Microsoft is not the new Google. Microsoft is the new IBM. They lost their dominant position and now they are unbundling like crazy, having realised that they n

Microsoft is not the new Google. Microsoft is the new IBM. They lost their dominant position and now they are unbundling like crazy, having realised that they need to be where the users are, not the other way around. I get some of the criticism he has for Google when it comes to their OS strategy and Google+. But on the other hand, Google is making real progress in some of the core AI areas, and they are applying it so well to the tons of data they have. I've been travelling a lot recently, and I found that Google Maps is towering head and shoulders above its competitors. Not only does it have a lot more high quality information (about public transport for instance), it is also much better at guessing what I mean when I search for something, which is even more important when you're not sitting behind your desk. Google Maps feels like it is getting fanatical attention from the people behind it. They don't seem to be distracted by any moonshots at all. And if anything, the driverless car has to be an additional boost to their motivation. I feel that all kinds of projects that apply AI to tons of data are converging really really well at Google right now.