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Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

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Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#191

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"...)

Another example of Microsoft purchasing what’s “trendy” and “ cool” to be relevant. They just buy hot tech and do nothing with it.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#193

>The AI firm is currently raising funds at a $29 billion valuation. >The tech-industry giant is ready to pay upwards of $10 billion for the acquisition [49%] So Microsoft is undervaluing them, and also soaking up 75% of profit until their investment is paid back? Seems like a bad deal.

Helps when you can limit OpenAI’s inference capacity during negotiations

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#194
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?

if acquiring companies means you "are back" what was the value anyways? windows 11 seems like an intentional disaster where basif features are misaing because microsoft decided you didnt need to them. office seems to be getting worse and is now solely about thay subscription money. and many of microsofts acquisitions just languish slowly - linkedin etc. google can buy conpanies too. meh.

Linkedin user count and revenue have doubled since the acquisition. Hardly languishing

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#195

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"...)

> Still, is there a world in which we look back 10 years from now and think that we were overvaluing the impact of AI?

AI? Probably no.

LLM-style AI? Yeah, I expect the tablet or blockchain story. A solution in search of a problem, with some very cool niche applications. In this case, Copilot.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#196
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?

Certainly doing its darnedest to rope everyone into its walled garden all over again. Business as usual. All of that bluster about the open source "virus" years ago? Yeah well micro$oft has finally figured out how to embrace and extend even that so our once bright future has turned towards dystopia all over again. Makes me a bit sad to be honest.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#197
post #136
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?

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.

I would note that I'm kinda neutral on this topic but so far, these accomplishments have been pretty iconic "Google News Article" successes: Impressive tech demos...that Google can't figure out how to monetize.

Waymo so-far has been, until the last few months, unable to make regulators happy. Even then, the tech doesn't actually solve many of the original goals. Robotaxi's do not improve traffic, their solution is not environmentally friendly, and the payoff is still unclear, it is an uphill battle. The division loses incredible amounts of money, all while having trouble making good mindshare and when it does, for the wrong reasons.

Tensor is a great contribution...and don't get me wrong, I love OSS...but you can't just make an open framework and say 'Boom, product!' At most it makes for some new avenues for Web Services but not in a wide way that is highly profitable. In this regard, Microsoft's 1B investment in OpenAI and then just capitalizing on it is hilariously good value.

DeepMind is a news article system, sadly, despite incredible work by their team, Google has almost made it the butt of the joke: "We used Deepmind to personalize play store ads!". One day they might find a way to monetize it effectively, so far, it's kinda just like Google's IBM Watson problem: Market it to solve big data problems, actual impact ends up being unclear.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#198
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.

I remember hearing that said about Facebook buying Instagram, too. In hindsight, one of the best decisions they made.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#199

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"...)

Another example of Microsoft purchasing what’s “trendy” and “ cool” to be relevant. They just buy hot tech and do nothing with it.

This definitely happened before, but they are doing fine with GitHub.

Re: Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT

#200
Not long ago, Microsoft acquired Lobe.ai by Apple designer Mike Matas and others. Really well thought out app. Effectively dead now.

Is anyone building a GUI based service for training domain specific models? Such as image creation (or correction) based on a trained style, image recognition for security, sales data classification and forecasting.

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