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OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

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Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#101

For regular consumers, Gemini's AI pro plan is a tough one to beat. The chat quality has gotten much better, I am able to share my plan with a couple more people in my family leading to proper individual chat histories, I get 2 TB of extra storage (which is also sharable), plus some really nice stuff like NotebookLM, which has been amazing for doing research. Veo/Nanobanana are nice bonuses. It's easily worth the mon…

I strongly advise never using Google's Drive storage. They're known to scan all content, and to disable all access if even a single file is "problematic", often misclassified by a bot. If you do use the storage, do backup all your files, and be ready to lose access at any time, with no way to reach any intelligent human.

Since we are on the topic of bans & Google, I have a question.

How likely or difficult is it for Google to engage in, for lack of better word, "thought policing"?

You ask your "private" AI assistant to answer a naughty question or help with problematic task(from Google's hidden list) and then you eventually face the ban hammer.

Did anybody ever get banned for searching the wrong keywords?

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#102
post #46

We are in a pretty amazing situation. If you're willing to go down 10% in benchmark scores, you easily 25% your costs. Now with Deepseek 3.2 another shot across the bow. But if the ML, if SOTA intelligence becomes basically a price war, won't that mean that Google (and OpenAI and Microsoft and any other big model) lose big? Especially Google, as the margin even Google cloud (famously a lot lower than Google's other b…

Google trains its own AI with TPU's, which are designed in house. Google doesn't have to pay retail rates for Nvidia GPUs, like other hyperscalers in the AI rat race. Therefore, Google trains its AI for cheaper than everyone else. I think everyone else "loses big" other than Google.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#103
post #73

IMHO Gemini surpassed ChatGPT by quite a bit - I switched. Gemini is faster, the thinking mode gives me reliably better answers and it has a more "business like" conversation attitude which is refreshing in comparison to the over-the-top informal ChatGPT default.

> [Gemini] has a more "business like" conversation attitude which is refreshing in comparison to the over-the-top informal ChatGPT default. Maybe "business like" for Americans. In most of the world we don't spend quite so much effort glazing one another in the workplace. "That's an incredibly insightful question and really gets to the heart of the matter". No it isn't. I was shocked they didn't fix this behavior in v…

> Maybe "business like" for Americans. In most of the world we don't spend quite so much effort glazing one another in the workplace. "That's an incredibly insightful question and really gets to the heart of the matter". No it isn't. I was shocked they didn't fix this behavior in v3.

I presume rejecting the glazing is exactly the behavior they're praising Google for. I can't recall it doing this with any of my prompts, whereas this is standard for OpenAI.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#104

"Code red" feels like theater. Competition is healthy - Google's compute advantage was always going to matter once they got serious. The real question isn't who's ahead this quarter, but whether anyone can maintain a moat when the underlying tech is rapidly commoditizing.

Yeah, but now it's questionable whether the insane investments will ever pay off.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#105
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strategic thinking revolves around "how do we put ads in without everyone getting massively pissed?" sort of questions.

Not sure how that would be done without pissing people off. But you know what sounds good right now? A fresh bowl of Kellogg's Rice Crispy Treats. Would you like me to load Instacart for you?

I was shocked to see Prime Video display a button to open the Amazon store to the product that was playing in the ad.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#106
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a matter of public perception and user sentiment. You don't want to shove ads into a product that people are already complaining about. And you don't want the media asking questions like why you rolled out a "health assistant" at the same time you were scrambling to address major safety, reliability, and legal challenges.

chatgpt making targeted "recommendations" (read ads) is a nightmare. especially if it's subtle and not disclosed.

The end game is its a sales person and not only is it suggesting things to you undisclosed. It's using all of the emotional mechanisms that a sales person uses to get you to act.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#107

> There will be a daily call for those tasked with improving the chatbot, the memo said, and Altman encouraged temporary team transfers to speed up development. It's incredible how 50 year-old advice from The Mythical Man-Month are still not being heed. Throw in a knee-jerk solution of "daily call" (sound familiar?) for those involved while they are wading knee-deep through work and you have a perfect storm of terrib…

There is always a daily call if a U.S. startup fails. Soon there will be quadrants and Ikigai Venn diagrams on the internal Slack.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#108
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a matter of public perception and user sentiment. You don't want to shove ads into a product that people are already complaining about. And you don't want the media asking questions like why you rolled out a "health assistant" at the same time you were scrambling to address major safety, reliability, and legal challenges.

chatgpt making targeted "recommendations" (read ads) is a nightmare. especially if it's subtle and not disclosed.

It'll be hard to separate them out from the block of prose. It's not like Google results where you can highlight the sponsored ones.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#109

Heard all the news how Gemini 3 is passing everyone on benchmarks, so quickly tested and still find it a far cry from ChatGPT in real world use when testing questions on both platforms. But importantly the ChatGPT app experience at least for iPhone/Mac users is drastically superior vs Google which feels very Google still. So Gemini would have to be drastically better answer wise than ChatGPT to lure users from a bett…

I couldn't even get ChatGPT to let me download code it claimed to program for me. It kept saying the files were ready but refused to let me access or download anything. It was the most basic use case and it totally bombed. I gave up on ChatGPT right then and there.

It's amazing how different people have wildly varying experiences with the same product.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#110
post #75
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the bleak subtext of all this. All these engineers working 70 hour weeks for world class sociopaths in some sort of fucked up space race to create a technology that is supposed to make all of them unemployed .

You can have a more upbeat take on it all.

You can, but then your model of the world will be less accurate.
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