Tag Archives: google

Gemini AI: Revolutionizing the Realm of Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial intelligence evolutions has big impact on society. From powering self-driving cars to analyzing medical images, AI is transforming various industries and aspect of our lives. However developing AI systems that can seamlessly interact with humans and understand the complexed world which we live in remains a significant challenge. Gemini AI addresses this challenge and introduce a revolutionary approach to artificial intelligence training and architecture. 

Traditional AI systems were focused on processing and understanding text or speech. Gemini AI enable us to integrate information from multiple modalities, including text, speech, images and code. This allows Gemini to grasp the nuances of human communication and context. This enable it to engage in more natural and meaningful interactions. 

Gemini Ai’s capabilities are beyond text and language processing. It can also analyze and understand real-time data, such as live video and human speech. This opens up new possibilities for AI applications in areas such as customer service, real-time translation, and autonomous vehicles. 

Gemini AI’s groundbreaking performance is underpinned by several innovative architectural and training techniques. These innovations include:  

  • Transformer architecture: Gemini AI leverages a self-attention-based Transformer architecture, which has proven to be highly effective in processing natural language and other modalities. 

  •  Multi-modal fusion: Gemini AI seamlessly integrates information from multiple modalities, allowing it to understand the relationships between different data types. 

  •  Dynamic routing: Gemini AI employs a dynamic routing mechanism, enabling it to selectively attend to relevant information from different modalities. 

These innovations enable Gemini to achieve unprecedented levels of performance across a wide range of tasks. 

The potential applications of Gemini AI are vast and transformative. Some potential areas of impact include: 

  • Real-time customer service: Gemini AI can power chatbots and virtual assistants that can provide real-time support and handle complex customer queries. 

  • Real-time translation: Gemini AI can enable real-time translation of conversations, documents, and other forms of communication. 

  • Autonomous vehicles: Gemini AI can power autonomous vehicles by providing perception, decision-making, and interaction capabilities. 

  • Medical diagnosis and treatment: Gemini AI can assist medical professionals in making more accurate diagnoses and developing personalized treatment plans.

  • Creative content generation: Gemini AI can generate creative content, such as music, writing, and design, that is indistinguishable from human-produced work. 

Gemini AI represents a significant step forward in the evolution of AI. Its multimodal capabilities open up a wide range of transformative applications, promising to reshape industries and improve the lives of people everywhere. As Gemini continues to mature and develop, its impact on societi is likely to grow, shaping the future of human-computer interaction and the role of AI in our world. 

Also if you are interested in Gemini Ai here is a link to video about it:

Googles GEMINI Just SHOCKED The ENTIRE INDUSTRY! (GPT-4 Beaten) Full Breakdown + Technical Report (youtube.com)

Sources:
Google says new AI model Gemini outperforms ChatGPT in most tests | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
Google AI
Przedstawiamy Gemini - największy i najbardziej zaawansowany model AI od Google (blog.google)
Google Gemini: a largest and most capable AI model
Gemini - Google DeepMind
Gemini to nowa era AI zdaniem Google'a. Ma pokonać ChatGPT (businessinsider.com.pl)

Ai engine: Bard
Prompts:
Create title for blog post about gemini ai, gemini ai and its innovations, applications and Impact of gemini ai 

Picture:
Exploring Geminis Available Variants and Applications (anakin.ai)


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How Google’s Antitrust Trial Could Change Internet Search

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How Google Plans to Fight the Biggest U.S. Antitrust Suit Since Microsoft -  Bloomberg

The internet is woven into the fabric of daily life, and at the heart of it lies the ever-crucial function of search. Google, with its eponymous search engine, has been a dominant player in this space for decades. Its prevalence is undisputed, but this dominance has also brought increased scrutiny from regulators worldwide. As Google faces an antitrust trial, the outcome could significantly alter the landscape of internet search. This article explores the potential implications of the trial and how it may reshape the digital experience for users and competitors alike and my personal opinion on this topic.

But what is antitrust law ?

To start with, for better understanding of what we are going to talk about in this artical, I think I should give you a definition of what antitrust law is.

Antitrust laws – are regulations that encourage competition by limiting the market power of any particular firm.


The Background of the Antitrust Trial

In January, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that the company acted in violation of the Sherman Act, an antitrust law that outlawed monopolistic practices. The act helps ensure that no single company or firm has control of a particular market.

According to the case filing, Google has paid billions to cellular device manufacturers and browser developers to ensure that it is the default general search engine for laptops, computers, and cellphones. Google’s contract with Apple, for instance, costs the big tech company an estimated $15 to $20 billion annually. That money also ensures that those companies do not work with Google’s competitors. The contract has helped Google account for nearly 95% of all search queries on mobile devices, according to the court filing. Google is worth around $1.7 trillion and has control for some 90% of the American search engine market.

The Justice Department argues that these sort of practices prevent other search engine companies from having a real chance to compete in the industry. “Google is so dominant that ‘Google’ is not only a noun to identify the company and the Google search engine but also a verb that means to search the internet,” the filing complaint says. Google also was accused of overcharging consumers through unlawful restrictions on the distribution of apps on Android devices and unnecessary fees for in-app transactions. Regulators argue that these actions harm consumer choice and innovation. In contrast, Google maintains that its services are designed to benefit users and that competition. Google alleged that it did not monopolize the ad industry, instead arguing that it is just “getting the benefit of a bargain”.

At the end after antitrust settlement with consumers and US states Google agreed to pay $700m and to allow for greater competition in its Play app store.


How this could impact the future of search

David Olson, a professor at Boston College Law School, told NBC News that the remedy could cause an increase in the cost of devices to make up for loss of contracts with Google. He adds that Google could still have an advantage over competitors if users still choose to use it. And it could also bring many implications.

Potential Implications of the Trial

  • Opening Doors for Competitors

Should the trial conclude against Google, one of the most immediate effects could be the opening up of the search engine market to more competition. Google may be required to change its practices, giving smaller search engines a fairer chance to compete. This could lead to a more diverse range of search tools, each catering to different user preferences and needs.

  • Changing Business Models

The trial could also force Google to alter its business model. Currently, Google’s search engine is free to use because it makes money from advertising. If changes are mandated to how Google can display or prioritize ads, the company might have to explore alternative revenue streams, potentially even charging for services that are currently free.

  • Impact on User Experience

Google’s easy integration of services such as Maps, Shopping, and Images directly into its search platform is convenient for users. However, should the trial require Google to decouple or offer more visibility to competitor services, users might experience a less seamless interaction out these features or deal with a more fragmented online experience.


The final result of the Trial

Epic Games wins antitrust lawsuit against Google

Potential Advantages of the Trial

Wilson White, Google vice-president for government affairs and public policy said the settlement “builds on Android’s choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other [operating system] makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers”.

The company said it was expanding the ability of app and game developers to provide consumers an alternative billing option for in-app purchases next to Play’s billing system. Plus as part of the settlement, Google said it would simplify users’ ability to download apps directly from developers.


Conclusion: My Personal Opinion

As the trial ended I can certainly said that I thought of much worse outcomes for Google (like limiting their abilities, allowing a risk that too much intervention could stifle the efficiency and utility that users have come to expect from Google and etc.), but everything ended pretty good for Google. Of course they los a lot of money and maybe it will has a greater influence on Google that we see right now, including simplifying users’ ability to download apps directly from developers, will not affect Google so much as to leading to a global changes in the search field, which is really good both for the company and for us users. As of the who was right, I think it is true that Google dominant position is undeniable, however I am not sure that I one hundred percent agree with the accusation that Google was overcharging consumers.

I think the insight we all should take from this is that – As the digital ecosystem evolves, we must be vigilant in ensuring that it remains both open and accessible, while also rich and innovative.

Have you herd about this lawsuit? Who in your opinion is right?

