Amazon To Invest As Much As $4 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic (techcrunch.com) 15
Amazon has agreed to invest up to $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic, the two firms said, as the e-commerce group steps up its rivalry against Microsoft, Meta, Google and Nvidia in the fast-growing sector that many technologists believe could be the next great frontier. From a report: The e-commerce group said it will initially invest $1.25 billion for a minority stake in Anthropic, which like Google's Bard and Microsoft-backed OpenAI also operates an AI-powered, text analyzing chatbot. As part of the deal, Amazon said it has an option to increase its investment in Anthropic to a total of $4 billion.
Sounds like a panic-move (Score:2)
Will be interesting whether anything worthwhile results before the current (of many) AI hype is over again.
Re:Sounds like a panic-move (Score:4, Interesting)
I think the AI hype keeps rebouncing because, like VR, it's a fantasy, the fantasy of creation. But that framing is exactly the problem: because it is labeled "intelligence" -- so named in the 60s when the field was founded -- people expect human qualities, and the fake AI wares peddlers are eager to oblige.
But the circuits have no intelligence; they either have utility, or not. If instead the technology was called for what it is -- pattern recognition, pattern prediction (predictive "AI"), pattern regeneration (generative "AI"), I think there would be less hype and fewer fake AI wares, fewer bullshitters from the likes of the OpenAI leadership, fewer "AI" puff pieces from the Sequoias of the world who hope to profit from the hype.
Re: (Score:2)
I watch a lot of Youtube, and I've spotted quite a few channels that are entirely created by AI. It took me a while to figure out that it wasn't just the narration done with text-to-speech and the rest of the content thrown together by a lazy human, but the ENTIRE content is AI generated.
It takes a while but eventually you realize something: AI-generated content is deathly boring. It has a certain blandness, or constant evenness that simply becomes intolerable after a while. Watching a few videos of those c
Re: (Score:2)
That channel you posted looks like the bottom of every website (including slashdot) when adblock is disabled. Nothing but clickbait drivel to feed ads.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah it's total garbage. But it's one of the most obvious "mechanical turk" channels I've found.
It is very trash though, and quite painful to watch if you have an education.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's what I'm saying: it's not written anywhere. But watch enough of it and you'll know: between the subtles but totally inane - actually inhuman - inconsistencies, the totally frozen format, the totally frozen delivery and the general bore of it all, at some point you come to the conclusion that a machine made this. No human can be this perfectly boring all the time and make those subtle mistakes.
It's actually quite fascinating to see machines trying to mimic humans. It's drives you nut after a while, bu
Re: (Score:2)
For me the best metaphor for generative AI's "creative" abilities is one actual ChatGPT application that lets you chat with a deceased loved one: mechanical thoughts from the grave, made out of frozen, ground and reconstituted fragments.
AI is dead.
Re: (Score:2)
"The fantasy of creation". Nice, I like it. Captures well what is going on. Fully agree to the rest of your comment as well.
Re:Sounds like a panic-move (Score:4, Interesting)
There is one big difference between the "VR hype" and the "AI hype."
VR is still looking for its killer app. The hype was the surgeons could use VR to assist in surgical procedures, that researchers could use it to do microscopic exploration, that pilots could fly planes remotely without danger tothemselves, and so on. Some of these use cases exist, but are very limited, none of these use cases touch you and me on a daily basis.
By contrast, AI is already assisting millions of software developers, saving them time. It has also become valuable to business people who need to summarize documents or craft a job description.
We who use ChatGPT don't care whether it's actually "artificial intelligence." What we care about, is that it's useful to us.
off-limits topics (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Was this generated by AI?
Brilliant Pun avoided (Score:2)
Damn shame this wasnâ(TM)t a Microsoft venture, MS Anthropic would have been hilarious.
And feed it Amazon's purchasing and search data? (Score:2)
The machine can paint a good idea of who you are based upon your buying and search history.
Well.... (Score:1)
...I guess we know what they're doing with all that $ from the +$3/mo charge to not see commercials?