Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 02/08 – AI’s Big Week Continues

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Wednesday, February 8th, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today. Microsoft unveils a new Bing search that basically moves the yardsticks down the field in terms of what search can do. But Google continues to drip feed new tools as well, also some more traditional but useful additions to Google Maps.

Starting point is 00:00:52 The UK might force the divestiture of Call of Duty to allow Microsoft to buy Activision. And if the Bank of England does a digital pound, it signals it might not do it on the blockchain. here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Microsoft yesterday did its big unveiling of how it's going to begin integrating OpenAI's technology, including an updated Bing search engine and edge browser powered by a next-gen open AI large language model. Basically, they're calling it co-pilot, but for the web, quoting the verge. It's a new day in search, said Microsoft CEO, Satcha Nadella, at an event announcing the products. Nadella argued that the paradigm for web search hasn't changed in decades, but that AI can deliver information more fluidly and

Starting point is 00:01:41 quickly than traditional methods. The race starts today, and we're going to move and move fast, Nadella said. Most importantly, we want to have a lot of fun innovating again in search because it's high time, end quote. In demos today, the company showed what it's calling the new bang, working in various configurations. One of these shows traditional search results side by side with AI annotations, while another mode lets users talk directly to the Bing chatbot asking it questions in a chat interface like ChatGPT. Microsoft showed a number of example searches, querying Bing for recipes, travel tips, and shopping for furniture from IKEA. In one demo, Bing was asked to create an itinerary for each day of a five-day trip to Mexico City.

Starting point is 00:02:27 The question was answered entirely by the chatbot, which described a rough itinerary alongside links to sources for more information. Unlike ChatGPT, the new Bing can also retrieve news about recent events. In the Verge's demos, the search engine was even able to answer questions about its own launch, citing stories published by news sites in the last hour. Microsoft says these features are all powered by an upgraded version of GPT 3.5, the AI, open AI language model that powers ChatGPT. Microsoft calls this the Prometheus model and says,

Starting point is 00:03:02 it's more powerful than GPT 3.5 and better able to answer search queries with up-to-date information and annotated answers. The new Bing is live today, quote, for desktop limited preview, but it appears users are only able to ask one of a number of preset queries and receive the same results each time. There is also a wait list to sign up for full access in the future. And in addition to the new Bing, Microsoft is launching two new AI enhanced features for its Edge browser, chat and compose. These will be embedded within Edge's sidebar. Chat allows users to summarize the webpage or document they're looking at and ask questions about its contents, while Compose acts as a writing assistant, helping to generate text from

Starting point is 00:03:46 emails to social media posts based on a few starting prompts, end quote. By the way, you can join the wait list to begin testing this out at Bing.com slash new, but Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal got a hands-on, and she asked the new Bing for, for example, the 2023 Grammy winners, and it spit out a list with citations in about a minute. Quote, I followed up. Do you know if Beyonce is touring? Bing's chatbot told me plainly that the North American leg of the Renaissance tour starts in July. The information appears to be accurate, at least according to Google. I asked Bing if it would buy me a ticket. It apologized and said it didn't have money. I'm just the chat mode of Bing's search. It said,

Starting point is 00:04:29 not an assistant, end quote. Impressive, yes, but also slower than a typical search. It took the AI about a minute to type out the Grammy winners. There is a stop responding button if you don't want to wait for the bot to finish. You can adjust your query for brevity, asking it to, quote, limit your answer to 100 words. I tried lots of other queries to prep for my interview with Satchezadella. I asked, in the voice of Joanna Stern, generate a list of questions to ask Sacha Nadella about AI. While the system didn't quite nail my voice, it generated some decent questions. I asked it to answer these questions in the voice of Sacha Nadella. You'll have to watch the video to see who answered best, human, Sacha, or AI Sacha. With pretty much all computer interaction

Starting point is 00:05:15 going forward, you'll start with a draft, Mr. Nadella told me. That doesn't mean you don't get to inspect the draft, approve the draft, and redefine or edit the draft, end quote. It's true. I have actually started to use ChatGPT to help jumpstart. ideas for interview questions, emails, columns, and video scripts. As a developed Microsoft Edge browser user, I am excited about the new Bing button in the upper right corner. It launches a panel of AI tools for the web. If I were reading this very column online, I could tell the bot to summarize this article for me in five bullet points. Yes, rendering my beautiful words wasted. In one recorded demo, I saw the tool boiled down a five-page earnings report to a few bullets. In the panel's composed tab, you can tell it to