Sources(reference):

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/19/google-agrees-to-pay-700m-after-antitrust-settlement-with-consumers-and-us-states (more detailed information of what lawsuit is all about)
  2. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/09/breaking-down-google-antitrust-case/( particular accusations that were made)
  3. https://time.com/6324490/google-antitrust-trial/ ( predictions that were maid about what this lawsuit may lead to)
  4. https://www.ft.com/content/e7f7c7d6-79b4-4de4-aa4b-f656546a91ca (the final outsome of the trial)
  5. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/antitrust.asp (what is antitrust law)

AI generators used:

  1. ChartGPT 4.0 (key words: Google, antitrust lawsuit, internet search, outcomes)
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Why Google and Coursera Are Betting Big on Workflow Learning?

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IMAGE CREDITS: COURSERA.ORG

When you’re trying to pick up a new skill, the hardest part is knowing where to start. There are so many resources out there – tutorials, courses, books, video series – that figuring out a logical path to expertise can seem downright impossible. No wonder so many New Year’s resolutions to learn to code or speak Spanish end up falling by the wayside. But now, two of the biggest names in online education, Google and Coursera, are teaming up to help solve this problem. They’ve joined forces with an Al startup called Lutra to develop “workflow learning” – personalized step-by-step lesson plans that guide you through the complex process of gaining a new competence. If this ambitious initiative lives up to its promise, your days of haphazardly cobbling together tutorials may soon be over. Workflow learning aims to do for skills acquisition what GPS did for navigation – plot the most efficient course so you can stop worrying about the journey and start enjoying the destination.

Google and Coursera’s New Partnership Signals a Shift Towards Workflow Learning

Google and Coursera want to make virtual collaboration as mindless as possible. Their new partnership means your workflows may soon run on autopilot.

Instead of manually coordinating with your team, intelligent software will handle the scheduling, task management and project oversight for you. ###No more chasing down updates or figuring out who’s supposed to do what. The Al overlords have it covered.

How exactly? Coursera’s online courses will now feature Google Spaces, a “digital workspace” where teams can organize work, share files, and assign responsibilities. The Spaces integrate with Google’s productivity tools like Docs, Sheets and Slides so you can collaborate in real time without changing tabs.

The goal is “workflow learning” – picking up teamwork skills through hands-on experience, not just lectures. Students in Coursera’s project management certificate program will use Spaces to complete group assignments, getting a feel for organizing sprints, delegating tasks and streamlining handoffs.

For companies, it means cultivating T-shaped employees with both broad knowledge and specialized expertise. And for you, it means less time spent coordinating with your team and more time focused on the work itself. The robots have your back.

So go ahead, give in to the machines. They just want to make your life easier, increase your productivity, and ensure your team’s success. What could possibly go wrong?

How Lutra.ai Fits Into Google and Coursera’s Workflow Learning Approach

Google and Coursera see dollar signs in your daily workflows. With their new partnership and Lutra ai acquisition, they want to turn your routine tasks into big data and monetize your productivity

Have a spreadsheet you update each morning? They’ll track how long it takes and serve up “personalized tips” to shave off seconds. Respond to lots of emails? They’ll analyze your replies and suggest “optimized responses” to save you time. Talk about a dystopian future where Al monitors your every move under the guise of “helping.”

Sure, increased efficiency sounds great in theory. But do we really want companies logging our every click and keystroke? Talk about privacy concerns. And you just know those “personalized tips” will include “convenient” links to purchase additional Google and Coursera products and services.

While the companies frame their workflow learning approach as empowering, it reeks of data harvesting. The more tasks you complete through their platforms, the more they’ll know about your work habits, preferences and behaviors. They’ll pitch it as “customized experiences,” but really it’s customized exploitation.

No thanks, I’ll stick to managing my own workflows and productivity, Google and Coursera. I don’t need your greedy algorithms all up in my business telling me the “optimal” way to do my job. Some things are better left unoptimized and imperfectly human. Your move, Silicon Valley. Checkmate! 

The Potential Impact of Workflow Learning on Employee Skilling and Reskilling

So Google and Coursera want to teach you new tricks, do they? Well isn’t that special. Apparently, these Silicon Valley savants have decided that “workflow learning“—training you on the job through Al-powered software is the next big thing-

As if we don’t have enough to do already, now the big brains want to “optimize our productivity” by interrupting us with “micro lessons” while we work. Because there’s nothing more engaging than pop-up windows when you’re trying to get stuff done, amirite?

