Greetings from Manchester, Vermont. There's nothing quite like spring in the Green Mountains.
In the news: Will generative AI kill web traffic? It may. AI-powered search tools like perplexity.ai can do 10 minutes of Google searches in about 10 seconds. It cites its sources, gives you a range of GenAI tools to use for output, and (most importantly) does not click on ads.
Google has done a few small things to enhance its search UI, and OpenAI has toyed with a "search with Bing" feature inside of ChatGPT. Nothing to see here… move along…
Now, there's a pretty big rumor about OpenAI being set to launch on May 9. The new search engine is rumored to be partly powered by Bing, with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman expressing interest in combining large language models (LLMs) with search to find better ways to help people find, act on, and synthesize information, rather than just replicating Google Search. This move aligns with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's previous statement about integrating OpenAI's GPT models into Bing to challenge Google. We'll see. Right now, it's all speculation.
As good as this sounds, given OpenAI's lack of topical information retrieval expertise and the absence of an ecosystem to achieve the level of ubiquity and usefulness that Google enjoys, OpenAI has a long, hard road ahead.
Is there a way that generative AI could unseat Google? Of course there is. Is it likely to happen?
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. Just reply to this email. -s
ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
