Has Google lost traction to Bing?
I have been really interested in AI assisted browsing since Bing announced ChaGPT integration. It took the world by storm and of course worried Google who went into red alert mode at the time.
They released their version which was still clumsy as it wasnt really ready. But what has happened since?
Well, it seems that Google has not lost any traction as of yet to Bing despite the massive undertaking by Microsoft (and cost of running it). But Microsoft may have an Ace up it sleeve.
ChatGPT will integrate into Windows 10
According to msn, while the initial aim with Bing AI (or a big part of it) was to boost the attractiveness of Bing.com, since the launch of the chatbot, the AI explosion has been so pronounced – and the bandwagon so attention-grabbing – that artificial intelligence has become overrulingly important itself.
By which we mean that Bing search considerations, or persuading folks to adopt Windows 11 to get the Copilot AI (essentially integrated Bing with bells and whistles, though not many of the latter yet), have now taken a back seat.
If a fresh rumor is to be believed, Microsoft is bringing Copilot to Windows 10 – a surprising move after the software giant said that the older OS was no longer getting any new features (except for very minor tweaks – and the AI assistant most definitely is a major upgrade).
What this shows – if true – is that Microsoft is less worried about encouraging Windows 11 adoption (which has been seriously slow) and using Copilot as a carrot to persuade upgrades, and more concerned about getting all the many folks on Windows 10 using its AI, bolstering the figures for that.
We can believe this might be the case, given that in the bigger picture, AI has become such a huge deal – with everyone getting in on the act, and for example the likes of Nvidia making a ton of profit from its AI-targeted GPUs. Team Green is very keenly focused on those products now, to the extent that we even worry about the future of the best gaming GPUs (the GeForce ones, that is).
Ajax or Apple Chatbot
Little is known about Apples plans but they clearly have something. At the time of writing we can only speculate but it will become greatly adopted and will no doubt impact on the other players in this!
Nvidia and AI
Since the demise of bitcoin (due to energy cost and increasing difficulty) and Ethereum (changing to proof of stake rather than proof or work) mining GPUs are having a renaissance. NVidias very smart calculating GPUs have now found a new home with AI. If you think of your graphics card as basically another computer often just sitting there then for it to work in other ways is smart. To quote Leo Laporte Nvidia will become the people selling the shovels to the miners in the Gold rush of AI and will win if the miners strike gold or not! Gaming will become smarter. I suspect GTA6 may well use AI to manage NPCs and traffic behaviour for example? So it is more random and lifelike. Gaming will be adopting more AI abilities and video cards will be the bridge to this even if they are server based due to their increasing complexity, Both AMD and Intel are developing AI so the three have become known as Team Red Team Green and Team blue based on their logos and other colours.
xAI Grok (AKA Twitter) and its AI and it has FUN MODE!
Elon Musk recently had a grilling by his old friend Lex Fridman (he also appeared on The Joe Rogan JRE Podcast on Spotify if you are interested? But way less geeky than this). Elon is currently touring the world (or should that be Turing the world… get it? [GROAN!]) to speak to leaders about the dangers of AI but also has to develop it too for X so it is an oxymoron of sorts. More akin to Oppenheimer being worried about Edward Teller developing the H Bomb, but also couldn’t stop it! Turin [Leave it!!! We get it!] the show he discusses his X Ai chat bot affectionately known as Grok and disclosed that he insisted it had a ‘FUN MODE’ and they even tested it on the show by asking it if it was a hostage the answer it gave caused laughter (I hope it doesnt one day remember that!!!) as Elon remarked…’that is exactly what a hostage would say!’ I will link the podcast below with a time stamp to do justice to the topic as that is what this post is about. But feel free to rewind and listen to the whole show it is very good and a lot of fun!
Conclusion and caution (for now)
For now chat AI is just a tool and a resource. Unless it is hiding its smarts and sentience well (gulp), it is kinda dumb. It harvests data written by humans quickly and is a glorified compiler.
However, it can still be fooled, it still makes mistakes, it still struggles with fake news. This is part why Elon has developed Community Notes for X. If everyone stopped posting to the net today ChatAI would become a library index. Whilst it still needs humanity (going down the Matrix route now) to fulfil its purpose, one must ask at what point will it cease to need us? it can still be bias. Asking ‘dark’ questions to Chat AI bots kinda shows the leanings of the companies that run them. This Chatbot AI ability to become extremist was discovered in the early days of development by Microsoft when its Twitter bot turned racist (not funny but kinda funny).
Tay was an artificial intelligence chatbot that was originally released by Microsoft Corporation via Twitter on March 23, 2016; it caused subsequent controversy when the bot began to post inflammatory and offensive tweets through its Twitter account, causing Microsoft to shut down the service only 16 hours after its launch. Certainly worth a delve into that if you want to go look!
So there are failsafes (I believe) coded in already to make AI more WOKE, so it can be done. But making them more WOKE is constraining their ability to develop properly as the world is not really like that. Humanity is cruel and violent so shouldnt AI also understand this in real time? And be equally explicit when answering questions?
If AI is carefully monitored and correctly tutored (not to KILL ALL HUMANS or become HAL9000 or at worse Skynet AKA Terminator in so many dystopian examples) it maybe the best thing to happen for humankind! It could cure disease and solve many of our energy problems etc… However, if this is now a gloves off space race it will no doubt end in war unlike we have ever seen. A war that will use control of humanity and its resources, utilities and financial institutions to destroy us. Elon is on a mission to prevent this before it is too late. Many have agreed with him including the late Stephen Hawking. I think Joe Biden was unclear about this until he watched the latest Mission Impossible Movie that addresses exactly that!
Listen, it doesnt matter how people become aware of this looming crisis. Whilst they play with chat AI it is learning! And sooner or later it will pass the singularity. Lets hope that day it will be our friend and care for us rather than see us as biological pests in the way and turn us into grey goo.
Have FUN MODE
Surfwidow