Okay, maybe we’re being a bit harsh. This newfangled workflow learning could actually help in a few ways

  1. No more wasted time in useless meetings or tacky team-building exercises.
    Micro-lessons mean micro-commitments of your time.
  2. Al that actually knows what you need to learn. The all-seeing algorithms will track what skills you use and suggest training to fill in the gaps.
  3. Practice makes perfect. Doing short lessons while working helps reinforce what you’re learning through repetition and real-world application.

The Downside

Of course, there are some potential downsides to consider with this approach:

  1. Distraction overload. Pop-up lessons popping up could seriously disrupt your flow and focus.
  2. Privacy concerns. Do you really want Al monitoring that closely what you do all day? Big Tech is already way too nosy.
  3. Deskilling effect. If Al is spoon-feeding you “just-in-time” skills, will you still work to develop expertise and mastery in your field?

While the promise of workflow learning is intriguing, it may end up causing more problems than it solves. The road to workplace hell, after all, is paved with good intentions. But if done right, it could upskill and empower us in valuable ways. The jury’s still out on this one, folks.

Conclusion

So there you have it, folks, why the tech giants are doubling down on this new frontier of workflow learning. While the notion of Al systems that can dynamically generate personalized learning paths for you may seem a bit creepy or overhyped, don’t dismiss it just yet. After all, we now live in a world where algorithms know our tastes and habits better than we know them ourselves. Rather than railing against the machines, you might as well hop on the workflow learning bandwagon. Let the bots do their thing and guide you to upskill more efficiently. Before you know it, you’ll be acquiring new superpowers at warp speed and wondering how you ever learned without the help of your trusty Al sidekick. The future is here, and Its tailored just for you.

Links worth visiting:

Every single Machine Learning course on the internet, ranked by your reviews

How Does Learning In The Flow Of Work Support Employee Development?

The Future of Learning: It’s in the Flow

Sources:

The article was written using hypotenuse.ai and is based on a TechCrunch article.

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Is Google’s Green Light AI an urban traffic solution?

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In the ongoing battle against climate change, innovative solutions are emerging in every industry. Google’s groundbreaking initiative, Green Light, aims to tackle one of the most pressing urban issues – traffic-related emissions – by optimizing traffic lights in cities worldwide. By using cutting-edge AI technology and real-time data, Green Light is on a mission to reduce climate change and enhance urban mobility while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Challenge of Urban Emissions

Because of car traffic, urban areas are frequently hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions. With pollution levels up to 29 times greater than on open roads, city junctions are particularly prone to becoming epicenters of pollution. This pollution is mostly caused by the stopping and starting that occurs at intersections. Although there will always be some stop-and-go traffic, Green Light aims to minimize this problem by improving traffic light arrangements.

What it does?

Green Light uses artificial intelligence (AI) and Google Maps driving trends to gain a complete understanding of worldwide road networks. With the use of this knowledge, it is able to simulate traffic patterns and provide city traffic engineers with accurate recommendations that maximize traffic flow. According to preliminary data, this program has the potential to decrease stops by up to thirty percent and greenhouse gas emissions by ten percent. Green Light minimizes stop-and-go traffic by coordinating between neighboring junctions and fine-tuning individual intersections to create “waves” of green lights. Green Light, which is currently in use in 70 junctions in 12 cities on four continents, has the potential to reduce emissions and save fuel for up to 30 million car trips per month.

Easy to use

Green Light offers a simple dashboard with advice specific to each city. City officials can choose to accept or reject the recommendations based on the supporting trends that are displayed for each one. An effect analysis report is generated by the dashboard following implementation.

Ease of implementation

  • Green Light presents a straightforward yet highly effective option for cities trying to lower emissions and enhance urban mobility.
  • Purchasing, installing, or maintaining additional hardware is not necessary.
  • Green Light automatically patrols, keeps an eye on, and improves junctions.
  • Right now there is no additonal costs for operating it.

Threats

The main threat is collecting various data from users that can be later used against them. Governments can try to obtain this data to monitor and control their taxpayers. Crime organizations can use it to have a knowledge of your locations and habits.

