Nobody could has been quiet about artificial intelligence since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the world in November. But this week it happened so much AI chatter that even humans working in this field were I try my best to keep up.
First, Google announced that it is spraying AI dust on Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. When the changes eventually go into effect, you'll be able to ask Google Docs to write you an entire essay, cover letter, business proposal, job description, or whatever you want. Gmail will be able to summarize email threads and automatically compose replies on your behalf, and you can ask Slides to create an entire presentation from a few simple words. Google also opened access to a system that will allow other companies to use its artificial intelligence model to create their own tools like ChatGPT.
A few hours later, Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup in which Google recently invested more than $300 million, announced a new competitor to ChatGPT, a chatbot named Claude, which he made available to businesses.
Soon after, Open AI, the 800-pound gorilla in the room, noisy announced GPT-4, the next version of the technology behind ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, the company's image generator. OpenAI claims that GPT-4 is significantly more powerful, accurate and smarter than its previous version. The company said GPT-4 is capable of feats such as filing taxes, creating entire websites just by looking at a rough design scribbled on a piece of paper, and passing a variety of standardized tests, including the Uniform Bar Exam.
It was just TUESDAY.
Microsoft made a splash on Thursday announcementsaying it will infuse boring old Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams – with shiny new artificial intelligence capabilities thanks to the company's partnership with OpenAI. Like Google's offering, the new Office will let you eliminate the drudgery of writing, create beautiful PowerPoint presentations in seconds, and make sense of complex Excel spreadsheets to answer your questions.
Meanwhile, there have been other announcements: DALL-E 2 competitor Midjourney has announced a new version that is said to be “more advanced” and “higher resolution.” Stanford University released its own AI model based on technology developed by Meta, and dozens of companies, large and small, sent out a flurry of press releases announcing they were joining the AI bandwagon.
“This week is all about the artificial intelligence arms race,” Neil Sahota, a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine and a UN advisor on artificial intelligence, told BuzzFeed News. “Everyone knows that the first one or two companies in the market 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.”
