For each of the 14 weeks, more people searched for ChatGPT than Taylor Swift according to Google Trends data.

You won’t find people outside of tech hubs googling for microservices or layer 2 blockchains or serverless databases with any great frequency. But Minnesotans & Idahoans & Vermontans are searching for ChatGPT.

People are curious about AI. They want to test it, prod it, break it, be surprised by it.

For startups, this inquisitiveness is a wonderful thing.

Millions of people want to try new products, all at once, to answer the question : how could AI help me with my email, my homework, my music creation, my graphic design, my data analysis, my plumbing business?

Platform shifts arouse curiosity. In 2008, after the iPhone app store launched, we asked each other, is there an app for that? We sought out software that would change the way we live.

Over the next year or so, we will all ask each other, what could AI do for me?

And a bot will answer : “Nice to meet you, where you been? I could show you incredible things.”

These moments don’t come around that often. Seizing it could mean acquiring millions of new users who will want to use software in new ways.