- The next stage of the AI revolution has arrived.
- This week, OpenAI and Google unveiled new developments that advance the capabilities of AI.
- From new chatbots reminiscent of the movie Her to revamping Google Search, AI is evolving.
In recent months, the AI world has been buzzing with a simple question: “What's next?”
Since OpenAI's GPT-4 was announced last March, it has become clearer with each passing month that the ChatGPT makers' top models are setting performance bars that are mysteriously difficult for competitors to clear. I did.
Big tech companies like Google and Meta have released rival models like Gemini and Llama, which have proven to be competitive at best. The same goes for young startups like Anthropic and Mistral. However, none of them seemed to bring about a step change in functionality as he did with GPT-4.
Professor Gary Marcus, who studies AI, suggested last month that this is a sign that AI models are reaching a “point of diminishing returns.”
There are also questions about whether we are already seeing the limits of what AI can do.
ChatGPT has shown its usefulness from the workplace to the classroom, but the technology that Bill Gates touted as “going to redirect entire industries” should probably show more than hallucination-prone chatbots. is.
But AI companies seem ready to end that chatter. For the past week, they've been trying to address the question, “What happens next?” I'll ask the question directly.
OpenAI and Google announce their vision
OpenAI kicked off a week-long showcase by unveiling a powerful new model, GPT-4o.
Although it wasn't quite the GPT-5 that many expected, the “o” (for “omni”) in GPT-4 represents a significant advancement in OpenAI's technology. At the same time, it hints at the direction OpenAI is planning. AI revolution.
In a presentation on Monday, Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, said the company will “reason about audio, vision, and text in real time” to create what it describes as a “more natural human-computer.” He talked about the capabilities of the new flagship model. Alternating current. “
Through several demos, OpenAI introduced a version of ChatGPT powered by GPT-4o, reminiscent of Samantha, the voice AI assistant played by Scarlett Johansson in the 2013 film Her.
Nathan Lambert, a research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI, said on his Interconnect Substack page that the announcement means OpenAI will be able to deliver “intelligence, attention, and positive feedback,” which “humans fundamentally crave.” The authors write that these qualities show that these qualities are leading us into a world brought about by AI.
“The GPT-4o demonstration shows that we are moving purposefully toward this reality without a shadow of regret,” Lambert wrote. The chance to have a somewhat frivolous-sounding AI by your side at all times may be surprising to some, and a little strange to others.
Google revealed the AI updates at its annual I/O event for developers on Tuesday.
The search giant, which is expected to catch up with OpenAI, unveiled a new Project Astra agent that aims to make AI “genuinely useful in everyday life.”
Like the new ChatGPT, Google's multimodal assistant (powered by AI model Gemini) is built to respond to queries in real time. In addition to the usual text responses that chatbots are known for, they also have visual and audio capabilities.
In practice, this means that if you point the camera at a scene, you can have Astra very quickly identify something walking on four legs, for example, and then carry on a conversation with you about that tetrapod. .
Google's announcement didn't stop there. The company also revamped the way its core product works, integrating AI into search and letting Google “search for you.”
Liz Reid, head of Google Search, explained this: “Sometimes you want an answer right away, but don't have the time to compile all the information you need. With AI summaries, search does the work for you.”
Taken together, both companies' announcements make one thing clear: the AI revolution is about to feel more real.
Chatbots will begin to function more like companions with whom you interact for longer periods of time, rather than machines that respond to ad-hoc requests. On the other hand, well-known services such as Google Search actually You start to feel different.
However, the outcome of all these developments is not yet clear. In the future, social interactions may feel different as people interact more with AI chatbots. Publishers could feel the pain if Google, with its new AI, diverts traffic away from them.
However, it is clear that a new phase of the AI era is just beginning.
Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal that allows OpenAI to train models based on its media brands' reporting.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, joined 31 other media groups in filing a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses caused by the company's advertising practices. I woke you up.
