no one has been able keep quiet about artificial intelligence since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the world in November. But this week there was a lot AI talk that even people working in the field have been struggling to keep up.
First, Google announced which was spreading AI dust on Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. When the changes are finally implemented, you’ll be able to have Google Docs write you an entire essay, cover letter, sales pitch, job description, or basically anything else you want. Gmail will be able to summarize email threads and compose responses automatically on your behalf, and you can ask Slides to create an entire presentation with a few simple words. Google too opened access to a system that will allow other companies to use its AI model to create their own tools similar to ChatGPT.
Hours later, Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup in which Google recently invested more than $300 million, announced a new rival to ChatGPT, a chatbot called Claude that it was making available to companies.
Shortly after, Open AI, the 800-pound gorilla in the room, loudly announced GPT-4, the next version of the technology that powers ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, the company’s imager. OpenAI stated that GPT-4 is significantly more powerful, precise and intelligent than its previous version. The company said GPT-4 is capable of performing feats like doing your taxes, creating entire websites simply by looking at a rough layout scribbled on a piece of paper, and passing a series of standardized tests, including the Uniform Bar Exam.
This was just TUESDAY.
On Thursday, Microsoft called advertisementsaying it would infuse boring old Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams) with shiny new AI capabilities thanks to the company’s partnership with OpenAI. Like Google’s offering, the new Office will let you ditch the monotony of typing, as well as create slick PowerPoint presentations in seconds and understand complex Excel spreadsheets in response to your questions.
Meanwhile, there were other miscellaneous announcements: Midjourney, a DALL-E 2 competitor, announced a new version that was said to be “more advanced” and “higher resolution.” Stanford University launched its own AI model based on technology developed by Meta, and dozens of companies, large and small, sent out a flurry of press releases declaring that they were jumping on the AI bandwagon.
“This week is an AI arms race,” Neil Sahota, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a United Nations advisor on AI, told BuzzFeed News. “Everyone knows that it will be the first one or two companies in the market that will really see the competitive advantage, because probably in four or five years, this will all be commoditized. Everyone wants to outperform the competition right now, and no one wants to be left behind.”