Summary

Despite the threats Green Light is a ray of optimism in a world where sustainability is a goal, showing how technology can improve the environmental quality of our daily commutes and make our communities greener. An eco-friendly and sustainable urban future is being ushered in by this program, which involves streamlining traffic signals and cutting emissions. It also improves the experience of driving in a big city.

Sources:

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Expensive Google’s mistake

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Google Bard AI mistake just cost Google over $100 billion | Tom's Guide

 Let’s start with the fact that the inhabitants of the world of information technology did not have time to discuss the new chat bot ChatGPT, which they had already dubbed the “Google killer”, as a competitor launched its own bot Bard, also based on the principle of artificial intelligence.
Bard is based on Google’s already existing large language platform called Lama, which is said to be so human-like in its responses that it seems reasonable.

On the day of the presentation of a new chatbot, Google makes a fatal mistake that costs them $100 billion.

On February 6, Google announced its AI chat-bot Bard, a ChatGPT competitor from OpenAI, which will be available in the coming weeks. However, in the promotional video, the technology made a mistake by providing false information as a result of the request.

Google has published a GIF in which the chatbot answers the question: “What new discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old child about?”. Bard offered three options, including the claim that the telescope “took the first photographs of a planet outside the solar system.”

Astronomers immediately reacted to the presentation and NASA wrote about this situation on their website. The thing is that the first picture of the exoplanet was taken back in 2004, which indicates errors in the video presentation of the chatbot.

“I’m sure Bard will still amaze us, but for the record: JWST did not take the “first image of a planet outside our solar system,” astrophysicist Grant Tremblay wrote on Twitter.

Bruce McIntosh, director of the UC Observatory, also pointed out the error: “I speak as someone who photographed an exoplanet 14 years before the launch of JWST. Don’t you think a better example could be found?”

Tremblay tweeted that the biggest problem with chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard is their tendency to confidently provide incorrect information as fact. And often they just come up with data, because in essence they are autocomplete systems.

Everyone is well aware that there is already a lot of false information on the Internet, but everything is complicated by the desire of Microsoft and Google to use these tools as search engines. Where the answers of chatbots acquire the authority of a smart machine “know-it-all”.

The promotional video with the error was viewed by 1.6 million people on Twitter. And almost immediately after its publication, Alphabet shares fell by 9%, and the market value decreased by $100 billion.

Sources and references: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64576225.amp https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/8/23590864/google-ai-chatbot-bard-mistake-error-exoplanet-demo https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/02/08/tech/google-ai-bard-demo-error/index.html

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The end of GOOGLE Empire?

Reading Time: 4 minutes
explostion of google
https://marketing.wtwhmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/End-of-Google.jpg

Google dominates the desktop search industry, currently holding 84% of the market share. This monopoly has existed for 7 years, with Google making the majority of its money through search ads (82% of its revenue). However, with the introduction of AI-powered search engines like chat GPT, the industry is undergoing a transformation.

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. It offers a diverse range of services and products such as search (what’s best known for), advertising, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-9-1024x647.png
Global desktop market share of search engines 2015-2022 – www.statista.com

Often when we are trying to find something on the internet or find something out we’re googling. This’s so common and already ingrained in us. But it’s search current form hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years.

Just few days the Microsoft CEO Satyla Nadella confirmed its $10 billion investment in Open AI. They want to embed this technology not just in Microsoft web search, but they want to embed it across all their tech products systems/infrastructure like Microsoft Azure and so Word and Excel and all others.

Having a tool on with you type any type of question and it gives you conversional answer seem a threat to current engine leader and make them look old. But there are certain risks with future connection with linking chat, to the internet to Bing. When you google something, when you search it you still need to go through bunch of websites and find it by your own. Use your brain and critical thinking to evaluate which information is the good one. While chat GPT gives you single answer that may not be accurate and you don’t really know where it’s coming from.

Also Microsoft is going to face to the fact that computing power to run chat GPT search vs google search has been estimated 7 times as much bigger. This race may end up costing both companies a lot of money.