Starting point is 00:05:58 write whatever you wish, an email to your boss, a Facebook post, or an answer on a job application. You can select the tone, enthusiastic, professional, funny, etc., or length, short, medium, long, and format, paragraph, email, blog post, bulleted list, end quote. We are all about to become prompt engineers, aren't we? A couple of quick observations on Twitter from some of our friends. Here's Aaron Levy from Box, quote, we are now officially in the era of AI First Software. Mobile transformed our apps, cloud transformed our hardware, AI transforms our information, end quote. And the great Dara Obesanjo, quote, Microsoft's embrace of chat GPT with Bing is a great example of

Starting point is 00:06:41 counter positioning. This is a feature that Google would never ship on its own because it undermines search ads revenue to move to an answers-based model, a masterstroke by Sacha, end quote. Look, this is very much game on, y'all. I've been trying to stress that, that this is a is a race now. I could tell you about how Alibaba this morning announced its own chat GPT-style tool, how Baidu has made that Ernie bot I told you about yesterday official. But more big news from Google, who, as the Verge puts it, continues to drip-feed AI announcements. Expect that to continue and expect a big integration in search to be coming, I don't know, soon, maybe pretty soon. As mentioned, Google had a big event in Paris today where it gave a brief demo of

Starting point is 00:07:33 that new Bard chatbot-style AI powered by its own Lambda technology. But let's talk about some of that drip, drip, drip of product announces, products enhanced by AI to one degree or another. Quoting the verge, let's start first with some that are available in the near term. One of the biggest pieces of news is about multi-search, a tool that lets you start a search using an image along with a few words of text. As an example of how you might use it, let's say you see a shirt you like, but you want it in a different color. With Multisearch, you can snap a pick of the shirt and search for that other color to see where you might be able to buy it. It launched first in the U.S., but now Multisearch is available globally on mobile wherever Google lenses. A number of new features are designed to assist

Starting point is 00:08:16 EV drivers with charged stops suggested for shorter trips, a filter for very fast charging stations that have 150 kilowatt chargers or higher, and mentions of locations that have chargers indicated in search results for places like grocery stores or hotels. Also a new AR feature in Google lens that blends translated text into the image it came from is starting to roll out globally. Other new features were also announced, but so far these don't have specific release windows attached. These are shipping in the coming weeks slash months, according to Google. The ability for Android users to search using words or images on their screens without leaving the app they're in. If you use Google Maps on your phone, Google will be able to show you

Starting point is 00:08:59 ETAs and where to turn next right on your lock screen. And yes, it will be compatible with iOS's live activities. Multisearch Near Me, which lets you search for things like where you can find a certain food dish nearby will be expanded to wherever lenses available. You can currently use this in the U.S. Multise on the mobile web will be available globally in the next few months. Indoor Live View, which overlays AR directions to help you navigate tricky buildings and places will be expanding to more than 1,000 new airports, train stations, and malls. Search with Live View, which lets you learn more about specific places by viewing them through your phone's camera, is expanding to Barcelona, Dublin, and Madrid. Google Translate will be able to show you additional context about

Starting point is 00:09:38 certain words or phrases. Google shared an example of how the feature could be helpful if you're trying to pin down the right translation for the word novel, which in English can refer to a book or something that's original. This feature will come first to languages, including English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish in the coming weeks. Finally, the new Google Translate redesign that already launched on Android will be coming to iOS in a few weeks, end quote. But Google also had more traditional product announces today, specifically with Maps. Google has launched Immersive View for Maps in London, L.A., New York City, San Francisco, and Tokyo, and plans to release glanceable directions globally in the coming months.

Starting point is 00:10:24 This is from TechCrunch. Immersive View, which Google first announced at I.O. in May 2022, is designed to help you plan ahead and get a deeper understanding of a city before you visit it. The company plans to launch immersive view in more cities, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice in the coming months. The feature fuses billions of street view and aerial images to create a digital model of the world. It also layers information on top of the digital model, such as details about the weather, traffic, and how busy a location may be. For instance, say you're planning to visit the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam and want to get an idea of it before you go, you can use Immersive View to virtually

Starting point is 00:11:00 soar over the building and get a better idea of what it looks like and where the entrances are located. You can also see what the area looks like at different times of the day and what the weather will be like. Immersive View can also show you nearby restaurants and allows you to look inside them to see if they would be an ideal spot for you. The company also announced that a new feature called Glanceable Directions is rolling out globally on Android and iOS in the coming months. The feature lets you track your journey right from your route overview or lock screen. Users will see updated ETAs and where to make your next turn. If you decide to take another path, the app will update your trip automatically. Google notes that previously this information was only visible by unlocking your phone,

Starting point is 00:11:40 opening the app and using comprehensive navigation mode. Glanceable directions can be used whenever you're using the app, whether you're walking, biking, or taking public transit, end quote. On another day, this one would be the biggest headline, but today it's down here. the UK CMA has officially found Microsoft's proposed $69 billion-dollar Activision Blizzard acquisition will harm competition in the UK's gaming market and has therefore asked Microsoft for remedies, including a super big one. They might ask them to sell off the Call of Duty franchise, quoting Bloomberg.

