Artificial Intelligence: Now Coming to a Google Product Near You

It was a big week for Google as it wrapped up its annual developer conference Google I/O in Mountain View, California, with news on rolling out generative AI into nearly all of its products. And if the company's sharp uptick in stock price is anything to go by, the messaging seems to have worked.

Google has been relegated to second place after Microsoft's ultra success with OpenAI's ChatGPT. In fact, so successful has Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI been, that the company is already rolling in profits. This has made Google uncomfortable, causing Sundar Pichai to declare an emergency and Larry Page and Sergey Brin to return to the company. Throughout this period, sharks have been swirling around Pichai, especially after Google's fumble with Bard, which was supposedly designed to compete against ChatGPT but failed spectacularly during its demonstration.

Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Pichai and his team announced new capabilities designed to "one up" Microsoft and to regain its dominance in the tech industry. Here's a recap of what Google announced. The highlights include: the introduction of AI in Google's Workspace (Google Docs, Slides, Etc.), an experimental AI that turns text into music, and a code completion and code generation tool called Codey.

Pichai also spoke to The Verge after the event, giving more details about the company's direction and the ethics surrounding the use of AI in both, the personal life and the workplace.

Google ranked #8 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings this week. Microsoft was ranked #1.

Apple says "Vì dân, vì nước" in Vietnam after chanting "Jai Hind" in India 🇻🇳 🤝 🇮🇳

Apple wants to go global, and CEO Tim Cook has just the right markets in mind.

As part of the company's plan to expand, Tim Cook has been flirting with emerging markets in a bid to woo customers away from Google-dominated Android phones and shepherding them into the iOS ecosystem.

Just weeks after opening physical Apple stores in India's Mumbai and Delhi, the company has now announced the launch of an online store in Vietnam, taking the same path it did in India, where it opened an online store first before going physical.

Apple's focus on emerging markets is meant to offset a decline in sales from mainland China (which Cook is a big fan of). The company recently extended its lead over Microsoft as the world's most valuable business after it reported its earnings, which, while not necessarily better than before, were still nothing to scoff at. In fact, the results were much better than expected, causing investors to rally towards Apple stock and increasing the market cap of the iPhone maker by a cool $100 billion.

Apple launched the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus in September last year, boasting a slew of features and a better battery life. Reviews of the phones were positive, though criticism was aimed at the incremental improvement from the iPhone 13 line of phones.

Apple ranked #11 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings.

In Other News.. 📰

• The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance is leaving Canada amid new regulations and is looking to cut founder Changpeng Zhao's stake in its U.S. subsidiary, giving credence to a recently published article on HackerNoon about the rise of Coinbase at the expense of Binance. Binance ranked #26 on HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings this week, while Coinbase ranked #35.
• A new report by NBC News says OpenAI is severely underpaying the contractors responsible for helping train ChatGPT by doing the grunt work of labeling data.
• Twitter is introducing new services allowing users to voice and video chat. The company is also launching a service that lets users of the platform send encrypted messages.
• Google-parent Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai will meet European Commission deputy chief Vera Jourova and EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Brussels on May 24.

And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️

— Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon