Weekend Briefing: Google Search in Trouble, AI Slowdown (Maybe), & The Future of Work
radical Gathering THIS Thursday + Headlines from the Future of Work & AI
Dear Friend,
With the year coming to an end (and what a year 2024 was!) – we felt it would be fun to revive an old tradition and get us all together in our radical Gathering! 🙂
As a quick reminder of what the radical Gathering is: “Join the radical team and the wider community for an hour of shared insights and lively discussion, all while creating new connections. Bring a beverage of your choice, your insights and questions, and join us for an exponential ending to a crazy, wild year.”
Next Thursday, Dec 19th @ 10 am PST / 1 pm EST / 6 pm GMT.
Register here: https://lu.ma/oekgoigd
We are very much looking forward to seeing you all!
And now, this…
Headlines from the Future
↗ We have been making this argument for a while now – Google Search is in trouble. We are seeing a massive shift from “search” to “answer” – use Perplexity once, and you won’t want to go back to a looooong list of links anymore. “Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.”
↗ It feels and looks like progress on transformer-based LLMs (ChatGPT, etc.) is somewhat slowing down (not in frequency but in the leaps we are making). Now Sundar (Google’s CEO) remarks: “AI development is finally slowing down—‘the low-hanging fruit is gone’.”
↗ Wondering where to set up shop in the US to either minimize your software engineering budget or maximize your income as a coder? Wonder no more! Here is a handy map.
↗ More wonder: Still unsure which AI model to use? Wonder no more – here is a nifty tool to help you figure it out.
↗ Being able to run a GPT-4 level LLM locally on a laptop is somewhat insane, amazing, and a sign of the times to come: “I can now run a GPT-4 class model on my laptop”
↗ Google raised a bunch of eyebrows when they announced their latest breakthrough in quantum computing. As the topic is notoriously hard to understand (and thus to parse whether what Google achieved is truly a breakthrough or not), here are two takes: “The Google Willow thing” and “The Case Against Google’s Claims of “Quantum Supremacy”: A Very Short Introduction.”
↗ Using ambient sound to identify a location may be doable for very well-known places (think of the unmistakable sound of the church bells in my hometown, Cologne, Germany), but AI can do this for many, many more places all around the world. And even if it doesn’t know exactly where a soundscape is located, it can create an image that encapsulates the noise: “Researchers Use AI To Turn Sound Recordings Into Accurate Street Images.”
↗ Remember our concept of the “Gestalt”? Those forces outside of your control which act as head- or tailwinds of change? Now, here is one for anyone in the food industry: UK bans daytime TV ads for cereals, muffins and burgers.
↗ And then there were only two (or three). GM exits the race to build a fleet of robotaxis – Kyle Vogt, the former founder of Cruise (the company GM acquired to build its autonomous vehicle business) wrote: “In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies.” – GM exits robotaxi market, will bring Cruise operations in house.
↗ Lately, the discourse between AI optimists/maximists and skeptics is getting louder and louder. In case you are trying to understand the argument, here is a good take: Who and What comprise AI Skepticism?
What We Are Reading
🐎 The Surprising New History Of Horse Domestication New archaeological and genetic findings are rewriting the epic story of how horses became humanity’s loyal companions. @Jane
🌐 How The 173-year-old Glassmaker Behind Edison’s Light Bulb And iPhone Screens Became A Silicon Valley Darling Corning, the company behind iconic brands like Pyrex and CorningWare, is also responsible for the glass in some of the world’s major innovations. Think: the original light bulb, glass on your iPhone, crazy telescopes, and very relevant now: the fiber optic cables connecting the internet and powering AI. @Mafe
🤖 Google’s New Project Astra Could Be Generative AI’s Killer App Building on a suite of tools and apps you’re likely already using, Google looks to press its advantage in creating truly useful AI agents—and eventually, a “universal assistant.” @Jeffrey
💸 Retail Returns: An $890 Billion Problem NRF reports that returns cost around $890 billion, cause a significant environmental impact, are a huge headache for retailers, and in 2024 will account for 17% of goods sold. @Pedro
📚 In Praise Of Print: Why Reading Remains Essential In An Era Of Epistemological Collapse We might be moving toward a society that consumes all its news, insights, and entertainment in the form of either 15-second video clips or AI-generated summaries, but there is much to be said about the power of… well… reading. @Pascal
The Fun Stuff
💎 Lab-grown diamonds are taking over the world (we reported on their truly exponential growth here a couple of weeks ago). Wonder how they are actually made? Here.
👁️ Do you remember those “magic eye” images that were all the rage about twenty years ago? Now you can make them in Excel. Yes, Excel!
🕵🏼♂️ Just in case you are wondering (or asking for a friend): How Much Do I Need to Change My Face to Avoid Facial Recognition?
🍭 What a time to be alive! Scientists Create Lickable VR Device That Lets You Taste Foods Through Your TV.