The Neuron
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😺 Become anyone in Roblox

😺 Become anyone in Roblox

PLUS: Google's new AI search vs. ChatGPT (who wins)!

Noah Edelman & Pete Huang
September 11, 2023

Welcome, humans.

We attended a business conference last week and everyone was talking about AI. Marketers. Salespeople. Customer support. Writers. Janitors.

(not even kidding about the last one … nerding out in the loo was the closest I’ve ever been to euphoria)!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

Roblox’s AI assistant generates 3D assets from text prompts.
Humans still create more novel ideas than AI.
Our take on Google's AI search so far: it's decent.
AI requires a lot of water to cool down data centers.

AI Lowers Technical Barriers, Makes Creativity More Important.

Video game platform Roblox’s AI assistant lets creators generate virtual items and backgrounds with text prompts. Here’s how it works:

User says: “Create a spooky nighttime atmosphere” → Roblox adds a spooky color palette, fog and haze, and a larger moon.

Spooky indeed. Another cool feature at Roblox’s developer conference was the ability to create an avatar using just a photo and text prompt. Expect these tools by EOY or early ‘24.

Why it matters: AI is lowering the technical barrier to create new things. With a simple text prompt, ChatGPT can code a website. Code Interpreter can analyze data. Roblox can build games.

This doesn’t mean AI makes technical skills obsolete (sigh, CS majors). What it does mean is that AI supercharges technical people who are ALSO very creative.

With AI, any developer can instantly create any new Roblox experience. The differentiator, then, becomes the type of experience a creator decides to manifest.

The takeaway? Creativity will set you apart in the AI era. Plus, creativity is something humans are still better than AI at: research shows that humans produce more original ideas than AI…

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Google’s AI Search “SGE” Is Rolling Out.

We’ve been testing Google’s new AI-powered search “SGE” for weeks. For context, instead of generating a list of clickable links, SGE spits out a summarized answer with options for follow-ups.

The verdict? SGE is strong as a search engine, but mid as a chatbot. Like cold-pizza-mid.

The positives: In many instances, SGE outshines the OG Google Search. It delivers answers quicker, guiding users to websites or videos only when necessary. We’ve used it for:

Definitions / synonyms.
Searching people / places.
Researching history / concepts.

The bad: SGE shines for research but not task execution. When compared to ChatGPT, it has:

A slower response time.
Difficulty with long prompts.
A cluttered user interface.

Why it matters: It’s early, but our bet is that AI-powered summaries and interactive chat are the future of online search. Early feedback on SGE indicate that users love snapshot responses with the ability to probe further.

Right now, we only have access to the AI search part of SGE. Two upcoming features we’re eagerly anticipating: