Google's Bard AI learns to code

Hey there,

Tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are scheduled to release their quarterly earnings this week. After a eventful couple of months with layoffs and shift in corporate strategies towards AI, it’ll be interesting to look at their earnings and the forward outlook.

On to our today’s update:

• Google’s Bard learns to code

• Battery breakthrough doubles energy density

Reading time is 4 minutes. Let’s dive in 🤿

Google adds coding ability to Bard Chatbot

What: Google bard was launched a month ago to compete with ChatGPT, but fell flat in comparison, partly due to muffled responses and missing coding capability.

In a new update, Google’s Bard can now:

1. Generate code from a text prompt and export to Colab.

2. Debug existing code.

3. Help explain lines of code.

4. Write functions for Google Sheets

Why it matters: Google faced pressure to launch an AI chatbot after ChatGPT and Microsoft’s integration of GPT-4 in Bing search.

Since then, it’s been a rough ride for Google:

1. Bard’s demo had factual errors, leading to $100 billion drop in Alphabet’s market cap.

2. Bard received fared poorly in comparison to GPT-4.

3. Leaked reports of internal dissatisfaction among employees, with some calling it worse than useless.

What’s next: Google is planning a slew of new AI features to take on the AI rivals, under a project codename “Magi”. It includes a brand new search engine and is expected to launch next month to 1 million users.

Electric Aircrafts could be feasible after a major battery breakthrough

What: CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, announced a new “condensed matter” battery with energy density of 500 Wh/kg!

This is almost double of the current generation of EV batteries, which can reach up to 296 Wh/kg (Tesla’s 4680-type battery).

Why it matters: CATL holds ~43.4% of the global market share of EV batteries and energy storage. The 500 wh/kg battery is a game changer:

1. Enable electrification of aircrafts, which are currently infeasible due to heavy batteries.

2. Extend range of EVs to 600 miles on a single charge without any increase in weight!

3. Lower the environmental impact of mining and building batteries.

CATL will begin the mass production of the new batteries later this year.

New Tools
Leverage AI to grow

Today’s category helps you become a power user of Excel and Google Sheets! For instance, you could generate formulas using simple text prompt within seconds.

• Excelformulabot: Generate Excel formulas from text instructions quickly and easily. Plus explains the formula along with VBA generator. Sheets   Excel   Free-Tier   Paid (link)

• Luminal : Clean, transform and analyze spreadsheets at lightspeed using natural language. Supports bulk fixes and filtering too, with focus on Data security. Free-Tier   Paid (link)

• Flowshot : Automate Google Sheets workflows with fast data entry, flexibility and custom a AI model.Sheets   Free-Tier   Paid (link)

• SheetGod : Tool that allows you to create macros, regular expressions, and automate your daily manual work. Also offers AI-Powered Formulas.Sheets   Excel   Free-Tier   Paid (link)

• Arcwise AI : Chat with the spread-sheet, ask questions to gain insights coupled with features like summarized responses, formula assistance, clean, and process data. Sheets  Chrome extension (link)

Misc 🌎
From the corners of the Internet

• Google laid off 12,000 employees to cut costs but the CEO then gets $226M package in annual compensation. (link)

• 43% of all EVs sold in US are in California. (link)

• Google consolidates AI research divisions into Deepmind (link)

• Lyft to lay off 30% of its workforce (link)

• US begins planning for 6G communications (link)

• Now you could get an AI babysitter for your dog (link)