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Weekly tech roundup: OpenAI Unveils AI-Powered Search Engine SearchGPT: Taking on Google
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Kristoffer Lindström
August 02, 2024
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FROM FRONT
Hey there, summer aficionados!
We've got another exciting roundup of this week's top tech news for you. Just a heads-up, our daily emails will be back in mid-August. Enjoy the sunshine!
Cheers, Kris
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TECH BRIEF
OpenAI has unveiled SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine prototype aimed at organizing and making sense of internet content. With real-time internet access, SearchGPT provides informative summaries, caters to follow-up queries, and offers a feature called “visual answers”. Powered by GPT-4, it will only be accessible to 10,000 test users initially and aims to integrate its features into ChatGPT. This marks OpenAI's potential competitive confrontation with internet giants like Google, and its search feature has been developed in collaboration with news partners for constructive feedback.
💡 Insight: OpenAI's introduction of SearchGPT marks a significant pivot into the competitive search market, directly challenging Google and Perplexity. By offering organized, attributed answers and collaborating with major news publishers, OpenAI aims to mitigate issues of content misuse while enhancing user engagement. Monetization strategies remain imperative as operational costs surge.
Microsoft's Q4 2024 financial results showcased $64.7 billion in revenue and a net income of $22 billion, indicating a robust 15% and 10% respective yearly increase. Intelligent cloud revenues spiked by 19%, accounting for nearly 45% of all revenue. Consumer devices, conversely, saw a continual dip, with Surface revenue declining for the seventh quarter in a row. Revenue for Xbox content and services jumped by 61%, driven significantly by Activision Blizzard revenues. Future prices for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass were confirmed to increase starting September.
Apple unveiled its AI suite, Apple Intelligence, which enhances Siri, generates emails and images, and sorts notifications. It is available only to Apple developers at the moment but will be released publicly later this year. The applications of Apple Intelligence will work exclusively on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and newer versions. Improved AI features are anticipated to induce long-term, strong iPhone cycles. The developer beta includes several enhancements like better photo search, movie creation, AI-generated summaries, and more sophisticated Siri capabilities.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has achieved better than expected Q2 CY2024 results, with revenue 22.1% higher YoY at $39.07 billion, surpassing analysts' estimates. The company's EPS was $5.16, also ahead of forecasts. For Q3 CY2024 Meta predicts $39.75 billion in revenue, 1.5% more than estimates. The company's focus on Reality Labs - projected to birth the most-used AI assistant globally by year-end - continues as it also reports strong demand for Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.
In Q2, Amazon Web Services (AWS) surpassed forecasts with a 19% revenue rise, bringing in $26.28 billion. Despite fierce competition from Google, Microsoft and Oracle, AWS growth is outpacing Amazon's overall growth trajectory. AWS is banking on Nvidia GPUs to power AI models, taking up a significant portion of its 2024 capital expenditure, expecting substantial returns. AWS now represents 18% of Amazon's total revenue and 63% of the operating income.
Apple's Q3 2024 report shows 5% growth YoY with record revenues of $85.8 billion, despite concerns over falling iPhone sales and declining revenues in the Chinese market. Growth is attributed to robust iPad sales, up 24%, and a 14% increase in services. CEO Tim Cook highlighted new generative AI features, Apple Intelligence, as potential drivers for future iPhone sales.
In response to plagiarism claims, Perplexity initiates a program offering ad revenue to publishing partners, including Time, Der Spiegel, and Fortune. The multiyear agreement rewards publishers for each article used in responses.
Meta is rolling out AI Studio, enabling Instagram creators to generate AI personas for responding to followers. This AI extension aims to manage high-volume messaging challenges.
Runway, an AI video generation tool company, reportedly trained its Gen-3 model by scraping thousands of videos from renowned YouTube creators, raising copyright concerns in the generative AI industry.
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Canva Acquires AI Platform Leonardo Ahead of Anticipated IPO - Canva, the largest privately held Australian tech company, has bought AI platform Leonardo.AI, strengthening its AI capabilities before a potential 2025 IPO.
AI Breakthroughs Revolutionize Robotics, Disrupting Healthcare and Manufacturing - Google, OpenAI, and Tesla are developing AI "brains" for advanced robotics, with rising investments in the technology. These efforts could transform industries, including healthcare and manufacturing.
Delta Seeks Damages as CrowdStrike-Microsoft Outage Costs $500M - Delta CEO, Ed Bastian, reported a $500 million loss for the airline due to a significant IT outage triggered by a problematic CrowdStrike software update for Microsoft systems.
The Atlantic CEO Advocates for AI-powered Internet Navigation - The Atlantic, under CEO Nicholas Thompson, is partnering with OpenAI to build AI search technology, aiming to respect and protect journalism while enhancing content discovery.
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