The previous article was already written with a certain lateness as it presented ChatGPT, a tool that was originally unveiled in November 2022 and in March 2023. Now, this article is already outdated, or at least superseded by a series of new developments taking the whole planet by surprise and remember this is just the beginning of a broader trend. In his 2014 book Zero to One, Peter Thiel noted that “replacement by computers is a worry for the 22nd century”. It has been only 9 years since then, (and although strong AI is still a distant mirage) but I doubt many people would now agree with Thiel.
Let’s start from where we left off; ChatGPT. Since then, a new version of ChatGPT has been unveiled, ChatGPT4, which is accessible with a paying subscription. This version is generally more powerful, it just does everything slightly better. Meanwhile, ChatGPT3 remains freely accessible and the issues revolving around the overload of users’ requests appear to have been resol- ved. However, in the universe of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E) the most sig- nificant step is its rapprochement
with Microsoft. The humiliation for the Seattle-based tech giant is over, after failed products like the Zune music player and the Windows pho- ne, Microsoft is again the talk of the town. More than that, it is challenging the 20-year monopoly of Goog- le over search engines. Microsoft’s proprietary search engine Bing and internet navigator Edge have had a glow-up thanks to OpenAI. If you use Bing (or New Bing as the update is called) you will find it surprisingly pleasant. It has a built-in chat functi- on, just like Edge. This New Bing and the chat function are powered by ChatGPT4. The chat function can thus enable you to access for free ChatGPT4 but with a daily limitation. Nonetheless, this is more than sufficient for sporadic use. Following this major update, The New York Times has revealed that Samsung was considering changing its default se- arch engine from Google to Bing. According to the same report, this put Google in scramble mode, as it should. This could be the start of a seismic shift in a tech industry already experiencing some rough times in the last months. Google was so en- graved in the common’s psyche as the only possible search engine that it has become a verb. Maybe you should start to adapt your vocabu- lary and tell your friends to “Bing it” and “Bing is your friend”. Microsoft shows no sign of stopping to catch its breath and has already announ- ced the next step; Copilot. Currently in testing, Copilot will be the integra- tion of AI tools from OpenAI within the Microsoft 365 apps (Microsoft 365 is the subscription-based versi- on of Microsoft Office, it has the ad- vantage of giving you access to the latest updates). Copilot should work across all the apps and be able, for example, of creating a PowerPoint presentation based on a Word Document or Excel Sheet (the impact on the consulting industry remains to be seen). The tool should also transcript and summarise meetings, organise projects, manage calen- dars, and much more. As a user or a student, this promises much more free time and ease of use.
As stated before, Google is in panic mode following those developments. While ChatGPT has existed for almost six months their AI chat- bot Bard is not even available in Switzerland. When they will have caught up, there is no doubt they will integrate something similar to Copilot to all Google applications. Mean- while, Facebook, ahem, excuse me, Meta, has decided that after shifting from social media to the metaverse (hence the Meta) it will shift its atten- tion to AI. Although the company has had some success with Virtual Reali- ty devices, and the sector at large continues to grow, the Metaverse envisioned by Zuckerberg has been nothing but a disaster. For 2021 and 2022 combined Meta (Facebook) reported losses close to $20 billion, all of that to create a virtual universe wi- th the graphics of the Sims 3 and wi- th only few active users estimated at 300,000 at maximum (for comparison GTA online, released in 2013 sees more than a million players a day, and 18 million monthly). So, let’s hope that this is the end of Meta’s Metaverse and that the company changes to a better name.
But perhaps the most salient point of AI’s development is its presence on- line. Photos released on Midjourney, of pope Francis DJing, partying, or in a puff white coat have been circula- ting all over social media. The software became so popular that it en- ded its free access in an attempt to discourage users. Nonetheless, pictures of Donald Trump being handcuffed by the New York Police Department or Emmanuel Macron