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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

#201
post #190

This will keep going around the table, next it might be a Chinese company that demos 98% of the capability at 1/4 the price. The objective of being at the cutting edge of LLM performance seems like more of a marketing advantage in the game of sucking in more capital for a moatless technology.

Which makes me think they are getting the strategy exactly backwards. My problem is usually not something that would be solved by the AI being better but instead by it being more integrated into my life.

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

#202

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…

What are your primary usecases? Are you mostly using it as a chatbot?

I find gemini excels in multimodal areas over chatgpt and anthropic. For example, "identify and classify this image with meta data" or "ocr this document and output a similar structure in markdown"

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

#203
post #146

WSJ: Altman said OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives, such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse. These plus working with Jony Ive on hardware, makes it sound like they took their eyes off the ball.

if you want to compete with google it seems like ad space is the single most important thing to push out quickly.

no matter what openai does if its not accepting customers the ad budgets will flow to meta amaz and goog and be used as weapons against it.

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

#204
post #146

WSJ: Altman said OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives, such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse. These plus working with Jony Ive on hardware, makes it sound like they took their eyes off the ball.

I don't think this is about Google. This is about advertising being the make or break moment for OpenAI. The problem with ChatGPT advertising is that it's truly a "bet the farm" situation, unlike any of their projects in the past: - If it works and prints money like it should, then OpenAI is on a path to become the next Mag 7 company. All the money they raised makes sense. - If it fails to earn the expected revenue n…

I don't think one can both pull the fire alarm that AGI was a lie AND that if OAI has to act quickly. They can ride their current street rep the same way Kleenex did.

They do need to build a business, but they've got time to play the long game.

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

#205

What will it do to Jony Ive’s legacy if his OpenAI device is no more successful than Snapchat’s foray into hardware? If OpenAI becomes an also-ran by the time the hardware is released, this seems like a real possibility no matter how well-designed it is.

Not sure what you mean. His legacy to date is ruining the iphone because he couldn’t think of anything to do beyond “thinner”.

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

#206
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we stop for a while and really consider the value of AI tools, then comparing them on price doesn't make much sense. Any of these tools give hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars of value per month to the user. With that in consideration they should mostly be compared on quality.

The same thing is true for a _ton_ of tech products. My home internet plan easily gives me more than $1000 in value per month. My cell phone hardware probably gives me $2000+ in value over even a short 2 year life. Customers still tend to choose the cheapest option that meets requirements.

I don’t know, I ditched my ISP of many years as soon as a better option came up, even though it cost more, because it is much higher quality.

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

#207
post #184
post #146

WSJ: Altman said OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives, such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse. These plus working with Jony Ive on hardware, makes it sound like they took their eyes off the ball.

it in't about taking eyes off the ball, it is about playing very different ball - they de-facto became commercial entity with short term plans/goals/targets/metrics and all the management games creeping in. Beating Google, such a large company who has been successfully playing that game for quarter of century is very hard, if not impossible until Google would make serious error itself. And pure tech-wise - they seem…

Google definitely made errors, but it looks like it got them out of its system early in the game. They've been killing it since the summer.

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

#208
post #71

> 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…

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 .

They are paid exceptionally well though. Way above market rate for their skill set was at any point in history. Work long hours for a few years and enjoy freedom for the rest of your life. That's a deal a lot of people would take. No need to feel sorry for the ones in position to actually get the choice.

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

#209
post #146

WSJ: Altman said OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives, such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse. These plus working with Jony Ive on hardware, makes it sound like they took their eyes off the ball.

100%. Especially if it’s just ads and a new Siri/Alexa that they’ve got cooking.

Advertising, especially with LLMs/chat bots, is a dangerous mixture.

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

#210

The real code red here is less that Google just one-upped OpenAI but that they demonstrated there’s no moat to be had here. Absent a major breakthrough all the major providers are just going to keep leapfrogging each other in the most expensive race to the bottom of all time. Good for tech, but a horrible business and financial picture for these companies.

> for these companies They’re absolutely going to get bailed out and socialize the losses somehow. They might just get a huge government contract instead of an explicit bailout, but they’ll weasel out of this one way or another and these huge circular deals are to ensure that.

Absolutely. And they will figure out how to bankrupt any utilities and local governments they can in the process by offloading as much of their costs overhead for power generation and shopping for tax rebates.
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