Deadboy00 t1_j929dnb wrote on February 18, 2023 at 6:06 PM

Reply to comment by IonizingKoala in Microsoft Killed Bing by Neurogence

Dig it. I have a similar background and have had conversations with interns at ai firms like Palantir that have been doing the shit you described for years. I agree. It’s too expensive to train ai’s for every specific use case. That’s what I meant by “general”.

I think the most fascinating part of this current trend is seeing the general populations reaction to these tools being publicly released. And that’s what’s at the heart of my question…if the tech is unreliable, expensive, and generally not scalable …why is MS doing this?

I mean obviously they are generating data on user interactions to retrain the model but I can’t imagine that being the silver bullet.

Google implemented plenty of ai tech in their search engine but nobody raises an eyebrow, but now all this? I’m rambling at this point but it’s just not adding up in my brain ¯_(ツ)_/¯

IonizingKoala t1_j92caso wrote on February 18, 2023 at 6:26 PM

Microsoft is similar to Google; both like to experiment and make cool stuff, but Microsoft doesn't cut the fat and likes to put out products which are effectively trash under the guise of open beta. Heck, even their hardware is sometimes like that, while Google's products are typically solid, even if they have a short lifespan.

Going back to New Bing, it's genuinely innovative. It just sucks. That's not paradoxical, because a lot of new stuff does suck. We just rarely see it, because companies like Google are generally disciplined enough.

Most "deep" innovations are developed over decades. That development could be secretive (military tech), or open (SpaceX, Tesla), but it takes time nonetheless. Microsoft leans towards the latter, Google the former.

The latter is generally more efficient, if your audience is results-focused, not emotions-focused. AI is pretty emotionally charged, so maybe the former method is better.

Deadboy00 t1_j92j3s2 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 7:12 PM

That’s a good take. I think Google’s discipline is rooted in its size and prominence. There’s too much to lose. MS on the other hand wants to desperately be the king of the hill again.

IonizingKoala t1_j92nqhq wrote on February 18, 2023 at 7:45 PM

The funny thing is though, Microsoft has a market cap 58% larger than Alphabet, not just Google. We're left wondering why Microsoft continually takes these weird risks in the consumer space when they can just play it safe like most other big players. None of their (21st century) success has been due to quirky disruptions, it's usually been slow and steady progress (Surface, Office, Enterprise, Cloud, Consulting).

Yet with stuff like Edge, Windows 11, etc, it's been a mess. I'm not 12 anymore, I prefer stable products over the shinest new thing, and Windows 11 has been a collosal disappointment.