Oracle’s definitely in its AI era. A select group of companies have raced to build humongous models, funnelling fortunes into training complex neural networks. AI is sounding a little more like humans nowadays and less like robots with multimodal models that parallel the human brain, dividing sight, language, and classification across their digital cortex.

As Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle, Larry Ellison outlines in a recent broadcast at Oracle AI World, this technological leap is more than just hype…it’s a serious leap.

“It’s very apparent after a few years…it’s the largest, fastest growing business in human history. Bigger than the railroads, bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” Says Ellison.

The world, according to Ellison, currently sits on two thresholds. First, there’s the construction of models themselves, which is now powered by massive datasets drawn from the public internet. Second, and more momentous, is the application of these remarkable electronic brains to the sort of problems that have long defied human ingenuity.

Ellison points to early cancer diagnosis and robotic surgery that will soon outclass even the steadiest human hands. In vivid terms, the Billionaire recounts historical procedures where world-class surgeons, aided by microscopes, would painstakingly remove cancerous cells.

“AI robots will be much better surgeons than the best doctors” Ellison illustrates. These new machines don’t need a microscope. Their hand-eye coordination and microscopic perception mean that the surgery will be perfect.

Ellison reiterated that it’s not about AI replacing humanity at wholesale. Rather, it’s a question of ‘making us much better scientists and engineers and teachers…and surgeons.’ Oracle, he notes, is positioned at the crossroads. While most high value data sits in its databases and where Oracle originally built its empire, it had to reengineer systems to let AI reason not only with public data, but with private enterprise data.

“We’ve never built a tool anything like this.” The question now is, how will we wield it?

Not everyone in tech is an ‘AI company’ Ellison contends. Some try to claim the mantle, much like every dot com in the internet boom. But the value, he insists, is real, and the most astute minds are investing accordingly, including Oracle.

It’ll be in the quiet migration of AI’s reasoning into the world’s toughest, most human problems. Time will tell on how this unfolds, but Oracle is at the forefront of this revolution.