Original link: https://pt.plus/05-21-2023-boring/

This week’s theme is Boring Flat.

The origin was read on Ben Thompson’s newsletter:

This is why I think that Pichai’s “boring” opening was a great thing. No, there wasn’t the belligerence of early Google I/Os, insisting that Android could take on the iPhone. And no, there wasn’t the grand vision of Nadella last week, or the excitement of an Apple product unveiling. What there was was a sense of certainty and almost comfort: Google is about organizing the world’s information, and given that Pichai believes the future is about artificial intelligence, specifically the machine learning variant that runs on data, that means that Google will succeed in this new world simply by being itself. That is the best place to be, for a person and for a company.

In my opinion, Pichai’s “flat” opening is a good thing. No, not as aggressively as the early Google I/O, insisting that Android can challenge Apple. Nor was there the grand vision Nadella had last week, nor the excitement of Apple’s product announcements. However, what we feel is a certainty and a sense of comfort: Google is committed to organizing the world’s information, and Pichai believes that the future will be dominated by artificial intelligence, especially machine learning based on data, which means that Google only needs to be itself. to succeed in this new world. This is the ideal situation for both individuals and companies.

Certainty and comfort, how do you feel when these two words come into view? I believe that the neocortex of the brain has started to work, associating many sensory images related to it, whether it is a soft and spacious sofa, or a delicate and delicious meal, everyone feels differently, but the same way leads to the same goal, we all produce similar feelings.

In Thompson’s narrative, this feeling is also tied to the “flat” feeling. The annual press conference and the vision that has not changed in ten years have built an indestructible ritual. Every repetition is like painting a new layer of oil paint on the ancient city wall. Indeed, the sense of anticipation in the past comes from the sense of surprise that may burst out at any time. It may be shaken out at a certain moment during multiple rehearsals, leaving everyone stunned, and looking forward to the next surprise in a blink of an eye.

There has been no challenger for too long, or the challenger has not tasted the joy of even a small victory for too long. The situation is too stable, and the media, which is stable enough to be a good thing, has begun to label these press conferences as “Spring Festival Gala”. What does that mean? Is it to express its grand status, or is it like complaining about its lackluster status?

As early as 2014, Google spent 400 million US dollars to acquire Deepmind, and Pichai set Google’s corporate strategy on AI first seven years ago. At the same time, it released the foundational model of Transformer, which has also become The basis for large language models such as GPT. Who knows, the first mover may not come first. At this year’s I/O conference, Google rarely played the role of a catcher.

The role change, on the contrary, brought a sense of freshness that had been absent for a long time. The bland smell of sourness was gone in an instant, and the air was filled with the restlessness of combatants, surrounded by spectators and eager bettors. High risk and high return are back in front of us, just like what some young people discussed passionately one night more than ten years ago.

People always seem to want to get rid of the ordinary, and freshness is only for a moment.

Faye Wong sings:

Come in September, dull and boring.

In this week’s newsletter, we will explore how the ordinary and the fresh intertwined in this world.

Essays

Why Chatbots Are Not the Future by Amelia Wattenberger

Amelia Wattenberger is the Principal Research Engineer of GitHub Next , mainly responsible for some AI/ML exploratory projects. In this article, she shares some thoughts on AI/ML user interface.

As an engineer with a background in user interface design, she realized that a good tool is one that articulates how they should be used, and more importantly, how they should not be used.

If we think about a good pair of gloves, it’s immediately obvious how we should use them. They’re hand-shaped! We put them on our hands. And the specific material tells us more: metal mesh gloves are for preventing physical harm, Rubber gloves are for preventing chemical harm, and leather gloves are for looking cool on a motorcycle.

A pair of good gloves, we know how to use them immediately: they are designed according to the shape of the hand, we put them on the hands; the material also tells us more: metal mesh gloves to prevent physical injury, rubber gloves to protect against chemical damage, Leather gloves are a cool look while riding a motorcycle.

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