Microsoft and OpenAI, Google losing $100bn from a bad demo, layoffs, cost cutting pressure to innovate again... I feel the days of full openness in AI research from corporations are over.
OpenAI's "win" wasn't even so much in the research but in the design of ChatGPT as an interface. Its own model makes the same kinds of egregious mistakes as google and FB's own LLMs. Also, OpenAI was willing to just deal with the ethical fallout of releasing it into the wild with the ability to generate authoritative sounding falsehoods.
I suspect we're going to go back to a period soon where a lot of the innovation we're seeing is around interfaces and infra to make interacting with LLMs natural and applying them to product use cases where they make sense.
Microsoft and Google are a different story, they're specifically pushing these as authoritative sources of information. If we hadn't had access to ChatGPT and the ability to learn it's ins and outs, it might have taken longer to expose so may of the flaws in the Microsoft and Google services.
Naturally, as predictions go, don't quote me on that. I was wrong before.
The situation here is not comparable.
The endgame for this AI race is obvious and when it comes to AI models, open-source ones always disrupt fully closed source AI companies.
But first, we'll see which 'AI companies' will survive the lawsuits, regulations and fierce competition for funding.