Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas claimed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Microsoft engineered the modern American office worker as a business strategy, arguing the standard 9-to-5 desk job was intentionally built to sell software. Srinivas stated, “Microsoft built this concept of the office worker because they wanted to sell office software,” adding, “It was the mission of Bill Gates to put a PC on every desk and get people glued to them.” He contrasted Bill Gates’ vision with that of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, saying, “It wasn’t about making computing beautiful like the vision Steve Jobs had. All they cared about was selling computers so they could sell software.” Srinivas explained the strategy required training generations to depend on Microsoft products before entering the workforce: “That’s why we all got trained into using Microsoft Word and Excel. Once you learned that, then you could work for a company that has a PC on their desk who’s paying Microsoft money to use software.”