šŸ˜ŗ The future of search

PLUS: Bet you can't get a 10/10 on this AI quiz!

Welcome, humans.

The NYT created this nifty little quiz, akin to our Thursday Trivia, that asks if a face is AI-generated or real. Reckon you can still sniff out AI trickery? Give it a whirl and share your score with us (ours was a humbling 4 out of 10)!

Hereā€™s what you need to know about AI today:

  • Google's search empire remains unshaken by AI...for now.

  • AI-generated spam is infecting Google's search results.

  • Researchers developed a new tool to protect artists.

  • xAI raised $500M, halfway to its $1B target.

Google still dominates search, despite AI concerns.

Hereā€™s something you donā€™t often hear from journalists: we were wrong.

Yep, last year, we bet that generative AI would disrupt online search, arguing that a chatbot rattling off answers in seconds beats sifting through a sea of suggested blue links.

But according to StatCounter, Google still dominates search with 92% market share, while Bing, even with its ChatGPT upgrade, lags at 3.37%.

So whatā€™s the dealio?!

Turns out, AI search experiences so far, for the most part, have been flat-out bad, including Bing, Bard, and he who must not be named: Google SGE. Theyā€™re slow, clunky, and hallucinateā€¦A LOT.

But, TBH, non-AI search experiences are also a bit rough these days. 

  • A 404 Media investigation found that Google News has been increasingly ā€œboosting garbage AI-generated articlesā€.

  • Plus, we continue to witness a surge in people hacking their way to the top of Google Search results by spamming trash-y AI blog posts.

*we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with a brief message from our sponsorā€¦*

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AI search will improve & triumph in the long run.

Weā€™re doubling down on the prediction that AI aggregators are the future of search, not keyword wizardry as it currently stands. However, we acknowledge that it could take a damn long time.

Remember, it literally took Google Chrome an entire decade to take over internet browsers.

ā€œWe are at the gold rush moment when it comes to AI and search. At the moment, I doubt AI will move the needle because, in search, you need a flywheel: the more searches you have, the better answers are. Google is the only firm who has this dynamic well-established.ā€

Our dark horse for who eventually moves the needle? Perplexity.

Weā€™ve been using the Bezos-backed search engine for a while and consistently choose it for quick queries instead of tapping Google. Weā€™ve also been hearing from many AI power users that Perplexity has become their new go-to chatbot.

Perplexityā€™s search interest over time

We wouldnā€™t be shocked if Perplexity receives a billion-dollar bid from Google, Microsoft, or Apple within the next 12 monthsā€¦but here's to hoping they'll turn it down. šŸ˜‰

Around the Horn.

  • Sam Altman is in talks with Middle Eastern investors & TSMC about raising billions to manufacture semiconductors.

  • Stability AI launched a new, small LLM called Stable LM 2 1.6B.

  • Elon Muskā€™s xAI raised $500M and is ā€œdiscussing a valuationā€ of $15-20B.

  • Both the DOJ and the FTC want to investigate Microsoft and OpenAIā€™s partnership.

  • Researchers developed a novel tool, ā€œNightshade,ā€ to shield artists from copyright theft.

Treat To Try.

Artificial Analysis is a neat way to compare the top AI models across:

  • quality.

  • speed.

  • price.

  • latency.

  • & more.

Spoiler alert: GPT-4 still tops the charts.

We curated the top 27 tools you need for work in our ā€œTop Tools For Businessā€!

Monday Meme.

A Cat's Commentary.

Thatā€™s all for today, for more AI treats, check out our website.

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See you cool cats on Twitter: @nonmayorpete & @noahedelman02

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