Starting point is 00:12:20 The Competition and Markets Authority said it took an initial view that the deal could result in a substantial lessening in competition, higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers, according to a statement published Wednesday. The British agency has suggested a number of structural remedies that could include the divestiture of the business associated with Call of Duty, the Activision part of the business, or blocking the merger altogether. The CMA also said it would consider behavioral remedies that would promise rivals access to Call of Duty, although it flagged concerns about its ability to manage these. The CMA has asked Microsoft to respond to how it can address their concerns by February 22nd. A statutory deadline for the CMA to publish a final report

Starting point is 00:13:01 is set for April 26, although the agency previously said it hoped to complete the investigation in advance of that date. We are committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the CMA's concerns, Rima Alali, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general council said, our commitment to grant long-term 100% equal access to call of duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam, and others preserves the deal's benefits to gamers. and developers and increases competition in the market, end quote. The UK watchdogs probe has focused on whether the deal will allow Microsoft to foreclose on rival console gaming platforms and cloud gaming service providers. Quote, steps from the EC and CMA are a normal part of their evaluation process.

Starting point is 00:13:42 It opens the door to discuss various commitments Microsoft can make to assuage concerns as part of the ongoing dialogue and engagement with regulators. Bobby Kotik, chief executive officer of Activision said in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg. Finally, today, the Bank of England published two papers on proposals for a new digital pound, which if they moved forward on it, might not come until 2025 at the earliest, maybe 2030 is more realistic. Also, it would limit people to holding 10 to 25,000 pounds per person. But also, what I find interesting is that they're seeming to favor centralized databases instead of doing this on the blockchain, quoting CoinDesk. The bank would place

Starting point is 00:14:31 some limits on holdings of digital pounds, at least during its introductory period, to avoid citizens hoarding their assets in safe central bank money and skirting around the commercial banking system, a consultation published today by the Central Bank and UK Treasury said, we judge that a limit of between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds per individual is likely to strike an appropriate balance between managing risks and supporting wide usability of the digital pound, they wrote. That range of holdings would allow 75 to 95% of UK earners to take their salary without

Starting point is 00:15:00 breaching holding limits, the document said, but could vary by individual, it added, citing differences based on region, age, and gender. The central bank appears to take a cautious view on the ability to pre-program how funds can be used, while it could allow money held in trust to be released when smart contract conditions are met, or ensuring taxes get paid automatically. That functionality also changes the nature of money as a freely exchangeable good. UK banks on Tuesday expressed concern that the central bank digital currency or CBDC could effectively encourage a bank run as customers move to hold central bank money directly perceived as the safest form of asset. A separate technical paper published by the central bank said

Starting point is 00:15:39 distributed ledger technologies that underlie crypto and blockchain-based solutions, quote, might have advantages in guaranteeing consistency and resilience while presenting privacy, scalability and security challenges. Centrally governed distributed database technologies might achieve the ledger requirements without such limitations. Therefore, these technologies might be appropriate for the core ledger design, the technical paper said. The bank will not implement central bank-initiated programmable functions, the technical document said. Instead, the bank would provide the necessary infrastructure for the private sector to implement programmability features for users. Those features would require user consent, end quote.

Starting point is 00:16:17 The central bank said it would allow private sector companies such as those providing anti-money laundering checks on wallets or offering analytic services to offer programmability on top of central bank infrastructure, but said any functions shouldn't reduce simplicity or performance. Regulated private intermediaries would have privileged access to the central bank's core infrastructure, the consultation said, but personal holdings will appear on the central bank's ledger, not on the balance sheet of the wallet provider, end quote. Seems that a lot of you were as impressed with yesterday's AI experiment with my voice as I was. At least all of the feedback so far has been positive, whereas that experiment I did a month ago,

Starting point is 00:17:03 feedback was basically universally negative. When I find the time, I'll try to train the AI on the full 50 episodes I'm allotted, and we'll see if the voice gets even noticeably better than it is now. No, I'm not planning on doing any full shows using the voice just yet, but it sure as heck is handy right now as a yardstick just for us, just for our purposes, to practically see in real time just how fast this stuff is evolving. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 02/08 – AI’s Big Week Continues

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