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Back to What It Takes to Win as a Founder | Ben Horowitz, with Ben Horowitz & Andrew Chen.

How Much Better Is ChatGPT Than Grok?

Ben Horowitz says ChatGPT is only marginally better than Grok if someone were starting from scratch. The gap is not a massive differentiator, and it is not a network effect yet.

Possession is nine-tenths of the law when competing on software. The interface is simple, since a person is just talking to it, so switching is not complicated. Even so, the product someone already uses is very likely the one they keep using. Getting them off it takes something dramatically better. An equally good product, or a slightly better one, does not take out a competitor. It takes a product about 10 times better.

Taking the market is probably the most obvious and most significant advantage. With AI, taking the market also brings more data about that particular kind of user.

Grokipedia·ChatGPT·Grok

Transcript

What It Takes to Win as a Founder | Ben Horowitz ·

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  1. Why Does AI Feel Like the Early Internet?Ben Horowitz says AI feels like the early internet because every day brings some very new awesome thing. That daily surprise is what is really similar.
  2. Can a Tiny Team Build a Billion-dollar AI Company?Ben Horowitz tells Andrew Chen that a very small team can reach a giant audience and a ton of money, and he is sure about that part.
  3. Will AI Agents Make Software Applications Matter Less?Ben Horowitz says the software application may be the thing that fades the most. A person may just ask an AI to do the work, with no application in between.
  4. How Is Venture Capital Changing as Companies Get Easier to Build?Ben Horowitz says the venture industry was basically the same from 1970 to 2008 and 2009, because firms were built not to change. a16z started in 2009.
  5. What Does Ben Horowitz Look for in an Investor?Ben Horowitz says the thing founders do not have is knowing how to do the CEO job.
  6. Is AI Film a New Medium?Ben Horowitz is pretty sure AI video and entertainment is a new medium. AI film will be as different from film as film was from plays.
  7. How Early Did Ben Horowitz Go Public?Ben Horowitz went public on $2 million in trailing 12-month revenue, 18 months after founding, on a forecast from $2 million to $75 million.
  8. How Do You Talk to a Difficult Chief Technology Officer?Ben Horowitz says there are no five steps for being a CEO.
  9. Why Was the 2007 iPhone Still a Breakthrough?Ben Horowitz says the 2007 iPhone was still a breakthrough because a new product only has to be unbelievable at one thing.

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