Panic in OpenAI land
OpenAI is under a 'code red' directive. This week, its CEO declared an emergency situation, all hands on deck, drop everything that you are doing right now and start working on ChatGPT. Why? Google just released its latest version of Gemini and it is - based on various benchmarks - better.
Mr. Altman is panicking. The one thing which allowed Mr. Altman to raise lots of money was that ChatGPT was first and better than others for a long time. If you consider 4 years a long time, that is. It looks like others are catching up and OpenAI needs to keep its perceived leadership.
OpenAI positioned itself as a new company which will take over the world and will leave the old, profitable companies behind. It was able to do so by a combination of technology pretending to speak like a human and painting a vision of an amazing future where AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) or even Digital Super Intelligence provides riches to all of us but mainly its creators.
Along the way, OpenAI also introduced a slew of new products to support its vision. Maybe you don't even remember when OpenAI also introduced SearchGPT. That was in July, 2024. It was a test of how to create a wrap around Microsoft Bing.
In February of this year, we learned about Project Mercury, a plan to turn ChatGPT into an investment banker, because that's where the money is. Also, by now forgotten, it was the OpenAI store where developers would build amazing front ends for ChatGPT which nobody would be able to resist. Ironically when you click on girlfriend it takes you to a list with a title 'The Best GPTs of ChatGPT in 2024'. While in its own usage policies OpenAI declared that 'We also don’t allow GPTs dedicated to fostering romantic companionship or performing regulated activities.' That was for the developers, because in October of this year, Mr Altman declared that as “... part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.”
And who could forget (or still remember??) the OpenAI Jobs Platform which promised 'The OpenAI Jobs Platform will have knowledgeable, experienced candidates at every level, and opportunities for anyone looking to put their skills to use. And we’ll use AI to help find the perfect matches between what companies need and what workers can offer.'
These were the days. Like a true startup, OpenAI came up with interesting technology and was looking for the market fit to monetize it. Actually, OpenAI didn't come up with the technology. It was a bunch of people who left Google where this concept originated from ... but these are details. So many opportunities - from PhD level answers or AI headhunter to your sex companion. OpenAI tries everything.
One thing which also came up in the quest how to monetize ChatGPT is - naturally - advertising. Advertising which fuels behemoths like Google, Facebook or Amazon.
Interestingly I got asked these two questions by a reporter early this week:
How would ChatGPT ads differ from ads on other digital platforms?
Given the extensive and intimate data ChatGPT has about users, could these ads be more convincing than ads on other digital platforms?
This is my opinion: ChatGPT ads will be much more insidious than on other platforms. While Google or Amazon rely on search history and perhaps data gathering when a user is browsing other sites, they still have to ‘calculate’ the user intent and have a limited way to influence the user.
And we know how imperfect that is based on the ads we get presented by them.
Now imagine that you are having a very personal and private interaction/conversation (which should be the red flag to begin) with ChatGPT and since we know that ChatGPT was able to assist with suicide, how easy must it be for the same technology to convince you that you need to buy something?
The fact that a product will appear on the side of the screen will be a ‘pure coincidence’. It doesn’t need to tell you what to buy. It will create a context where you will freely and happily click the buy button. Once you buy, it will provide positive reinforcement that you made the right choice.
ChatGPT is your friend. And we do what? We confide in and listen to our friends.
If you read this and think that it is impossible and you would never interact with technology like that, I have to tell you that I personally heard from people about their use - and their justification! - of ChatGPT and it is worse than you can imagine.
Add on top of that an effort by Mr. Altman to establish a new digital currency Worldcoin where you get paid (where not illegal) by attaching your iris scan to a digital ID to prove that you are human. To confuse regulators, this opaque organization changed its name from Worldcoin to just World but the goal remains unchanged.
But all that is now on hold. No time for revenue, no time for profit. It is time to panic and get ready for a real fight. In the left corner, we have Googlezilla, a hugely successful and hugely profitable company with build up infrastructure, its own AI chips, and thousands of people devoted to Gemini. In the opposite corner, we have a barely matured teenager, who talks a lot, loaded with debt, mouth full of promises of a human-less future and super intelligence.
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
The recurrent pattern? Despite the billions invested, OpenAI is a startup which is still trying to figure out what is going to be when it will grow up. But now, the time is running out even faster. Googlezilla made it to the ring. It is ready to hit the new kid. Life is not fair.