L’INTERVISTA
Avram Miller: “Da Intel Capital all’AI, la mia vita da agente del cambiamento”
I had the pleasure of being interview recently by Luciana Maci of EconomyUP which is an Italian digital media outlet focused on innovation, startups, technology, and the transformation of business and society.
The actual article in Italian can be found here.
When I said “pleasure” I really mean it. I felt that Luciana actual got me in the way most business journalist do not. This is what she so generously wrote on LinkedIn.
I am grateful for my work (which is also a bit of my passion) because sometimes it leads me to meet extraordinary people. It happened with Avram Miller, known in the world of large companies because, in the late 1980s, he gave life to the corporate venture capital of Intel Corporation. Said that way, it seems like something for insiders, but, believe me, Miller is much, much more: an American Jew who experienced firsthand the period of counterculture, met Janis Joplin and corresponded with Allen Ginsberg, never graduated but taught at a university. And again: a businessman, an investor, a scientist, a technology enthusiast. And again: a jazz pianist (this would have been enough to win all my esteem).
Miller now lives in Lecce, he is 80 years old and yet he has the intellect, the enthusiasm and the desire to act like he is still a boy, so much so that he has a project to counter the demographic winter with the Italian Institute of Technology.
What else to say? Read the interview, if you want, it’s my Christmas present for all those who have the kindness to follow me. Avram gave me the gift by giving me this interview.
Avram Miller: “From Intel Capital to AI, My Life as a Change Agent”
Interview by Luciana Maci – EconomyUp
Complete verbatim English translation of the Italian article
An extraordinary man who has led an extraordinary life, a pioneer who, at the end of the 1980s, convinced a large company like Intel to do something it had never done before: invest in startups and emerging companies, that is, to engage in corporate venture capital. This – and much, much more – is Avram Miller, an American of Jewish origin who now lives in Italy, in Lecce, and who, at 80 years old, still has the enthusiasm, creativity, intellect, and drive of a young man.
WHO IS AVRAM MILLER
A businessman, venture capitalist, scientist, technology expert, and musician, Miller was born in 1945 in the United States to a family of modest origins. He never earned a university degree, yet worked in medical technology at various international universities, eventually teaching.
In 1983 he became Chief Operating Officer of Franklin Computer Corporation and led it to $80 million in revenue. After losing a legal battle with Apple, he left the company. It was then that Intel noticed him and hired him. They wanted him because they sensed that this young man, with a past as a rebellious genius, could be a “change agent,” someone capable of bringing change into the company. And that is exactly what happened.
In 1988, Miller became Vice President of Corporate Development and was later elected Corporate Vice President by Intel’s board of directors. With the support of CEO Andy Grove, Vadász and Miller created the Corporate Business Development (CBD) group, which later became known as Intel Capital.
Miller’s group invested in important companies such as Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com, Verisign, Broadcom, LAUNCH Media, GeoCities, CNET, and Covad (now part of MegaPath Corporation). The group also financed CMGI (now ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc.) and PCCW.
He left Intel in April 1999 to found The Avram Miller Company, a strategic consulting and business development firm providing services to internet companies worldwide. In 2003 he was ranked eighth on the Forbes Midas List of the 100 top technology investors.
The rest of his long and brilliant life is recounted in his book “The Flight of a Wild Duck: An Improbable Journey Through Life and Technology.”
Talking with Avram Miller is like taking a journey through time, between history and technology, and then blasting forward into the future: a future that finds him involved in a project with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, while still deeply interested in innovative startups and, of course, in the trend of the moment, artificial intelligence in all its many forms. “With AI I imagine, I create, it’s as if I were a child again,” he tells EconomyUp. That is where our interview begins: with his childhood.
AVRAM’S CHILDHOOD: “ALONE BUT NOT LONELY”
You often talk about a difficult childhood. How did those experiences push you toward science, technology, and innovation?
As a child I was very ill. I spent a great deal of time alone, in a “special” hospital for children, far from other kids. I was physically isolated, but I had my imagination. I could create images in my mind, change things, build worlds. This shaped my way of thinking.
