Welcome, humans.

The Neuron merch is on its way! Let us know which orange cat you’d like us to put on our tees.

We’re all about the cat slurping ramen—it's a mirror to our ramen munching: all smiles, floor-seated, wolfing down those noodles without pausing for air.

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

• Next week might see OpenAI drop a new search engine.

• Google cut the price of displaying AI search results by a whopping 80%.

• Google’s AI-driven search has seriously leveled up.

• AI has narrated over 40,000 audiobooks on Audible.

On Thursday’s podcast: Was gpt2-chatbot actually GPT-5?, crazy internal Microsoft emails, and California’s new AI bill (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube).

OpenAI’s competitor to Google Search could debut next week.

AI-driven search is fast becoming the preferred way to find info online, offering instant answers over traditional search result clicks. 61% of GenZ and 53% of Millennials opt for AI tools instead of traditional search engines like Google when researching topics.

So, the race is on to build the best AI search, from tech giants like Google and Copilot to startups like Perplexity and you.com.

Now, OpenAI might announce its own AI search engine next week, (un)coincidentally just before Google’s big I/O developer conference.

Here’s the scoop:

1. OpenAI created the domain search.chatgpt.com…(it’s not yet live).

2. OpenAI’s revamped homepage greets you with a search bar:

Why it matters: Google Search, the G.B.O.A.T. (greatest business of all time), raked in $175B for Google in 2023, mostly as pure profit. For a decade plus, its dominance has been unchallenged.

But the AI search shake-up could be a golden chance for newcomers to disrupt the scene. If anyone can do it, it’s OpenAI, which hasn’t explicitly said it’s going after Google Search (it’s been focused on creating the finest chatbots). But that could all change as soon as next week…

Previously, we’ve been tough on Google for its subpar AI search “SGE” compared to apps like Perplexity.

But lately, Google’s AI search has improved significantly. It’s delivering quicker, crisper responses—almost as fast as Perplexity.

And the good news for Google? The cost of showcasing AI-generated search results has plummeted by 80% over the past year, easing worries that AI answers could cost 10x more than standard Google Search results.

FROM OUR PARTNERS

The world's fastest conversational AI was released & it sounds just like a human.

We discovered an AI tool that can “take” over 1,000,000 phone calls simultaneously—seriously, try calling it here. 

It’s from an AI lab named Bland. 

They created an AI phone agent that talks like a human, in any voice, at any speed! 

It’s an incredible substitute for any routine business calls, managing sales, pre-qualifying leads, and providing customer support. 

Pretty wild, huh? 

Well, not only can you chat with Blandy, but Neuron readers can sign up here and get exclusive access to something even crazier...

AI-narrated audiobooks are going berserk.

In November, Amazon announced a tool that lets authors transform their eBooks into narrated audiobooks using a new synthetic speech AI.

Since then, over 40,000 audiobooks have been produced on Audible using this technology, some in as little as 52 minutes.

• Authors love it. They can easily create and sell audiobooks without having to spend 100+ hours recording in front of a mic.

• Listeners have mixed feelings. Hearing AI narrate is akin to enduring an in-flight safety spiel—tedious. Plus, there's concern it might put every human narrator out of a job (also possible).

Why it matters: AI can turn any written word into speech. We anticipate that soon, authors will be able to generate complete audiobooks using samples of their own voices, thanks to tools like ElevenLabs, which recently teamed up with HarperCollins to produce audiobooks in non-English languages.

Around the Horn.

• Sam Altman said in a new interview that “GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again…by a lot”—watch the whole thing here.

• Ohio is using AI to mark and eliminate words in outdated regulations, potentially saving 58,000 hours of labor over the next decade.

• Sam Altman told an audience that the mystery gpt2-chatbot is not GPT-4.5.

Treats To Try.

1. *Brilliant offers bite-sized AI lessons so you stay competitive at work. Join 10M people around the world and start your 30-day free trial today.

2. Perplexity has launched Enterprise, offering large teams access to Perplexity Pro with enhanced data privacy & security features.

3. Moneterey aggregates and analyzes user feedback, tickets, conversations, surveys, and transcripts.

4. Waxwing is an AI marketing assistant that suggests strategies and campaigns based on thousands of case studies.

5. Rovo by Atlassian is a new assistant that helps teams find info across your SaaS apps.

*This is sponsored content. Advertise in The Neuron here.

Intelligent Insights.

• Meet the AI Expert Advising the White House, JPMorgan, Google and the Rest of Corporate America (link).

• Microsoft, Apple look to go big with smaller AI models (link).

• Recruiters Are Going Analog to Fight the AI Application Overload (link).

• The Last Stock Photographers Await Their Fate Under Generative AI (link).

• Freeing the chatbot (link).

Friday Faculty.

1. Research Scientist & engineering roles at Augment (Palo Alto).

2. Sales Operations Analyst at CoreWeave (remote).

3. Senior Product Manager at Safebase (remote).

4. 152 careers at OpenAI (SF & elsewhere).

5. 9 software positions at Langchain (SF).

A Cat's Commentary.