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Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

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Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#241

Post by joe_the_user »

dragonwriter wrote: post #123
mwfunk wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling someone an "X company" means that they make their money from X. There are aspects of AI in targeted advertising, but not enough to call them an AI company rather than an advertising company. It doesn't really matter where they're going- that's what they aspire to be, not what they are. If you judge companies based on their aspirations, you end up judging them based on their most positive and idealistic versio…

> Calling someone an "X company" means that they make their money from X. Sure, but even so ( except for the way some people treat Google), we typically call companies that make their money by placing ads in a service or media offering an "X company" where X describes the service or media offering, not "advertising". From that perspective, Google is an online services company, with AI playing an important role in som…

Google did most of what they do now ten years ago, before their activity had much arguable "intelligence". They have used AI to enhance various existing services but the improvements hardly seem earth shattering to me [insert earth-shattering counter example HERE]. Google's more pure AI product such as the Google Car are so-far vaporware at best.

Calling Google an "AI company" seems like calling Ford in 1962 "a streamlining company" - which is does violence to the concept even if Ford in 1962 maybe some money with streamlined cars.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#242

Post by coldtea »

Kequc wrote: post #229
toomanybeersies wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's flagship product is an advertising platform, not a search box.

Even that one feeds ads it thinks are relevant to you

And judging from the quality of those feeds, I'd call it AS (artificial stupidity) not AI.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#243

Post by tn13 »

cryptoz wrote: post #35

The comparisons between Google and Apple aren't as apples-to-apples as everyone in the media seems to think. If we're talking about the future of these companies, and their earning power, they are situating themselves very differently. Apple is really a consumer electronics company, Google is an artificial intelligence company. And investors think more money will be in the future of AI instead of consumer hardware an…

I agree that they aren't same but I doubt if Apple is even in the same league as Google when it comes to AI.

Apple is a product company that makes iOS+Hardware for profit and also seeks rent to access this platform. Google is synonymous with search/advertising which is fancy word for media. For google that media comes first and platform monopoly comes second. That is why Google continues to offer all its services on iOS despite virtually owning Android.

For every product that Apple builds in future its success will be like a toss of a coin (of course biased). Google succeeds no matter which platform succeeds.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#244

Post by coldtea »

endtime wrote: post #208
drewda wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's flagship product, in the sense of revenue, is the text ad ;-)

The text ad which is targeted using AI?

No, the text ad which is targeted (crudely) using tons of data and some statistical methods.

It ain't gonna pass the Turing test anytime soon, and it's not more of an "AI" product any other product with basic algorithmic based matching is.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#245

Post by bunderbunder »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #218
shimon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's flagship product is a box that you can type words into, and get relevant texts/references/facts in response. It seems like a textbook example of AI.

Google's flagship product is an advertising platform, not a search box.

Either way you cut it (search or advertising), Google's flagship product's success depends critically on their ability to do machine learning better than other people.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#246

Post by rokhayakebe »

bbq wrote: post #238
pessimizer wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is grep AI?

If you let me know how you use grep to search the internet as effectively as I do with Google, sure!

Effectively or Efficiently?

I can search the internet way better. Email me what you are looking for and 9 times out of 10 I will send you back something better than what Google will spit out. Furthermore you won't even have to sift through 10 links, or change your search, I will do all this and send you the result back.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#247

Post by peter303 »

pessimizer wrote: post #174
shimon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's flagship product is a box that you can type words into, and get relevant texts/references/facts in response. It seems like a textbook example of AI.

Is grep AI?

I prefer using the Stanford term "symbolics systems" for a larger tent that includes AI, but excludes business and scientific computing. Google search would fall into this.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#248

Post by peter303 »

cryptoz wrote: post #35

The comparisons between Google and Apple aren't as apples-to-apples as everyone in the media seems to think. If we're talking about the future of these companies, and their earning power, they are situating themselves very differently. Apple is really a consumer electronics company, Google is an artificial intelligence company. And investors think more money will be in the future of AI instead of consumer hardware an…

AI had big VC run in the 1980s. At that time it focused on expert stems and logic computing. Now the emphasis is on big data and deep learning neural nets. Google can afford to nuture a technology for a decade while VCs wont.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#249

Post by taneq »

drewrv wrote: post #119
shimon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's flagship product is a box that you can type words into, and get relevant texts/references/facts in response. It seems like a textbook example of AI.

AI is whatever hasn't been done yet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect#AI_is_whatever_hasn....

Precisely. The image recognition and natural language processing that's "just a deep learning algorithm" today would have blown the socks off anyone ten years ago. Chess playing programs were AI until they could decisively beat all humans, and then we decided that chess doesn't require intelligence. Self-driving cars were AI until they got close to market and now apparently driving a car doesn't require intelligence. It would seem that only True Scotsmen are intelligent.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#250

Post by petke »

cryptoz wrote: post #35

The comparisons between Google and Apple aren't as apples-to-apples as everyone in the media seems to think. If we're talking about the future of these companies, and their earning power, they are situating themselves very differently. Apple is really a consumer electronics company, Google is an artificial intelligence company. And investors think more money will be in the future of AI instead of consumer hardware an…

Also apple only spends about 3% of revenue on R&D. Google spends about 15% (and so does ms) if i remember correctly. I think at some point this is going to show. If apple isn't careful they might end up making the pretty but dumb phones of tomorrow.
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