Insight
Zhao: SaaS is digital paper-pushing that LLMs can now perform
“Fundamentally, SaaS, software is all, we're all in the same information, people, paper pushing activity, right? It's like a piece of paper coming in front of you. A human, like, changed a couple bits, pushed to another human. Language model can do some form of…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Zhao: People Will Communicate Less as AI Agents Handle Exchanges
“I probably feel it's probably less the agent side essentially bet on language model, that's the communication.”
Insight
Zhao: Embeddings and RAG are eliminating the need for manual organization
“I think organization might be, we might be moving away from the organizational world. Why do you need to organize because you can retrieve? Why do you have index? Like index initially are file cabinets and little index are sitting on top of so you can find thi…”
Insight
Zhao: No-code originated from developer customization, not data unification
“No code is like coming from this kind of like power user developer angle of wouldn't be nice. Everybody can modify this underlying software they use every day. That's why I go there. It wasn't coming from the angle of the knowledge and data wants to be in one …”
Opinion
Zhao: SF is expensive because it is the world's software factory
“Because there's a separation between people who can make software and people who use software. That's why SF's rent is so expensive, because we're the modern day Detroit or Manchester, right? We're the factory of the world.”
Insight
Zhao: Prompt engineering effectively makes anyone a real-time machine learning engineer
“Language prompt engineer language model sort of make everybody like a real-time machine learning engineer.”
Disclosure
Zhao: Notion bet the company on AI after seeing GPT-4
“And after that, we sort of just bet the company on it.”
Insight
Zhao: AI Language Models Are Driving the Next Software Bundling Wave
“Now the new technology happening is AI language model, and if you build more with it or just think more with it, language model wants information to be one place. Once the endpoints to be connected, so it's easier to, is it hard enough to like a conversion lan…”
Insight
Zhao: LLMs Demand Bundling of Information Rather Than Just Distribution
“I think there's bundling of distribution and bundling of information. What you're describing to me is more of Microsoft, more like bundling of distribution. Language model wants the bundling of data, bundling information.”
Insight
Ivan Zhao: Modular software tools must be packaged as templates
“Our learning and pivot is instead of giving people those Software building tool, we have to package the software building blocks together as ready to use templates, as ready to use use cases that people can adopt really quickly.”
Insight
Zhao: AI applications must stay largely familiar to overcome user inertia
“You cannot make something too new. You have to be largely the same and change one thing and two things, right? Virtual ablo. The off-white guys, like, three percent difference. Just push the boundaries so people can accept it, but still also new, right? To me,…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zhao: 80% of Notion designers know how to code
“In notion with most of our designer can code. Majority of, 80% of the designer can code”
Insight
Zhao: Hybrid designers and engineers make superior product trade-offs
“The moment you can, as a designer or as an engineer, you can code, you can design, you can make really interesting trade-offs, right? At the end of the technologies, at least in my opinion, is about trade-offs. What kind of trade-off you can make that unlock n…”
Insight
Zhao: Front-office software is open-ended while back-office software is verticalized
“The front office type of things is kind of open ended. The back office power things tend to be specific.”
Disclosure
Zhao: Notion historically had almost no machine learning engineers
“We have somewhat a small team of search, but we don't have too many ML folks, almost nothing.”
Disclosure
Zhao initially overlooked GPT-3 because it seemed limited to marketing copy
“I personally, I have to admit, I slept on it. On GPT-III, even saw GPT-III, it feels like, what is this thing useful for? It's like, yes, for marketing, for content writing, for creative first draft. Didn't really click for me.”
