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Why does neither Microsoft nor Google nor Apple take the lead and offer free LLM answers like Google offers free search results? Is that because there are simp

Why does neither Microsoft nor Google nor Apple take the lead and offer free LLM answers like Google offers free search results? Is that because there are simply not enough GPUs out there to do this at scale? If so, it will become really interesting once that constraint goes away. There might be a shift in the search space like there was a shift from analog to digital photography.

bayindirh 3y ago
Getting results from a LLM with no guarantee of correctness is like computational photography. It looks nice, but that thing is not real. Instead, I'm using Kagi, and feeding it old school search queries. Which provides me results I want in the first three slots, all the time. Why fix something ain't broken?
- ddalex 3y ago
  Who cares what's real if it's useful? We use all the times fictions that are not "real" but are useful, such as law codes, corporations, religions, etc.
  - hcks 3y ago
    I hope Harari appreciators will one day realise that social constructs are real too
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    When you're doing scientific research, or looking for public transport; the difference can decide your career's future or likelihood of you going home at night.
    - ddalex 3y ago
      careers are just social constructs; and I've not seen yet Google maps fail to find me a public transport
      - bayindirh 3y ago
        > careers are just social constructs; Well, too bad that that social construct supplies you the tokens that allows you to buy food. Or do you imply that food is not real, because everything leading to it is also unreal, even if it's physical (e.g.: money). If that's the case, try to survive without it for a couple of months. > and I've not seen yet Google maps fail to find me a public transport This is because Google Maps doesn't use LLMs, but standard and deterministic indexing methods working on hard data provided by governments.
- detourdog 3y ago
  Search wasn't broken Google needed a business plan and chose web ads. That is what broke search. The bifurcation of interests between selling ads and serving search results.
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    Then don't use Google? There are alternative and promising search engines now. Google is not the only game in town.
    - detourdog 3y ago
      I don't. I was simply pointing out the business model's effect on Google. I participate with a search that is uses a subscription model service.
diffeomorphism 3y ago
Obvious answer: because it is too expensive to offer it for "free". Even if you had the GPUs, compute and electricity cost money: https://medium.com/@zodhyatech/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-consume-4cba1a7aef85 https://medium.com/@zodhyatech/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-...
- guidedlight 3y ago
  YouTube made a loss for many years because the storage and data costs were vastly higher than their revenue, despite offering the product for free.
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    Those were very different market conditions though
mrweasel 3y ago
Even if there's enough GPUs they also needs to be available at a cost that makes it financially viable, both in terms of purchasing price, but also power and cooling. Environmentally it might not look to good to offer LLM answers to a wider audience, there are already concerns about the water consumption of ChatGPT in some regions, see: https://fortune.com/2023/09/09/ai-chatgpt-usage-fuels-spike-in-microsoft-water-consumption/ https://fortune.com/2023/09/09/ai-chatgpt-usage-fuels-spike-...
guiriduro 3y ago
Microsoft does offer "Bing Chat" (derived from ChatGPT) integrated in their Edge browser, effectively free.

bayindirh 3y ago

Getting results from a LLM with no guarantee of correctness is like computational photography. It looks nice, but that thing is not real. Instead, I'm using Kagi, and feeding it old school search queries. Which provides me results I want in the first three slots, all the time. Why fix something ain't broken?

ddalex 3y ago
Who cares what's real if it's useful? We use all the times fictions that are not "real" but are useful, such as law codes, corporations, religions, etc.
- hcks 3y ago
  I hope Harari appreciators will one day realise that social constructs are real too
- bayindirh 3y ago
  When you're doing scientific research, or looking for public transport; the difference can decide your career's future or likelihood of you going home at night.
  - ddalex 3y ago
    careers are just social constructs; and I've not seen yet Google maps fail to find me a public transport
    - bayindirh 3y ago
      > careers are just social constructs; Well, too bad that that social construct supplies you the tokens that allows you to buy food. Or do you imply that food is not real, because everything leading to it is also unreal, even if it's physical (e.g.: money). If that's the case, try to survive without it for a couple of months. > and I've not seen yet Google maps fail to find me a public transport This is because Google Maps doesn't use LLMs, but standard and deterministic indexing methods working on hard data provided by governments.
detourdog 3y ago
Search wasn't broken Google needed a business plan and chose web ads. That is what broke search. The bifurcation of interests between selling ads and serving search results.
- bayindirh 3y ago
  Then don't use Google? There are alternative and promising search engines now. Google is not the only game in town.
  - detourdog 3y ago
    I don't. I was simply pointing out the business model's effect on Google. I participate with a search that is uses a subscription model service.

diffeomorphism 3y ago

Obvious answer: because it is too expensive to offer it for "free". Even if you had the GPUs, compute and electricity cost money: https://medium.com/@zodhyatech/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-consume-4cba1a7aef85 https://medium.com/@zodhyatech/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-...

guidedlight 3y ago
YouTube made a loss for many years because the storage and data costs were vastly higher than their revenue, despite offering the product for free.
- edgyquant 3y ago
  Those were very different market conditions though

mrweasel 3y ago

Even if there's enough GPUs they also needs to be available at a cost that makes it financially viable, both in terms of purchasing price, but also power and cooling. Environmentally it might not look to good to offer LLM answers to a wider audience, there are already concerns about the water consumption of ChatGPT in some regions, see: https://fortune.com/2023/09/09/ai-chatgpt-usage-fuels-spike-in-microsoft-water-consumption/ https://fortune.com/2023/09/09/ai-chatgpt-usage-fuels-spike-...

guiriduro 3y ago

Microsoft does offer "Bing Chat" (derived from ChatGPT) integrated in their Edge browser, effectively free.