Weekend Warp

Slow week for AI and tech, the last one, and very unusual – could not find any major news to do with OpenAI, Sam Altman or even Elon Musk (??)!! They must be on vacation, I guess.

In non-Altman and non-Musk news, 谷歌 dropped a little bomb speculating that it is considering charging for AI-powered search, in a massive change to business model. This is the first time any of the software group’s core product falls behind a paywall. AI powered search results, which include an “AI-powered snapshot”, are more costly for Google to serve up than its traditional responses because generative AI consumes a lot more computing resources. Google has been trying to crack the business model for the same (along with everyone else), but the news is that it has deviated from its insanely profitable ads driven model to a consumer-pays model. This is still in speculative stage, so let’s see what it does.

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Searching for its own new businesses and business models, 苹果 seems to be going another way- towards its comfort zone of hardware. They worked on a Apple Car for 10 years and have just recently given up doing that. Now it is the turn for personal robots, something decidedly less complex and closer to its roots. Engineers have been looking into a robot that can follow users around their homes, as well as a tabletop device that uses robotics to adjust a display screen. Bringing its fabled design expertise and vast hoard of money, this could transform the personal robotics space. If successful, it would also give Apple a desperately needed new product line. It cannot continue reaping windfalls from a mm thinner phone every year, forever.

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And in an interesting bit of news, Meta has overhauled rules on deepfakes and other AI-generated media ahead of election season in India, US, Indonesia and other major countries. Instead of primarily focusing on content removal, Meta now aims to maintain the content while simultaneously providing viewers with information regarding its creation process. The social media giant will roll out "Made with AI" labels starting in May, for AI generated content. This bit is welcome, though I earnestly hope that Meta also continues to remove objectionable content – whether generated by AI or human beings.

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So, that’s all I could find this week, folks. Tell me – is there any Sam Altman, Elon Musk or OpenAI related news that I have missed??