This photo shows a screen displaying the logos of Bard AI, a conversational artificial intelligence software application developed by Google, and ChatGPT.
Lionel Bonaventure | AFP | Getty Images
london – Microsoft A tech company executive says the company is handing over development of all its best artificial intelligence tools and software to OpenAI, a move that could be a boon to archrival Google.
Identity Security CEO Todd McKinnon Octatold CNBC on Friday, Google To defend its position in search, it “probably does it best without actually having to outsource R&D.”
He pointed out that the so-called “transformer” powering today’s generative artificial intelligence technology is “all from Google.”
Transformer is a deep learning model that learns context and thus meaning by tracking relationships in sequential data (such as words).
“It all comes from Google, DeepMind and research,” MacKinnon said. “I mean, the breakthrough came from Google’s research, and Transformer was the algorithm that all these LLMs (large language models) used to make these big advances.”
Microsoft as an artificial intelligence “consulting company”
McKinnon added that Microsoft’s position in the field of artificial intelligence is likely to be reduced to that of a “consultant company.” Microsoft had no immediate comment when contacted by CNBC.
Many of the company’s top products—such as Copilot, the company’s generative AI chatbot, and computers equipped with generative AI software—use technology from OpenAI, the lab behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Microsoft has deeply cultivated OpenAI has received billions of dollars in investment, with total investment reportedly rising to $13 billion to date. January 2023 Tech giants say Its investment will “accelerate breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and ensure these benefits are widely shared around the world.”
“It’s so weird,” McKinnon told CNBC. “Imagine working at Microsoft. OpenAI is creating all the exciting stuff there. It’s almost like Microsoft is turning into a consulting company.”
Still, Google has a big mountain to climb if it wants to achieve commercial success with its AI investments.
Given its investment in and partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft has actually become a leader in driving foundational AI models. This has raised concerns that Google’s position in search could be eroded as Internet users increasingly turn to ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots for their search needs.
Meanwhile, Google’s own artificial intelligence efforts have been plagued by public errors.
Last year, when Google launched its Gemini AI chatbot (then called Bard), an ad on social media site X showed it giving incorrect answers to users’ questions. Recently, Google Gemini (now known as “Google Gemini”) began creating ahistorical images based on hints about history.
Google subsequently withdrew the Gemini image generator tool for people photos and has not reinstated the product while it investigates a fix.
Success requires huge investments
MacKinnon noted that artificial intelligence is a rare technology area that stems from strong support from major technology giants, rather than organic investment in new product cycles like PCs and cloud computing.
“It’s unlike other generations of technology like the PC, where it’s not necessarily the biggest companies in the world that have the advantage because the whole thing about PCs is that they’re really disruptive because they’re almost toys,” said Mai. Kinnon said.
“There are no new AI models that are like toys. The only reason OpenAI can make it work is because they need great R&D – Microsoft is offering $10 billion to run this model – it’s not like it’s a disruptive thing, That’s an investment of $10 billion.
He added that big tech companies’ huge investments in artificial intelligence raise some competitive concerns.
MacKinnon believes that the “biggest risk” to the future of the cybersecurity industry is that artificial intelligence problems caused by digital giants (such as disinformation) will “hinder technological progress.”
“The potential for AI is really huge,” he said. But he added: “I actually expect the regulatory swings to be so big that we’re only going to have the biggest, most powerful companies controlling AI.”
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