Build 2018: The World is a Computer (Premium)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced a useful new concept today to help us understand the shift to what I call ambient computing.

"The world is a computer," he intoned during his Build 2018 vision keynote this morning in Seattle.

The world is a computer. I like it.

As I've discussed in the recent past, ambient computing---which consists of AI in the intelligent cloud and AI on so-called intelligent edge devices---will dwarf the market for smartphones and other mobile devices in the same way that smartphones have done to PCs.

This is big for Microsoft, since it missed the mobile wave. And it's also big for Microsoft's developer audience, since it is now scrambling to find the next big thing in an era where many of their peers are hungrily eyeing mobile and web development.

But even in understanding this shift, and Microsoft's hoped-for role in making it happen, I feel like I've underestimated and perhaps even understated the sheer scope of this coming IoT era. And that's because it's not just about the number of intelligent edge devices that will be available out in the world in the years ahead. It's also about the data they will process. That need, in fact, explains why "intelligent cloud and intelligent edge" even makes sense in the first place: AI capabilities literally exist to process data.

"By 2020, the average person will generate 1.5 GB of data a day, a smart home 50 GB, and a smart city, a whopping 250 petabytes of data per day," Frank Shaw writes in a post to The Official Microsoft Blog. "In the next 10 years, billions of everyday devices will be connected – smart devices that can see, listen, reason, predict and more, without a 24/7 dependence on the cloud."

And by "billions of everyday devices," Frank means some 20 billion IoT devices. (By comparison, there will be an expected 2.87 billion smartphone users by 2020. And about 1 billion Windows 10 users.)

There are no givens here. Microsoft could very well fail in IoT just as they failed in mobile. But I feel that the software giant is uniquely positioned to succeed in this new market. And not just because of strong technology or its platform-building expertise.

No, Microsoft, alone among those firms that are vying for this same future, is the only one to build its platform with a strong moral grounding at its core. This is a secure platform, for sure, but it is also designed for social responsibility. For privacy, a basic human right. For advancing human good. And for aiding those with disabilities.

"We need to ask ourselves not only what computers can do but what computers should do," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during his Monday keynote at Build 2018.

"Helping create a better, safer, more just world is a responsibility we take seriously at Microsoft," Frank continues. "We’ve always been committed to the ethical creation and use of technology. As AI increasingly becomes part of our lives, Microsoft’s commitment to advancing human goo...