The premise of the article is that ChatGPT combined with Bing will help Google see how people use, misuse, and if they will pay for a chatbot search engine while taking none of the risk. If chatbots are the future of search, Google will release a better version of it. They have the most reliable search engine after all

Exactly. They don’t want to unleash their beasts too fast. OpenAI is a private startup that can afford doing that. They have investors and stock price to worry about…

I agree but I think Google will end up making a better chatbot search engine after seeing what Microsoft does with Bing+ChatGPT. That’s how ChatGPT will “help” Google, by seeing if this is an approach worth pursuing

Also I’ll trust Google over Bing to give me better search results if they both have similar chatbots

I think ChatGPT is putting some much-needed pressure on them to re-evaluate their priorities of serving ads vs serving users like us

Last week, The Information reported that Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a ChatGPT-powered version of Bing. A use case that raised eyebrows was ChatGPT's ability to answer questions in concise and straightforward language, which seemed like a much better experience than the one we’re used to on Google.

ChatGPT was alarming enough for Google to declare a "code red" and prioritize the release of its own AI products. Google has been building similar large language models (LLMs) but has been much more secretive and cautious about them. You may recall last summer's controversy when a Google engineer claimed that LaMDA, Google's chatbot, was sentient. And Google even built one of the core technologies powering ChatGPT. We don’t know how powerful Google’s chatbot and other AI products they’ve created are, but we know they have the talent and funds to compete.

Currently, Google commands 85% of the global search market, while Bing only accounts for 9%. So Microsoft doesn’t have as much to lose as Google, which explains its higher risk tolerance in releasing a first-of-its-kind product that could be less reliable and provide false information.

But the bigger news is that Microsoft intends to add OpenAI's chatbot technology to its Office apps. Microsoft Office accounts for 23% of the company's revenue, compared to only 6% from Bing ads.

Having generative AI capabilities built into these Office apps will become a competitive advantage for companies that use them. And every company will end up paying for the premium tier of AI-powered Office apps so they can keep up with their competition.

----------

The integration of generative AI into Office apps will completely change the way we work. I can't wait to see how all of this unfolds...

Agreed. Especially around pink hydrogen, I feel like it doesn’t get enough attention

Oof. I definitely didn’t know about that. Seems like another reason why hydrogen cars aren’t ideal. I wonder why Toyota and Hyundai still plan on investing in them. Thanks for teaching me something new 🤝

I was aware of the challenges of hydrogen, like the high production costs of green hydrogen and why hydrogen isn't an ideal fuel to create electricity, but I didn't know how bad blue hydrogen is.

"In a peer-reviewed study, Cornell and Stanford researchers found that emissions from blue hydrogen production are only 9%-12% less than those from grey hydrogen. Blue hydrogen production also releases more methane than grey hydrogen, which traps 80 times more heat than CO2 during its first 20 years in the atmosphere (MIT)."

The article also discusses the storage and transportation challenges, and how much energy is lost when hydrogen is converted to be compressed as a gas or liquified, which can consume 10%-40% of its energy.

It was also interesting to learn how the steel manufacturing company in Sweden was using green hydrogen instead of coal.

One thing I don't hear enough about is pink hydrogen (made using nuclear power). Does anyone have any interesting readings or case studies on whether it's a viable path for hydrogen production?

Yep I looked at their website and it seems like only the motors are in the wheels and it just has a regular battery pack. Seems like a mistake by the author.

Lowest range model is 250 mi

Lowest range model is $25k for 250 miles of range based on their website

At first glance, the Aptera looks like the typical sci-fi concept car that gets paraded at car expos by the likes of Mercedes and BMW. But the design is the result of relentless optimization to make the most efficient EV possible. It came down to improving three elements: shape, weight, and charging features.
The shape is inspired by how sharks and other fish reshape their bodies when swimming close to the ocean floor to reduce their drag and conserve energy. After testing it in NASA’s wind tunnels, the Aptera turned out to have less drag than one side-view mirror on a pickup truck (according to the company). The EV also weighs 65% less because of the switch to carbon fibre materials and removing one of the wheels. And finally, the exterior is covered in solar panels that can recharge up to 40mi/60km per day.
I’m a big fan of the “less is more” approach here. It’s definitely not the perfect vehicle for every use case, but I can see this becoming an ideal commuter vehicle. Hopefully they can go from prototypes to large-scale production successfully and not run out of money. Apparently, they plan on making their first deliveries in the next few months.

