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Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

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Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#181

I expect this deal to be a must for Microsoft. OpenAI is probably very happy to raise the stakes as much as possible. So we will see how many billions Microsoft ends up paying for this. Still, is there a world in which we look back 10 years from now and think that we were overvaluing the impact of AI? (For example, this did happen with tablets, when people thought that the iPad would replace "computers"...)

Nah -- this sounds like Google buying YouTube or Android for billions while they were in their infancy but had proven tech.

People did say at the time Google overpaid but they were some of the wisest investments Google ever made.

I hope Microsoft don't buy them and OpenAI just becomes another FANG.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#182
post #121

Does anybody else have the feeling "Microsoft is back"? With GitHub and OpenAI the have put their finger on two pretty significant new projects. What new things has Google come up with over the last 5 years?

Ironic you say this given that Google is the one to invent language models to begin with and GitHub was an acquisition. I personally don’t think there have been any amazing consumer tech breakthroughs by any big tech in the last 5 years.

Maybe you have misunderestimated chatGPT, I am already using it for work…

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#183

I'm becoming convinced that the "Microsoft is a good guy now" narrative was just a narrative, they still are the same company they always were.

Then you're wrong, Microsoft (or any company for that matter) have never been like people that you can judge like "good" or "bad". They are businesses, whose purpose is to make money. They do whatever seems best to do at the time in order to optimize most money earned. The same every single public company does, all the time.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#184
post #169

I notice a few people lamenting that OpenAI will no longer be... open. But I have to wonder, in what sense is OpenAI open today ? In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from non-profit to for-profit. At that time, Microsoft invested US$1 billion into the company. OpenAI then announced its intention to commercially license its technologies.

Still more open than Google, Microsoft or DeepMind

In what specific ways?

Google and Microsoft both release and contribute to open source software. They both publish vast amounts of research.

What does OpenAI do differentially?

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#185
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DeepMind, and by extension AlphaGo, AlphaFold, AlphaStar, AlphaCode. Google Brain, and by extension the Transformer model (~which is the T in GPT~ my bad, it's Generative PreTraining, not General Purpose Transformer), and TensorFlow. Waymo, which is rolling out robotaxis in a few places. Not sure which department or subsidiary is responsible for their TPUs, the Sycamore 53-qbit quantum processor, or LaMDA.

None of this is a tangible product. It’s just talk from google. The research is real, but they aren’t translating it into anything useful

waymo is real

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#186

I don't quite get the appeal of replacing a search engine with ChatGPT. It's certainly useful for many use cases [1], but when you're searching for information you likely want some trust signals attached to that information. When you land on a website that aggregates information (Reddit, Wikipedia, Stack Overflow, et cetera) you have many signals on display that helps you evaluate the quality and trustworthiness: upv…

>I don't quite get the appeal of replacing a search engine with ChatGPT. It's certainly useful for many use cases [1], but when you're searching for information you likely want some trust signals attached to that information.

ChatGPT-like systems in the future can quote sources and recommend further readings and information reservoirs something like books do e.g. "Want to learn more?", "Further Reading:..." etc.

Google's ultimate goal was and still is an Answer Machine which gives you almost perfect answer to every question you ask. But I think the fundamental question to ask is do we want an Answer Machine or do we want Internet Search Engine which helps you find useful information and useful websites. And remember World Wide Web(WWW) is not only about information it is also about e-commerce, social connections, entertainment etc. Insofar LLMs like ChatGPT can not fulfill demands of a modern internet user. ChatGPT is like a smart librarian that knows a lot of stuff and can help you every now and then.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#187
post #181

I expect this deal to be a must for Microsoft. OpenAI is probably very happy to raise the stakes as much as possible. So we will see how many billions Microsoft ends up paying for this. Still, is there a world in which we look back 10 years from now and think that we were overvaluing the impact of AI? (For example, this did happen with tablets, when people thought that the iPad would replace "computers"...)

Nah -- this sounds like Google buying YouTube or Android for billions while they were in their infancy but had proven tech. People did say at the time Google overpaid but they were some of the wisest investments Google ever made. I hope Microsoft don't buy them and OpenAI just becomes another FANG.

The google acquisition is a great comparison. Years from now it will look like a steal

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#188
post #162
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not used any of those. Waymo, ok, I don't live in that area. How can I try any of the other projects you listed?

For example, pip install tensorflow and https://cloud.google.com/tpu/docs/tpus Most of what I listed is groundbreaking research, not consumer stuff. For the consumer stuff, try e.g. searching images by description in the default Android app, or Google Translate, or the automated transcriptions on YouTube. Apple also does similar things, as stuff like that is what consumer AI looks like these days.

I'm not an AI researcher, so Tensorflow and TPUs are not my area of expertise.

But I have an opinion on Google translate. From my experience, it is not clearly leading in comparison to other tools by smaller companies.

If Google is leading in AI, why don't they have any clearly leading consumer products in this area?

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Language models predate Google by 10+ years. I found references dating as far as 1987. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22language+model%22+&h...

Reading the parent in the most favorable light: "Attention is all you need" can be seen as a fundamental paper for the current LLM generation, which indeed came out of google brain..

Okay, by that logic they also invented search.
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