After Microsoft announced the ChatGPT-enhanced new Bing last week, Microsoft stated that a million people signed up on the waitlist to try out the new Bing in just 48 hours. The company is also preparing for an event to show expand the productivity apps, including Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, per reports in the Verge. The event is expected in March. There’s a general sentiment that Microsoft has identified its apparent lead in AI and is looking to capitalize on it, including noting that small increases to its search business would drive billions of dollars.
On the business front, I spotted American Express and Microsoft announcing an application of AI for expense management. This isn’t OpenAI based, but it is Microsoft Cloud-based.
Not to be left behind, Opera has announced they, too, are adding ChatGPT to their browser as a sidebar. ConnectWise made a similar announcement – more on that in the following story today.
And it’s everywhere – Vice notes that even the US Army is using it now, citing an article that appeared on the DoD’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), an internet repository of news and images generated by the American military.
All this AI talk has a security angle, too – Check Point Software has revealed that they are tracking Russian threat actors trying to circumvent the restrictions of inbound requests from Russia.
Google may be feeling the pressure here – they released a report over the weekend warning of the perils of AI, focusing on hallucination – those confident, false statements made using the technology. Additionally, the company has shared its newer “multisearch” feature, AI-powered, to search text and images simultaneously.
Axios with a review of the Eliza effect. Human perception is tuned to recognizing other people, and we’re so good at it … we do it to other things. We humanize objects, nature, and shapes… and that includes our conversations with computers.
I also want to highlight a long read. Insider digs into the automation trend and how often it’s simply hiding human workers. Delivery robots with human failovers, AI chatbots for real estate where humans are the escalation points, or seemingly automated fast-food locations – with workers in the back.
Why do we care?
ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history – and when you dig into it, it was a surprise for everyone. With over 100 million users now, this isn’t conceptual. This is in practice.
This is a swift move thru the hype cycle. It would be easy to discount the noise as hype, which could play out. Despite the downsides, I’m predicting more practical uses for the technology. The quick, uncontrolled rollout is Shadow IT on speed. The technology is already in the hands of end users, so the space is helping organizations cope. You can be active or passive in that process, and I’ll observe that good money is in the active part.