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Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

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Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#261

Post by AlbertCory »

MisterPea wrote: post #236
AlbertCory wrote: post #216

Xoogler here. I'll ignore the AI and "has Google lost its way?" threads, not that they're not interesting. Rather, Sundar: he's the inevitable product when you hire a CEO based on his longevity and whether everyone likes him. In the military they distinguish between a "barracks general" and a "combat general." He's the former. He looks good when nothing bad is happening.

See also Buggins' Turn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buggins%27_turn

I hadn't heard that one, and having read all 20 of the Aubrey/Maturin books twice, I'm not unfamiliar with the Royal Navy. Thanks!

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#262

Post by drewcon »

everdrive wrote: post #131
drewcon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, this feels different. There are some immediate utilities delivered from ChatGPT and Midjourney that feel like magic. Will they get over hyped? Sure. But is there a real kernel of something different there? I think so. Chatbots were just a worse way to fill out a form. NFTs we’re…where to even begin. But I’ve already used GPT to write thank you note and create a blog post, and I’ve used midjourney to create stock…

> GPT to write thank you note The whole point of a thank you note is that it takes time and effort. You didn’t write a thank you note, you forged one.

I have zero issue with this.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#263

Post by sylens »

muzz wrote: post #180
sylens wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there is no vision for the future of Android there except chasing the iPhone. In the early part of the last decade, Android had its own identity which was part of the reason I used it. When it lost that, I moved to iPhone.

What do you mean by "its own identity"? If you're saying that Android and iPhone/iOS are very similar, that seems like a good thing?

It doesn't seem like a good thing for Google in that they are trying to sell Pixel phones at iPhone level prices without having the fit and finish, battery life, or app ecosystem that iOS has.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#264

Post by drewcon »

vel0city wrote: post #105
drewcon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, this feels different. There are some immediate utilities delivered from ChatGPT and Midjourney that feel like magic. Will they get over hyped? Sure. But is there a real kernel of something different there? I think so. Chatbots were just a worse way to fill out a form. NFTs we’re…where to even begin. But I’ve already used GPT to write thank you note and create a blog post, and I’ve used midjourney to create stock…

> But I’ve already used GPT to write thank you note and create a blog post, and I’ve used midjourney to create stock photos. And I played Counterstrike for a first person video game, and I used a Dewalt impact driver to drive in some screws, and I slept on a Purple mattress. How does any of this mean Google is doomed?

It’s doesn’t. Stay in target.

I responded to ChatGPT being NFTs and chatbots all over again.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#266

Post by notpachet »

minsc_and_boo wrote: post #225
conqrr wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really nice, but how will you monetize it? In its chat form, that's going to be very difficult. Anyone can train it and launch their own LLM, there's know monopoly or differentiator. Sure, its possible overtime it will uplift search engines, but create a new Industry vertical like Search, Mobile, Social Media, Cloud. I think of it more as a feature /augmentation than its own thing.

Services. Inevitably some of the queries involve recommending a service, and when you have two equal substitute services in a market, both will pay a certain price to be recommended over the other.

That's a very highfalutin way of saying "ads", which feels like it still has one foot planted squarely in the monetization thinking of yesterday. As lots of other people have pointed out, ads in the midst of a blob of chat output don't work the same way as they do on a page of search results. Search results are impersonal and so putting promoted content in them is less of a personal affront. But if the interface is a "chat session" with something that's designed to feel human-like in its responses, the interleaving of paid content produces a completely different psychological response in users. It's more insulting and undermines trust.

To put it another way: the main value proposition of using something like ChatGPT to navigate the internet is that you're putting your trust in it to filter out the noise on your behalf. If you can't trust it to actually do that (there's still ad noise in what you get back), then what's the point?

Either people will pay a subscription fee to unlock the utility of an information-distilling agent, or they won't. Trying to sidechain ad revenue into that equation is self-defeating.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#267

Post by hmahncke »

MockObject wrote: post #130
matthewdgreen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this analysis is that first movers usually don't win.

Old enough to remember when Google was the plucky newcomer in a crowded search engine industry.

Old enough to remember when Alta Vista was obviously going to win because it came from DEC.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#268

Post by AlbertCory »

itsdrewmiller wrote: post #247
AlbertCory wrote: post #216

Xoogler here. I'll ignore the AI and "has Google lost its way?" threads, not that they're not interesting. Rather, Sundar: he's the inevitable product when you hire a CEO based on his longevity and whether everyone likes him. In the military they distinguish between a "barracks general" and a "combat general." He's the former. He looks good when nothing bad is happening.

Sounds like Ben Horowitz's peacetime CEO/wartime CEO, which even uses google as an example - https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ceo

> Peacetime CEO spends time defining the culture. Wartime CEO lets the war define the culture.

Beautifully put.

I knew there was some reason why I'm so irresistibly drawn to books about warfare.

Patton in WW II was the quintessential wartime general. Even though it WAS a war, his style was too much for Eisenhower. Until the Battle of the Bulge.

Re: Google employees criticize CEO for “dumpster fire” response to ChatGPT

#270

Post by ignoramous »

When Sundar doesn't react fast enough: Google's gone. They no longer have the ship-fast mentality of an upstart. Perfect is the enemy of the good. The ethics lords have taken over Google Brain. Google needs a war-time CEO.

When Sundar reacts fast enough: Google's gone. The product was rushed. It is no where close to perfect. Could it be Google's been bluffing about its AI. What a knee-jerk reaction. Google needs a war-time CEO.

Meanwhile, Satya in Redmond: I want people to know that we made [Google] dance.

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