Microsoft deal, Apple-Google talks show tech giants need artificial intelligence help

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Earlier this week, Microsoft Corp. named artificial intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman chief of its consumer AI business and hired most of the staff from his Inflection AI startup. A day before, Bloomberg reported that Alphabet Inc.'s Google was in talks to license its Gemini AI engine to Apple Inc.

The moves suggest that despite pouring billions of dollars into partnerships, investments and product development, Microsoft and Google are struggling to figure out how to capitalize on generative artificial intelligence. Neither company is moving fast enough to field consumer products that generate revenue and grab market share, and, despite their size and power, they remain vulnerable to being disrupted.

Even as engineers labor to perfect the large language models undergirding the technology, the companies are forming alliances and scouring the world for talent and promising startups.

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Forging a leading position in generative AI requires each of the tech giants to assemble various ingredients—computing power, top-of-the-line AI models, trustworthy and easy-to-use products and ways of getting them to people. None of the tech giants has all of the ingredients. Google, once the pioneer in large language models, keeps releasing products with worrying errors and biases. Microsoft got a head start with exclusive access to many of OpenAI's ground-breaking models, but has never been skilled at building exciting consumer products besides video games.

Apple is years behind in artificial intelligence and, to shore up its capabilities in China, the company is in exploratory talks with Baidu Inc. about using the Chinese company's AI technology in devices sold there, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. On the plus side, Apple sells the world's most popular smartphone, and its App Store serves as a distribution platform for millions of apps. The company plans to announce an AI