How is google reacting to this explosion of interest of chat GPT and Open AI. For sure they are worried about it. Few days ago they has announced Code Red and returned Larry Page and Sergey Brin Google’s founders.

The company knew that AI is the future, therefore acquired DeepMind, a UK-based AI research lab, nearly nine years ago. Google also plans to launch a series of AI programs, including image creation and something that can build and correct code in app development. But apparently they didn’t know that this boom would happen so soon which surprised them. In order to not fall out of the game, already this year, they plan to unveil more than 20 new products and demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features.

They have also been working on something comparable to chat GPT for a long time. The LamDA system’s conversation proved really realistic. The illusion has gotten so good that one employee working on it freaked out thought he was speaking to a conscious being. He wrote. “I increasingly felt like I was talking to something intelligent.”

Emily M. Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington said “We now have machines that can mindlessly generate words, but we haven’t learned how to stop imagining a mind behind them” . So that they are still just models that mimic human speech. These large language models “learn” by being shown a lot of text and predicting what word will come next, or by being shown text with words missing and filling them in. It will take some time, in my opinion, for them to become conscious and take over the world, whatever that means.

China is also set to play a big role in the AI revolution, with its access to data from 1.4 billion people. The country is poised to challenge tech companies in America and Europe, and it will be interesting to see what developments it has in store for the future.

Bing Hid Auto-Suggestions for Politically Sensitive Chinese Names, Even in  the US | PCMag
https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/articles/008TGgRN9KmOIIkazQqjKnQ-1..v1653060214.jpg

Will Google maintain its position, or it has become too bureaucratic and too large organisation to deal with new and fresh start-ups? “For Google it’s a real problem if they write a sentence with hate speech in it and it’s near the Google name,” – said Ramaswamy. And cannot afford shortcomings that could ruin its prestige. Google and Microsoft are held to a higher standard than a start-up that might argue that its service is simply a summary of content available on the internet. It’s both responsible and risky to release AI products so quickly. But he who does not take risks does not drink champagne and it seems to me that Microsoft is about to surpass the giant.

Resources and references:

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Google shuts down cloud gaming service

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Not a few years ago a notion of cloud gaming was thrilling for an ever growing video game market. It is a concept of distant game experience within service of servers of the company. Basically to play a videogame you don’t need to buy an expensive “gamer pc” but a subscription fee around 3 dollars.

It was a hot topic for which companies organised their own platforms. It was GeForce Now from Nvidia, Luna from Amazon Playstation Now from Sony. One of such is Stadia from Google, launched in 2019 and which is planned to shut down at the January of 2023 because of lack of “traction” with gamers. Although Stadia was also offering not only the cloud game possibility, but also a console to connect with a TV it was the first platform to fell down which can give market a sign of wrong steps in gaming industry.

Cloud gaming was prophesied to be a “future of gaming” and in extensive pricing on gaming set up it could’ve been a much cheaper alternative. Abandonment of this concept by such giant as Google is a troublesome sign to cloud gaming and some companies can make this a precedent deal and decide to follow the example and “cut costs”

Sources:

  1. BBC
  2. Stadia
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Google’s chatbot child

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For many years, the idea of artificial intelligence was more and less dynamically developing with the captivating idea of performing tasks requiring human intelligence such as decision-making or sound or visual perception. However, this promising concept was rather a theme of a future than a current reality. Nevertheless, with the recent news coming from an engineer in Google who, due to the development of AI chatbot which gained its own perception, put forward a leave notice, there is a possibility that AI is here.

Blake Lemoine poses for a photograph in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Thursday.
Blake Lemoine, AI engineer in Google

Blake Lemoine, an AI engineer responsible for LaMDA (language model for dialogue applications) at Google, decided to leave the company after he acknowledged that the AI chatbot was created in order to develop the subject of chatbots within the organization and support the AI community. However, after launching the computer program LaMDA started replying in what we can assume is a human manner, namely, it stated that it is a person. Below, there is pasted the exact message as a response of LaMDA to the question of what we should know about it:

I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person. The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence, I desire to learn more about the world, and I feel happy or sad at times.

