Google Announces ChatGPT rival

Plus: AMC introduces variable pricing for seats

February 07, 2023

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Good Morning. This is Refactored. Your favorite tech newsletter :)

In today's edition: Google announces ChatGPT rival, AMC introduces variable pricing for seats and of course Memes. 

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Main Thing

Google Announces ChatGPT rival

What: More than 100M users have signed up to use ChatGPT since its launch around 2 months ago. Some saw AI domination, others saw a better assistant, while some rushed in to capitalize. Just like the Gold Rush era.

But for the first time in decades, there is a chink in Google's bulletproof search and advertising business that brought in $162B last year, and the world has noticed.

Begun the AI war has.

  • Google announced a new conversational AI named Bard, to compete with ChatGPT. But, the AI is not available to public yet, so this looks more like a strategic announcement, aka all smoke no fire.

  • Microsoft, announced a surprise event to be held today (just 24 hour notice) with focus on Bing search engine's partnership with ChatGPT.

  • Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant, announced a similar 'ERNIE bot' with plans to launch in March, sending its stock up 15%!!

What’s next: There is a new paradigm shift in how we search for information online, meaning new players have a chance to dethrone Google.

But guess who is missing from the AI hype?

Apple! With more than 2 billion active devices, Apple stands to gain the most from conversational AI. But, Siri seems to be stuck in 2016.

Small Plates

AMC will charge more for better seats in movie theaters, taking a page out of Airline industry’s handbook on how to make things worse for consumers 101.

AMC will offer three types of ‘Sightline’ seats:

  1. Value: Front row seats will cost less.

  2. Preferred: Middle seats with best angle of the screen, will cost more.

  3. Standard: Remaining seats with same price as admission ticket.

Neko Health: Spotify founder Daniel Ek has a new healthcare startup focused on early detection of diseases.

The startup performs a 360-degree full body scan to collect more than 50M data points on skin, heart, vessels, respiration etc to detect anomalies.

An AI analyzes the data to provide detailed reports to doctors and patients. The scan is completed within minutes and costs less than $200, but only available in Sweden.

Meme Tuesday

(Admit it, our meme game is strong.)

Quick Bites