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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

#231
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 prompt…

I'm a daily user of Gemini. I get this glazing every single time. This is my very last interaction with Gemini (edited for brevity), > I have a young cryptomeria japonica that is about 1 meter tall, growing in the ground. Is it too late to bonsai this plant? > That's an excellent question! [etc...] > I have been told cutting back to brown wood will prevent back budding > That is a great clarification and you are touc…

I get:

> It is absolutely not too late to bonsai your Cryptomeria japonica. In fact, a 1-meter tall, ground-grown tree is often considered ideal starting material by bonsai enthusiasts. [...]

And when followed up with 'I have been told cutting back to brown wood will prevent back budding' I get:

> That is a very common piece of advice in bonsai, but for Cryptomeria (Japanese Cedar), it is a half-truth that requires clarification. [...]

That's in 'Thinking with 3 Pro' mode. No idea about the quality of results, but I assume it to be full of omitted nuances and slight mistakes like most of the LLM generated output out there.

Maybe they tune their models to be less glaze'y for Germany? Or The Machine has Learned that you respond more positively to glazing? :)

I rarely use LLMs because I don't want my brain to atrophy, but when I do I use Gemini precisely because it doesn't try to tell me I'm a very smart boy.

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

#232
post #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.

The same thing happens to me in Claude occasionally. I have to tell it "Generate a tar.gz archive for me to download".

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

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, I had the opposite experience, except for Deep Research mode where after the latest update the OpenAI offering has become genuinely amazing. This is doubly ironic because Gemini has direct API access to Google search!

Google search is awful. I don't think they can put lipstick on that particular pig and expect anyone to think it's beautiful.

I'm sure they give their AI models a superior search than they give to us.

Also if you prompt Google search the right way it's unfortunately still superior to most if not all other solutions in most cases.

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

#234
post #37

OpenAI was founded to hedge against Google dominating AI and with it the future. It makes me sad how that was lost for pipe dreams (AGI) and terrible leadership. I fear a Google dystopia. I hope DeepSeek or somebody else will counter-balance their power.

AGI was the thing from the start. From the OpenAI Charter:

>OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) ... benefits all of humanity.

I agree with you on the leadership.

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

#235

I have (rather, had) a paid subscription to ChatGPT. I work at my home in the Sierra foothills, and on alternate weeks in my office in San Jose. Last month, I used ChatGPT while in SJ. I needed a function that's only available to paying customers, and which had worked well from my home. ChatGPT refused to recognize me as a paid-up customer. I had correct login creds + ancillary identifying info, but no go. Over the c…

How do you handle family obligations and a super commute like that?

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

#236
post #218
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This code red also has the convenient benefit of giving an excuse to stop work on more monetization features... Which, when implemented, would have the downside of tethering OpenAI's valuation to reality.

Isnt CoPilot the de facto OpenAI monetization? And Microsoft gets the models for free (?)

They have some monetization, but as long as they don't expand into other sectors, they can plausibly claim that, say, their ad business will be bringing in 10 trillion/year in revenue, or whatever other imagined number.

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

#237

OpenAI is basically just Netscape at this point. An innovative product with no means of significant revenue generation. One one side it's up against large competitors with an already established user base and product line that can simply bundle their AI offerings into those products. Google will do just what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer and bundle Gemini in for 'Free' with their already other profitable produ…

> An innovative product with no means of significant revenue generation. OpenAI has annualized revenue of $20bn. That's not Google, but it's not insignificant.

We live in crazy times, but given what they’ve spent and committed to that’s a drop in the bucket relative to what they need to be pulling in. They’re history if they can’t pump up the revenue much much faster.

Given that we’re likely at peak AI hype at the moment they’re not well positioned at all to survive the coming “trough of disillusionment” that happens like clockwork on every hype cycle. Google, by comparison, is very well positioned to weather a coming storm.

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

#238

I have (rather, had) a paid subscription to ChatGPT. I work at my home in the Sierra foothills, and on alternate weeks in my office in San Jose. Last month, I used ChatGPT while in SJ. I needed a function that's only available to paying customers, and which had worked well from my home. ChatGPT refused to recognize me as a paid-up customer. I had correct login creds + ancillary identifying info, but no go. Over the c…

Weird. I’ve traveled across Europe and used ChatGPT paid account from my phone and my laptop in multiple countries on various connections. Mobile data, home WiFi, hotel WiFi, coffee shops, etc. I always get an email to confirm the login with a code but they’ve never denied my login or prevented me from using my account thankfully.

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

#239

OpenAI is basically just Netscape at this point. An innovative product with no means of significant revenue generation. One one side it's up against large competitors with an already established user base and product line that can simply bundle their AI offerings into those products. Google will do just what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer and bundle Gemini in for 'Free' with their already other profitable produ…

> An innovative product with no means of significant revenue generation. OpenAI has annualized revenue of $20bn. That's not Google, but it's not insignificant.

Google is embedding Gemini into Chrome Developer Tools. You can ask for an analysis of individual network calls in your browser by clicking a checkbox. That's just an example of the power of platform. They seem to be better at integration than Microsoft.

OpenAI has this amazing technology and a great app, but the company feels like some sort of financial engineering nightmare.

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

#240

OpenAI is basically just Netscape at this point. An innovative product with no means of significant revenue generation. One one side it's up against large competitors with an already established user base and product line that can simply bundle their AI offerings into those products. Google will do just what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer and bundle Gemini in for 'Free' with their already other profitable produ…

Maybe? But you could have written this same thing in 1999 with OpenAI and Google replaced by Google and Yahoo, respectively.

Google in 1999 was already far superior to Yahoo and other competitors. I don't think OpenAI is in a similar position there. It seems debatable as to whether they're even the best, let alone a massive leap ahead of everyone else the way Google was.
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