Mark Cuban says AI is "never the answer" and just a "tool"

At the SXSW conference in Austin, tech investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban shared his thoughts on how artificial intelligence technology can help small businesses outperform their competitors. In short, he told everyone that artificial intelligence itself is not the answer; it is just an auxiliary tool that can help entrepreneurs start developing their business more easily and answer the questions encountered in the process of starting a business.

Cuban suggested that today's entrepreneurs should "learn about AI all the time" because of its huge potential and "it changes rapidly," adding that things are different for mature companies integrating AI than for new ones just getting started. "It's much easier to get started now. Now, with a laptop and an internet connection, you can start anything. Now, you have a mentor, and it doesn't matter whether you're using Perplexity, AnthropicClaude, ChatGPT or Gemini. You have an expert sitting at the table."

While he acknowledged that artificial intelligence has some problems, making mistakes and hallucinating, he also pointed out that human mentors and experts "may not always get it right."

Despite these issues, AI "experts" can help you understand what you don't know and help with other aspects of running a business, such as research, emails, and sales calls.

However, Cuban cautioned against overreliance on artificial intelligence. "AI is never the answer. AI is the tool. Whatever skills you have, you can use AI to amplify them," he said.

This is especially true in creative fields, where AI is making its way into areas like art and writing.

"A lot of creative people think that AI is going to write all the scripts," Cuban said. "AI doesn't know what a good story is and what a bad story is. You need to be creative. AI can make videos -- trust me, I can make AI-generated videos. They're still going to suck."

"Whatever skills you have, AI can amplify them. But not using it means someone else will amplify their skills -- and that could be the difference between whether you get ahead," Cuban said.