Gates, Ballmer, Nadella and Copilot: Microsoft CEOs past and present engage in podcast chat with AI

Maybe the fourth CEO of Microsoft will be some form of AI. Until then, artificial intelligence is left to serve as “host” in a conversation among the three men who have held the top job at the tech giant.

As part of the festivities around Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, current CEO Satya Nadella reunited with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer for a podcast-style discussion featuring the company’s Copilot personal AI assistant.

“I want you to ask a lot of sharp, playful questions. Make it feel conversational,” Nadella told Copilot (playing through his phone on the table in front of him). “Feel free to get involved and opinionated yourself on our answers.”

The AI kicked things off by asking Ballmer about the most thrilling tech battle or competition he could remember, and what he learned from it.

“It had to be the competition with IBM, to kind of body slam them, if you will, in the operating systems business,” Ballmer said. “They were the big bad machine of years past … and that was sort of a fight for all that essentially came afterward. It was scary, it was a lot of fun, and it’s not the last battle like that Microsoft will face, I think.”

Copilot moved seamlessly between the three, reacting in a natural voice to their answers and dealing with slight interruptions here and there, as it’s designed to do.

“I’ve got a playful one for Bill,” the AI said at one point. “If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice at Microsoft’s early days, what would it be?”

After discussing how he had to learn to manage people and build teams with diverse skill sets, Gates pivoted to a reflection on Microsoft’s antitrust battles.

“I might tell my younger self, ‘Watch out for the government. You might have a little bit of a tussle with them,'” he said. “I didn’t anticipate that. I was pretty naive about not engaging in Washington, D.C., as soon as I should have.”

Nadella shared the finale of the discussion with a video he posted on social media (above). He asked Copilot to wrap things up with an “AI roast” of each CEO.

The AI did its best to rib Ballmer about his signature high-energy enthusiasm and Gates about whether AI could be intimidated by the co-founder’s intense thinking face. “It’s like it’s waiting for a blue-screen moment,” Copilot said, as Nadella cracked up.

Copilot finished with Nadella, asking the CEO if he could envision AI running things at Microsoft while he sat back and enjoyed the ride. Nadella said if AI can perform as well as his favorite cricket player, that’s the day it can run the show.

Copilot signed off by saying “cheers” to all three, and Gates got in the last human word.

“Cheers,” he said. “Whatever that means to an AI. Does it drink?”