Why an interest in technology? It began by listening to a radio program about science, a half-hour broadcast every Saturday. That’s when I discovered Einstein; he became my role model. At the time I had trouble tying my shoes, but my mother told me, “Don’t worry, even Einstein couldn’t tie his shoes.” She was a brilliant woman, despite never having gone to school. She understood that my curiosity needed to be cultivated, so she began buying me things like a microscope, a chemistry kit, an electrical kit, and encouraged me to explore.
I was “alone but not lonely”: alone, but not necessarily unhappy.
“AI IS MY BUDDY CHAT”
In some speeches you talk about a “symbiotic” relationship with artificial intelligence. What do you mean?
I jokingly named ChatGPT “Buddy Chat”; he is my companion in exploration. I am sincerely grateful to still be alive to experience this: I am 80 years old. If I had died, say, three years ago, I would not have seen any of this.
For me, “understanding” something also means embracing it with passion. I am well aware that AI raises serious issues—ethical, social, political—but for me the experience is profoundly positive. I do not believe AI will “switch off” our brains; I believe it will make them work differently. But for this to have positive outcomes, we must take responsibility for how we design it and how we use it.
COUNTERCULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY: A NON‑TRIVIAL COMBINATION
You grew up during the counterculture era. How much did those years matter in shaping you as an entrepreneur and investor?
Those were extremely intense years. At 18 to 20 years old I lived in San Francisco, which at that time was one of the world’s epicenters of music and counterculture. There was so much jazz, folk, rock and roll—so much energy, so much excess.
I met Janis Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane… And yet, apart from them, I found that much of the music was not of high quality. I had studied at the Conservatory, I played piano, I played jazz, and I can say that I was one of the few people at the time who knew more than three chords.
AI AND MUSIC
What did jazz teach you about leading people and projects?
It is the only musical form based entirely on improvisation, so it is the most creative. It forces you to take risks; it allows you to play without knowing what you are going to play, and you must trust yourself. When you play with others, you must listen, be synchronized, but also add value.
Today I am truly interested in returning to writing music, thanks to AI. I have some ideas about how to do this, but it will take time, because there are too many detours along the way that intrigue me.
LEARNING TO TAKE RISKS
Let’s go back to your youth. Alongside music, there were also civil rights and protests against the war.
I ended up in jail because of this. Once I literally lay down under a truck to protest the Vietnam War. It was a time when many of us truly believed we had some power over our own lives and an impact on the world.
There were many creative people. I developed relationships that were very important to me, such as my friendship with the poet Alan Ginsberg. I wrote poetry as well. I later discovered, to my surprise, that my correspondence with Ginsberg is preserved in his archive at Stanford, where all his papers are collected. He kept my letters; I didn’t know that.
The common thread was this: we were not simply “watching” history, we were trying to make things happen. Taking risks was part of that context.
INTEL AND THE ROLE OF THE CHANGE AGENT
At Intel, Miller encountered the paradox of large organizations: they claim to want change, but often end up defending the status quo. Through corporate venture capital, the goal was threefold: strategic, industrial, and financial. In practice, however, financial return often tended to prevail over the other two.
“We didn’t invest in something. We made something happen.”
STARTUPS AND THE OSTER STRATEGY
Over time Miller developed a method for evaluating startups based on four elements: Opportunity, Strategy, Execution, and Reward (OSTER). Opportunity must be recognized, not created; strategy must be alternative; execution must be rigorous; and the result must be meaningful for founders, investors, and society.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
According to Miller, the impact of AI will be enormous but unpredictable. Venture capital works as a portfolio strategy, while entrepreneurs concentrate everything on a single vision.
He has never been motivated by money.
“My engine is making the world a better place.”
IMPACT, ITALY, AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC WINTER
Today Miller lives in Italy and is the first IIT(Italian Institute of Technology, Fellow. He sees the country as a potential global laboratory for addressing demographic aging. Through artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, and new models of work, aging can be transformed into an opportunity.
“Turning silver into gold.”
My book, The Flight of the Wild Duck can be found at https://wildduckflight.com/
Two Thirds Done 