Kazuhiko Nishi, creator of MSX: "ChatGPT is still very stupid"

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, once said, "Of all the people I've ever met, Kay is probably the most like me."

Kazuhiko Nishi, born in Kobe, Japan, in 1956, is one of the pioneers of the mythical era that led to the birth of personal computers.

He was the head of Microsoft in Japan and is the inventor of the MSX standard, one of the first and most beloved computers of the 1980s.

At 66, Nishi-San has no intention of abdicating his commitment to innovation;

he has a hat full of projects, from more affordable supercomputers to the founding of a university in Japan.

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya invited him a few days ago to Barcelona as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Studies, to present the updated model, after 30 years, of the MSX microcomputer.

Today Nishi is a true star and inspiration for all people who are passionate about programming and computer engineering;

a successful businessman who still finds the true dimension of himself by playing with the lines of code.

He is surrounded by the prophetic aura of someone who understood before all that technology should get as close as possible to people.

Ask.

Why did you stop developing MSX 30 years ago?

Answer.

In 1983, IBM was promoting their computer, but it was still very expensive and I felt the need to create a cheaper home solution: that's how MSX was born.

However, I was at Microsoft and a company can't support two competing products.

Therefore, the IBM machine became popular because it was more powerful, then investments increased and prices fell.

In 1993, MSX was no longer profitable and I stopped developing it.

Q.

Why didn't you manage to become the international standard you aspired to?

R.

The United States was Commodore's market, Spectrum's Great Britain and I was very lucky in Spain, Holland, Italy and Latin America.

I was in charge of the design and designers generally don't care about marketing.

Instead, now I'm responsible for everything for the future MSX and that's why I'm here in Spain, then I'll go to Brazil, Italy and Holland.

For England I have a Spectrum emulator ready and for America one for Commodore.

Q.

Does the success of

and the nostalgia market have to do with your return?

R.

No, there are new things here.

In 1980 the personal computer was born, in 2000 the smartphone: every 20 years a new type of computer is born and since 2020 it is the moment of the IoT [abbreviations of Internet of Things, internet of things].

So my idea is to produce a very compact MSX and connectable to IoT sensors: this is the new MSX0, at a price of around 150 dollars.

Next year I will release the MSX3 that will be connected to the television.

And then the MSX Turbo, which will be a supercomputer.

I want to offer a simpler solution than our competitors, Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

I use the BASIC language, which is old but still valid and easy to use.

Also, I don't really like video games.

The M5Stack device is a rapid prototyping platform with Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity.

It is all integrated into a box including an LCD screen and programmable front buttons.Gianluca Battista

Q.

But he said that "you have to learn to play seriously."

A.

I mean the

mentality : there is a problem and you have to solve it.

A climber was asked why he wanted to challenge Everest and he replied: because Everest is right here in front of me.

In my life I have encountered many difficult situations and I have overcome them all.

Even today, at 66, when I run into a problem, I ask myself, what can I do?

How will I solve it?

Because I know I can work it out and it's fun to do it.

Q.

After so many years, your passion does not seem to let up, what is your secret?

A.

Everyone is born with a mission, but no one knows which one.

Of course, it would be easier to be born with a role that puts the mission of each one, instead, we are all involved in the journey to find it.

I don't know if it's my mission, but maybe my talent is engineering.

At Microsoft I did two great things: MS-DOS, with GW-BASIC and BASIC extension, and defining the Windows keyboard and mouse, as well as linking the CD-ROM.

This is all my doing.

After Microsoft, I earned a lot with my company working on CPU and also founded the worldwide community for MPEG video compression format.

When I turned 60, I asked myself what I would do next, and I understood that my next challenge would be the IoT.

Kazuhiko Nishi visits Barcelona as part of the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UOC's Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications.Gianluca Battista

If I had stayed at Microsoft, I would have a tenth of what Bill Gates owns.

Q.

Did you ever regret leaving Microsoft in 1985?

R.

In life there are positive or negative changes, but it is always your decision.

I was very close to Bill Gates, I controlled Japan for the company and only reported to him, but there were other bureaucrats who wanted to take my place.

Often when companies get big, they fill up with ambitious bureaucrats.

I decided not to fight and left.

If I had stayed at Microsoft, I would now have at least a tenth of what Bill Gates owns.

I suffered about ten years after that decision, but then I recovered and with my company I made about 300 million dollars: is it enough or not enough?

For a while I thought it wasn't enough, but it was.

I mean, I have four helicopters, Rolls-Royce, Bentley.

So I'm happy.

Q.

Is this your idea of ​​happiness?

A.

Everyone is in search of happiness and money is also useful to achieve it.

However, I have understood that there are two ways to be happy;

the first is to make your dreams come true with money: fame, success, power.

This can make you happy.

But there is another kind of happiness that lies in waking up in the morning feeling healthy and grateful.

Monks do not have personal possessions, but they are mentally aware of this gratitude which makes them extremely happy people.

Perhaps the ideal is to have both.

Everyone knows that Big Tech is full of lazy workers.

Q.

Returning to the present, how do you judge the Big Tech crisis?

R.

Elon Musk fired three quarters of Twitter employees, but the company is still alive.

Everyone knows that Big Tech is full of lazy workers, because they are so profitable that they can afford it.

Management has been very generous over the years - whether you work or not, it doesn't matter, take it easy.

Now, due to Elon Musk's extreme discipline and attitude, these companies have seen the moment to intervene.

The truth is that in every company, school or community there is always at least 10% of unproductive personnel.

Q.

And what do you think of ChatGPT?

A.

My professor at MIT, Marvin Minsky, was the inventor of artificial intelligence (AI) and he always said it's better not to do business based on it because it's basic research.

But now it is becoming very popular and the most advanced country is China, while the United States is desperately trying to catch up.

I don't know what will happen but ChatGPT is still very dumb.

When I read the texts it produces, I can't help but laugh, it's a good comic read.

That being said, it's only a matter of time and machines will become very smart in 10 to 20 years.

Personally, however, I'm not very interested, I still have about 20 years of work and I want to dedicate half to IoT and half to supercomputers.

I have decided to build my own university investing all the money I have

Q.

What do you have in mind for supercomputers?

A.

Many people read and hear about supercomputers, but hardly anyone has touched them.

Because they are incredibly expensive.

If you could produce one for the price of a car, everyone could use it.

Perhaps we would not have one in every home, but we would have one in every university or laboratory.

By the way, supercomputers still use the Fortran 77 language, which is 45 years old.

We need to bring them closer to people so that they can think of new languages ​​that support AI.

Q.

Are you still learning?

R.

I had to drop out of university because I had to start my company, when I was able to do so I tried to recover, but the university system did not allow me.

Finally, I finished my PhD at the age of 60 and was offered a teaching position by the University of Tokyo, which I have been doing for the past five years.

Now I have to retire, but I have decided to build my own university by investing all the money I have.

I hope to achieve it in 2025 and this is my biggest challenge.

Innovation does not depend on physical age, but on mental age and heart.

Thus, youth is not a specific period of life and you can stay young by changing the way you think.

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