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> From zero to 2 billion valuation in 9 months is impressive. Assuming it's actually worth $2b, of course. I'd argue the fact startups are able to compete in
by kypro 3y ago
> From zero to 2 billion valuation in 9 months is impressive.
Assuming it's actually worth $2b, of course.
I'd argue the fact startups are able to compete in just 9 months suggests there is little to no moat here and others will be able to do the same. I'd also argue there's a lot of speculation around the value of these products right now so it's debatable wherever it's actually worth $2b even if there is a moat. Not saying it isn't, but I don't think anyone really has a good sense for the long-term value of these new AI products / companies just yet. The valuation is mostly a result of speculation and AI FOMO.
But regardless of valuation, it's still insane that Google has become so dysfunctional that they're now struggling to compete with tech offerings from 9-month old startups. And this article does a disservice saying "big tech", because this is specifically a Google problem. Meta has had no problems pivoting their focus towards AI, creating a strategy and releasing interesting products and models.
And it's not even just that Google's products are bad, their announcements always feel rushed and clumsy, and their AI strategy seems to be nonexistent. None of this is a result of a lack of talent at Google, it's all down to crappy leadership and bureaucracy.
- 2sk21 3y agoAgree. If a competitive model can be trained in a few months, its not clear what is really unique here
- zorowithenma 3y agoThey don't want these chat models to hurt their search business. But due to the hype and fomo they are rushing things up. Their models before bard(before the rush) were good. They just need to get back in a good track and good leadership.
- kypro 3y agoHonestly, I don't AI chat is anywhere near competing with search at this moment in time. It will come, but there's no significant near-term risk that AI chat is going to be the place to go for common Google searches like: "what's the weather like tomorrow in London", "Facebook", "Sofas", "funny cat videos". AI chat is really only useful for a niche area of the search market orientated around non-real-time question and answer type questions. Eg, "who was the greatest US president?" The valuable search ad space is mostly around transactional searches like "sofas" where a company could place an ad and convert a user looking for a new sofa. No one is using chatbots for this. That's not to say it's not a risk, but I think people are wrong to think that web search and AI chat are directly competing products. AI chat competes with search in a similar way that Alexa and Siri already does – they're useful within a certain niche.