sort of Bluetooth
11:25and airpods and so you know maybe we'll
11:28all change quickly together as a society
11:30but I think there'll be some period of
11:31time for which you know this the early
11:33adopters are going to feel a little
11:35crazy or that they look that way you
11:37know it's so funny you mentioned that my
11:39husband's grandmother said the first
11:40time she ever heard someone talking on a
11:42cell phone she thought they were crazy
11:44because they were doing it in the
11:45supermarket and she was like why are
11:47they talking to themselves so maybe you
11:49know there there's an element of that uh
11:51now again um to run things out seems
11:55like there's a lot of opportunity on the
11:56table we're talking about a potential
11:59change in an interaction modality if you
12:02an entrepreneur how would you even think
12:04about starting what would you look at
12:06yeah tell me a little bit more uh about
12:08where you would begin I I mean it's uh
12:12obviously it's tological but you can
12:14only begin at the beginning like I think
12:15it's impossible to uh infer what the end
12:19product is going to look like and you've
12:20just got to start building so you know I
12:22think I would try to build something
12:24useful and interesting and uh and just
12:27iterate from there that's it look I I
12:29think the other um thing that's
12:31interesting here is that with some of
12:33these Technologies if you're too pointed
12:36at the beginning in terms of product
12:37design then it can constrain you I think
12:39that if you introduce the capability in
12:41an intelligent way your customers will
12:43pull you in a direction I think some of
12:45the best product Builders I've seen have
12:47been willing to you know try to offer
12:50the capability in a way that is
12:51relatively neutral and allow the
12:53customer set to pull them yeah and per
12:56your advice earlier for people to play
12:59around with this Tech themselves and to
13:00use voice more 100% always just use
13:03their products just use the products all
13:05right I hope you enjoyed this big idea
13:07we do have a lot more in the way
13:09including programmable medicine that's
13:11taking a page out of the reusable rocket
13:13Playbook anime going mainstream and
13:16whether the consumer AI Battleground may
13:19be moving from model to ux plus if you
13:22want to see our full list of 40 plus Big
13:24Ideas right now you can head on over to
13:27A6 z.com slash Big Ideas
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