Google will charge for intelligent searches, Apple focuses on robots. This is how AI redesigns business plans
Artificial intelligence could be so disruptive as to redesign the fields of action of Big Tech which are investing billions in it. Google is already thinking of profiting from searches made with the help of AI while Apple is toying with the idea of a Siri with a tangible body. And they're not the only ones moving
The fact that there is excitement around software houses developing artificial intelligence algorithms is certainly not news. Instead, it is the fact that Big Tech intends to exploit the new discoveries of science and technology to reinvent themselves, colonize new markets, prepare new business plans. Amazon, Google, Apple and Meta are already moving.
DOES GOOGLE MONETIZE INTELLIGENT SEARCHES?
The era of free AI doesn't seem likely to last long. At the moment ChatGpt and its partners need to collect data, communicate with the greatest number of users, be prodded by the most absurd requests. And this is the reason why, in addition to 'premium' tariff plans, there is usually also the possibility of using them for free. Once they reach maturity, considering how much it costs to keep those algorithms (or rather, their servers and data centers) "alive", phase two will almost certainly begin.
Alphabet, which has the keys to Google, is already considering the possibility of charging, at least according to what the Financial Times writes, for the premium services on its search engine based on artificial intelligence.
Naturally, Google will remain free but, for the first time in the history of the Mountain View giant (which, as especially those who have an Android device know well, offers a plurality of services ranging from emails to localization, through call software, calendars, TV streaming, cloud, etc.), the US company would make its software completely free of charge.
IS APPLE BETTING ON BUTLER ROBOTS?
Having set aside the Apple Car and microLED projects for smartwatches , Cupertino has mandated the Research & Development departments to investigate the feasibility of equipping each user with their own domestic robot in the near future. A true butler 2.0 who, constantly connected to Apple devices (iPhone, Mac, iPad) will help users in managing their daily lives.
How we don't know. What is certain is that Apple, with Siri, has remained far behind in terms of these digital assistants now enhanced by AI (see for example Microsoft's Copilot), so much so that, as written here on Start , the company led by Tim Cook is in talks to integrate Google's Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone.
In short, it explains why he is preparing a backlash on another front, that of "Phygital" assistants, so to speak, digital and physical at the same time, therefore equipped with a body that could be used to take care of chores. Will he sweep the house or will he simply follow us to always be within reach of a question when we need to know who won Inter – Milan? Will it cook and make coffee or will its usefulness be limited to telling us tomorrow's temperatures? Impossible to know. What is certain is that, being animated by artificial intelligence, it could easily carry out online searches, invent screenplays, help children with their homework and perhaps even compose musical pieces…
NOT JUST APPLE AND GOOGLE: AMAZON CULTIVATES STARTUPS
Amazon is also already moving on multiple fronts. AWS is betting everything on its Amazon Bedrock, a managed service for generative AI offerings and application development. The company announced the public availability of Mistral Large (a model that natively “speaks” English, French, Spanish, German and Italian and has a contextual window of 32,000 tokens) for customers interested in creating their own artificial intelligence applications, a added in the wake of the integration of Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B which took place a month ago.
Amazon has also addressed an initiative to startups in the sector by expanding the offer of free Amazon Web Service credits for the use of AI models and internal chips. At the same time, Amazon continues to invest in Anthropic, even if it is not yet clear how it will exploit the artificial intelligence hatched by the Italian-American startup: certainly in customer support and in the Prime streaming service, but it is clear that the projects go further.
INTELLIGENT GLASSES AND SUPER-CHAT, HOW META MOVES
Finally, Meta intends to leverage its AI on multiple fronts. It is in fact testing more than 20 different experiences and capabilities based on generative artificial intelligence within Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It is not known whether they will all be released and whether they will all be available to everyone, given that Mark Zuckerberg 's social networks now provide, at least in Europe, paid subscriptions.
Not for everyone but only for influencers, for example, the reply function on Instagram suggested in DMs to ensure that creators can interact more quickly with their fan base. And then of course there are the smart glasses (no, not the viewers for the metaverse): according to previews from the New York Times , in the next few weeks Meta will launch a substantial update for the latest models made with EssilorLuxottica, the Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, integrating them with Meta AI, so they can answer questions based on what the user has around while wearing them.
Several influencers have published some previews on social media in which it is possible to observe Meta AI at work identifying and describing species of animals at the zoo and particular plants. Another interesting function is the automatic translation of texts, simply by viewing them through the lenses of smart glasses. In short, between smart glasses and robots, the future already seems a little closer today.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/google-apple-meta-amazon-ai/ on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:26:38 +0000.