What's this about?
A day after the "Google had ChatGPT a year early and sat on it" story, Mollick offers the counter-narrative: the incumbents were actually bold at first. Microsoft shipped GPT-4 (inside Bing) *before* OpenAI's own launch and didn't retreat even after the unhinged "Sydney" persona embarrassed it; Google had the first deep-research tool and pivoted fast with Bard.
What exactly is the "incumbents always hesitate" thesis he's countering?
The VC-favorite idea that big companies are structurally too cautious to ship disruptive tech, leaving the opening for startups. Mollick's point: the early-2023 record actually shows the giants moving fast and eating reputational risk — the hesitation narrative is partly retconned.
Why does it matter?
597 likes. It's a useful corrective to yesterday's viral LMChat story; the truth is messier than "incumbents froze," and Mollick's version is a reminder to distrust clean disruption fables.