Daily Authority: 🕶️ Microsoft steals the coolness from Google

👋 Good morning everyone, and have a nice Friday! I am currently experiencing the second six-hour unplanned power outage in the last 24 hours. I trust your day is going much better!

Microsoft is the new Google

The generative AI era has brought some surprises. No one would have believed that ChatGPT And GPT-4 would take off as they have. It seems that Google is also surprised. In our editorial today, my colleague Hadlee Simons argues that Microsoft has now replaced Google as the cool company, bursting with promise and ideas.

• This is a huge flip from a few months ago.
• Let’s not forget that Microsoft is responsible for uncool features like Bing, Internet Explorer, and Windows.
• However, since putting its weight behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT project, Microsoft has seemingly reclaimed some street cred from Google.

From stuffy to trendy

• Google itself tried to cancel Microsoft’s launch BinChat with bard. Thanks to a blatant error, the latter had a more than disappointing demo.
• It would take another six weeks for Google to get a Bard beta program.
• Usually, Microsoft is the slow mover in the tech space.
• “That’s not to say that every AI effort from Microsoft is a hit, as the Image Creator in particular is based GIVE HER and struggles a bit behind rival efforts like MidJourney,” Hadlee writes.
• However, he notes that Microsoft now seems unafraid to move too quickly and break things.
• Meanwhile, Google continues to limit its Bard beta program to a few countries, muffling any excitement about its launch.

Backlog as an advantage

• Interestingly, Microsoft’s position in the market may have contributed to the new philosophy.
• “Bing is a very distant second, the Cortana assistant died a slow death, and the company’s mobile devices were unpolished junk as usual.”
• However, discovering a gap in the market allowed Microsoft to act with greater abandon to overtake Google in the segment.
• If he doesn’t respond, he could fall even further behind.
• In addition, Google’s top rankings in search, virtual assistants, and mobile operating systems means it has more to lose with generative AI.
• “Proceed quickly with a response, and, well, you seemingly get that bad first Bard demo.”

The more you look at the burgeoning generative AI field, the more it feels like Microsoft is the Google of the 2000s. Do you agree? Tell us what you think here.

🤡 Tomorrow is April 1, which most of us are probably looking forward to. We have no idea why we’re marking this date on the calendar to hand out jokes, but one of mine favorite Wikipedia pages is the list of jokes over the years.

• Reportedly, a group of students in the 1950s, sick of poor services in Sao Paulo, somehow elected a rhinoceros to the city council. Unfortunately she was disqualified.
• A decade later came the Swedish channel SVT duped people putting nylon stockings over their monochrome TVs to get a color image.
• In the 80s, a hoax claimed Great Blue Hill, Norfolk County, was erupting. The fake news bulletin caused shock waves (of panic) in the surrounding area. It also caused the news’s then-executive producer to be fired. Justifiably.
• When Twitter was still a relatively healthy social network, National Geographic tweeted that they would no longer post images of naked animals.
• Remember when Google Nose was a thing? In 2013, the company “launched” a “new fragrance” for people who really like the smell of wet dog, horse manure, and locker rooms. See the promo video above.

Remember, joke responsibly!