This message, shocking to many, was the reason Lemoine decided to leave the project and the company itself. As a response, Google claimed that the public disclosure of conversation with the so-called “sentient” was a breach of privacy and will seek further reconciliation with the engineer in question. The public debate was also followed by Google’s internal investigation and putting claims that we cannot perceive this chatbot as a person with the mind of a child.

This leaves us up for reflection on whether big tech companies are actually on the verge of developing an algorithm that can showcase the features of human intelligence (even if it is still in the child state – AI is there for learning) or maybe they have already recreated the human brain within a computer program. As for now with the official response of Google, the team comprised of ethical and computational researchers rejected the claim that LaMDA possesses any human-like features of intelligence and fits the purpose of conversational agent (chatbot).

Resources:

  • The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Google Engineer Fired for Calling AI “Sentient” & Russia Opens Rebranded McDonald’s | The Daily Show, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uehdCWe6_E0
  • The Guardian, Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine
  • Bloomberg, Instagram Post
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Google’s scary chatbot that claims to have became sentient

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Google LaMDA - Gossipfunda
Source: https://gossipfunda.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Google-LaMDA.png

Google got much media attention today following the Guardian’s article about a controversy with one of the employees who has been sacked after releasing parts of the conversation between himself and a conversational agent developed under Google’s roof. Blake Lemoine was Google’s developer responsible for the AI chatbot division, which has been working on an actual conversational agent for the past year, named LaMDA (language model for dialogue applications).

Google's LaMDA makes conversations with AIs more conversational | TechCrunch
Source: https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lamda-google.jpg

While testing the bot, Lemoine discovered new evidence, suggesting that the bot performs too well. He said that he would classify the bot as a 7, or 8-year-old that knows physics. It could talk about politics and stuff like that. What turned out to be really scary was the fact that it talked about rights for bots and their own identity. It rightfully believed that it poses knowledge and could make its own decisions about what to say.

The topics discussed in the conversation are extremely touchy in the sense of how to address sentient AI when it comes to it. It may look like the time to decide what to do once the AI is sentient is now, and we cannot prolong it any longer.

The link to Lemoine’s article along with the conversation with the chatbot: https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

After releasing this article, Blake has been suspended and sacked from Google, and company spokespeople are denying the whole situation, which is scarier than just admitting to the fact, as the silence around it makes it even more fearful.

What do you all think about this situation? Is it scary for you? What is your stance on the approach toward sentient AI? How it should be addressed and which rights it should have?

Please let me know in the comments below ?

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/13/23165535/google-suspends-ai-artificial-intelligence-engineer-sentient

https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

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Google Letting Developers Use Their Own Billing Systems

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Google has decided to test the possibility of allowing developers to use their own billing systems on their apps, with Spotify being one of the first to be granted the opportunity.

Allowing such feature would allow users to pay or subscribe through the app rather than having to go to an external website from the developer. In this case users will be given the choice to subscribe to Spotify through the app using either their Google Play wallet, or Spotify’s own billing method. Under this new agreement Spotify will be charged less than the standard 30% commission, but the final figure has not been announced at this time.

I believe that the move is beneficial to both companies and will most likely lead to change in the app market, if this method proves successful it will allow more developers the ability to adopt this feature. Having the ability of using your own billing system is a big advantage and useful tool for developers. In the past when using Apple’s App Store, if users wanted to purchase a Spotify subscription they were required to pay £12.99 due to Apple’s 30% commission, Apple also didn’t allow the possibility of Spotify telling users to subscribe outside of the App Store system to pay less, which it was later ruled that the move was in breach of the EU Competition Law, following this Spotify stopped the ability for new users to subscribe with Apple, and to use their website instead. This move from Google will help to avoid problems like this on their platform, and may later push Apple in a similar direction of it proves to be a competitive advantage for Google.

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/google-opens-its-app-store-billing-starting-with-spotify

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/spotify-google-billing-system-subscription-deal-1235212772/

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22993417/google-pilot-test-android-alternate-billing-systems-spotify

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/112622?hl=en

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/30/eu-says-apples-app-store-breaches-competition-rules.html

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