Google and OpenAI want to revolutionize search

Greetings, intelligists!

I know it’s been quite some time since our last missive, but I promise you it’s been for a good reason.

For the last several months, I (Joaquin, the man responsible for most of the newsletters) have been neck-deep working in AI for an unnamed Big Tech Company (TM).

While I am not at liberty to disclose any specifics of my work, what I can say is that the future has “AI” written all over it. During this time, I’ve had a golden opportunity to see what the industry is like from the inside, and frankly, it hasn’t left me much time to write or post. But, on the bright side, I have gained massive insights and knowledge that will enrich my AI-focused reporting.

Despite my busy state, I’ve had a little voice in the back of my head pestering me to continue writing. That being said, you can expect more from intelligist in the near future!

My Big Takeaways (so far) from AI Work

Now, some things I can assure you about AI that I’ve learned in my ongoing work for Big Tech:

• AI is not going anywhere. Instead, quite the opposite: expect it to keep growing and showing up in every part of every application and device that you use.

• AI is only going to get better. AI is getting more accurate, more powerful, and more accessible. This is both because of the resources being put into it and the scaled improvements to current models. It is also going to get faster and less resource-intensive.

• LLMs make content but also offer glimpses into human understanding. This is a big one that people need to understand. Often, critics of AI are dismissive of the technology, claiming it is merely imitative and pales in comparison to human knowledge. However, anyone who actually works in training and building an LLM knows that, behind the simple interface, there is a deep understanding of human language and knowledge that is being codified into AI platforms.

• AI technology needs people with a humanities background. Linguists, literature and culture experts, philosophers, social scientists, and historians are critical for AI. There has been a massive push toward STEM education in recent years. Still, I can assure you that humanities-oriented thinkers are critical for AI to make any sense and to produce valuable, impactful, and meaningful technology. As I said before, understanding human thought, language, and culture is fundamental for functional AI.

A few months ago, AI guru and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever said that while it seems like AI is merely about statistical correlations between texts, what is really going on is that we are codifying an understanding of the world through text. This includes, he says, the human condition, our hopes, our dreams, and other abstractions that constitute knowledge.

In this sense, the great promise of AI is that it is moving in a direction that synthesizes technology with other areas of human understanding. In my opinion, that is precisely why LLMs and image generators are more than just toys. They are windows into how we see and understand the world, and improving these tools depends on our being able to better understand reality.

In summary, one core observation of mine is that society has overlooked critical skill sets in recent years. College professor friends of mine tell me about drastic cuts in humanities subjects, such as foreign languages. Reports have confirmed that universities in the US are slashing humanities across the board.

It’s as if this current state of things, in which humanity is more connected to knowledge and each other than ever before, came from a science and math-exclusive society. But things did not arise that way. The current golden era of technological innovation has emerged from a humanities-rich educational system.

That being said, my future posts will continue to explore some of the biggest developments in AI while also talking about some of the underlying themes that are just as crucial.

In the coming days, some topics I’ll write about include:

• The future of search (Google and OpenAI want to conquer AI-powered search)

• AI’s transformation of the job market worldwide

• The current state (or lack thereof) of AI regulations and governance

• New AI products that might impact your professional and personal life

Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter. More will be coming shortly!

Joaquin

intelligist.ai