From the article:

"Oil and gas producers Canada and Nigeria have become the latest countries to tackle the potent greenhouse gas methane with laws to rein in emissions in the fossil fuel energy sector.

The announcements came as the United States on Friday said it would expand its own rules to require oil and gas drillers to find and fix leaks of methane at all of the country's well sites.

Canada said its new rules would target a 75% cut in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 2030, including through a proposed monthly requirement for oil and gas companies to find and fix methane leaks in their infrastructure.

Nigeria, among the world's top 10 methane emitters, announced new rules for how to reduce emissions in its oil and gas industry. They include requirements for leak detection and repair, limits to flaring and controls on venting equipment."

​

I'm really glad to see more attention and enforcement on cutting methane emissions. Because methane warms the planet more than CO2 in the short term, reducing those emissions can help achieve the short-term emission goals we need to achieve by 2030 and by 2050. Obviously, we still need to cut CO2 emissions as well and this shouldn't be seen as an alternative. But this will have a significant impact in the short term once more countries impose similar laws and regulations.

"EV buses can help municipalities reduce emissions from transportation—the biggest source of CO2 emissions in the US—but they also present an opportunity to bolster the electrical grid through bidirectional charging programs that can turn buses into batteries. As a result, efforts to make use of electric buses as both transportation and battery storage are underway across the US—particularly in California, a leader in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) experiments.

In Beverly, Massachusetts, electric school buses provided 10 MWh of power back to the grid on 30 different occasions last summer, according to Highland Electric. For context, 10 MWh is more than enough energy to power a home in Massachusetts for an entire year, per SEIA data.

Montgomery County, Maryland, located outside of Washington, DC, is the most populous county in the state. Highland Electric has worked on five bus-charging depots there, some of which could support dense areas in the future, Leach said, although they are not yet connected for V2G."

I always thought bidirectional charging could help with renewable energy storage, but I never thought about the potential of using EV buses (school buses specifically) for V2G. I love the idea. School buses have a predictable schedule and they're parked most of the day, and the usage is very low during the summer. They could use that to power the school or the surrounding neighbourhood.

Are there any potential problems with this that I'm missing? I don't expect cities or neighbourhoods to completely rely on buses for electricity, but it sounds like a solid energy backup option.

NotCo, a food-tech startup born in Chile, is making a name for itself in the plant-based food industry. The company built Giuseppe, an AI system that creates plant-based recipes to replicate animal-based products like milk and burgers.

NotCo already sells milk, burgers, ice cream, and its other products across South America and North America. If you compared NotCo’s plant-based milk to regular milk, it uses 74% less energy and 92% less water to produce than regular milk. And it generates 74% less CO2.

Earlier this year, Kraft Heinz and NotCo announced a joint venture, the Kraft Heinz NotCo, which will develop co-branded plant-based products at scale. Kraft Heinz chefs and food scientists will get to use Giuseppe and create plant-based recipes for their famous mac & cheese, dressings, and other products.

As the food industry faces challenges including rising food demand, pressure to reduce emissions, and water shortages, a tool like Giuseppe can help them replicate their products while achieving those goals. Kraft Heinz also has the manufacturing scale to hopefully keep those alternatives affordable, because most people won't pay a premium for plant-based alternatives when we're already feeling the effects of inflation on our regular groceries.

What do you think of this partnership?

Announced a few months ago at NewFronts, Amazon and Peacock demonstrated new ad formats that use similar virtual product placement (VPP) tools, a post-production technique for inserting a brand into a TV show or movie scene.
Amazon presented its new VPP tool, currently operating in beta, that lets advertisers place their branded products directly into streaming content after they have already been filmed and produced. Meanwhile, Peacock’s new “In-Scene” ads will identify key moments within a show and digitally insert a brand’s customized messaging or product post-production so the brand is showcased in the right TV show/movie and at the right time.

The virtual product placement beta program has already been implemented in several Prime Video and Freevee original series such as “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “Bosch: Legacy,” the overall Bosch franchise, “Reacher” and “Leverage: Redemption.”

----------

This is really interesting from a tech perspective, but I wonder if the personalization of these ads could alter or feel out of place in a movie. Example: can a virtual billboard ad be a mismatch with the genre or historical timing of the movie or show?

It makes a lot of sense from a streamer's perspective. They want to invest in creating more content without charging people more because they will leave (*cough* Netflix *cough*). And many streaming services now offer ad-supported tiers so they don't lose as many subscribers.

From Amazon's perspective, I can see them building this technology to the point where they can provide it as a service to Netflix and Disney Plus (like they do with AWS).

What does everyone think of this?