Nadella had spent 22 years pulling himself up the ranks with his smarts and drive. And his likability. The latter trait was a rarity at the company. Nadella knew its culture intimately, and he knew he had to change it. … But Nadella wrote a 10-page memo arguing that Microsoft’s revival would come from a growth mentality. As he later put it, he wanted to change the corporate personality from “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all”.
Microsoft was the leading applications provider internationally; in the U.S. its products were behind word processors and spreadsheets lost to history, like Wordstar and Lotus 1-2-3.
I didn’t realize MSFT found success internationally before taking over the States. My earliest computer memories are of a Windows 3.1 beige box, I went through all the 95, 98, ME, XP upgrades along the way before switching to Apple in college.
Here I am 30 years later still tinkering. There’s a WIRED article that’s a much deeper dive on the history of MSFT https://www.wired.com/story/at-age-50-microsoft-is-an-ai-giant-an-open-source-lover-and-bad-as-it-ever-was/
Claude’s curiosity and character is in part the work of Amanda Askell, who has a philosophy PhD and is a keeper of its personality. She concluded that an AI should be flexible and not appear morally rigid.
Short history of Anthropic’s founding and split from OpenAI. Whether it succeeds in creating a benevolent AGI, it has for now at least created a useful coding tool.
Quote Citation: Steven Levy, “If Anthropic Succeeds, a Nation of Benevolent AI Geniuses Could Be Born”, Mar 28, 2025 6:00 AM, https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-benevolent-artificial-intelligence/
