Good Morning! Google Cloud Next '23 unveiled a plethora of advancements in infrastructure, Vertex AI, and analytics, including the introduction of A3 virtual machines and Cloud TPUv5e, a significant growth in Vertex AI customer accounts, and enhanced governance capabilities in Dataplex. OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Enterprise, a business-centric version of its chatbot app, promising enhanced security, speed, and functionality tailored for corporate needs. Meanwhile, Microsoft faces backlash for its aggressive promotion of Bing in Windows 11, with users reporting intrusive pop-ups that resemble malware.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

Google Cloud Next '23: Key Updates

Google Cloud Next '23 showcased numerous updates and innovations in infrastructure, Vertex AI, analytics, and more. Here are the key highlights:

Infrastructure Updates

• Google Cloud announced the general availability of A3 virtual machines powered by NVIDIA H100 GPUs, designed for demanding generative AI workloads and large language models.

• Cloud TPUv5e, Google Cloud's most cost-efficient, versatile, and scalable purpose-built AI accelerator, was introduced for both large-scale AI training and inferencing.

Vertex AI Updates

• Vertex AI saw a 15x growth in customer accounts in the last quarter.

• New models were added to the platform, including Meta's Llama 2, Code Llama, and Technology Innovative Institute's Falcon LLM. Anthropic's Claude 2 will be added in the future.

• New tools and capabilities were introduced, such as model tuning, extensions, digital watermarking, and Colab Enterprise.

• Pre-built extensions for Cloud services like BigQuery and AlloyDB were announced, along with integration options for database partners like DataStax, MongoDB, and Redis.

Analytics Updates

• New governance capabilities in Dataplex were introduced for data lineage, quality, and metadata management.

• Privacy-centric connections, including BigQuery data clean rooms and Ads Data Hub for Marketers, were announced to help users understand their Google and YouTube campaign performance.

• Mandiant Hunt for Chronicle, a new service for analyzing security data and gaining support, was unveiled.

Generative AI and Other Announcements

• Duet AI, an AI-powered collaborator, was expanded in Google Cloud preview with new capabilities, with general availability coming later this year.

• New sustainability tools were introduced to help businesses and cities map environmental information.

• Google Cloud announced partnerships with various companies to add more datasets to Analytics Hub, which customers can use to build and train generative AI.

OpenAI Releases ChatGPT Enterprise

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Enterprise, a business-focused edition of its AI-powered chatbot app, offering enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, and customization options. This new offering aims to assist and elevate every aspect of working lives, making teams more creative and productive.

ChatGPT Enterprise offers several advantages over the consumer-facing version. It provides unlimited access to GPT-4 with no usage caps and up to two times faster performance. Moreover, it includes enterprise-level security and privacy features, such as data encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+), and SOC 2 compliance. OpenAI ensures that customer prompts or data are not used for training models.

In the future, OpenAI plans to introduce more features for enterprise users, including a ChatGPT Business offering for smaller teams, allowing companies to connect apps to ChatGPT Enterprise, more powerful and enterprise-grade versions of Advanced Data Analysis and web browsing, and tools designed for data analysts, marketers, and customer support.

The pricing for ChatGPT Enterprise is not provided upfront, but it is expected to be competitive, with the ChatGPT API costing $0.002 per 1,000 tokens, which is approximately 750 words. This pricing is 10 times lower than other GPT-3.5 models.

Microsoft's Aggressive Push for Bing in Windows 11

Microsoft has recently been using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to encourage users to switch from Google to Bing as their default search engine. These pop-ups have appeared over the top of apps and games, causing confusion and frustration among users who initially believed their systems were infected with malware.

The pop-ups have been reported to appear even when users are using Google Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge. In response to the backlash, Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, stated that the company is aware of the issue and has paused the notifications while they investigate and take appropriate action to address the unintended behavior.

This aggressive push for Bing has been met with criticism, as users feel that Microsoft is overreaching in its attempts to progoogmote its search engine. While Microsoft may be legally covered by various license agreements, the intrusive nature of these pop-ups has left a negative impression on many Windows 11 users.

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Apple's 2023 September Event: What to Expect

Apple's 2023 September event is scheduled for Tuesday, September 12, and it promises to be an exciting showcase of new products and updates. Here's a quick overview of what you can expect (rumors) at the event:

iPhone 15: The star of the show is expected to be the new iPhone 15. The new models are likely to feature a USB-C charging port, following the European Union's law requiring all mobile phones to use USB-C for wired charging. There are also reports suggesting that some of the new devices could be made of titanium.

Apple Watch Series 9: Apple is expected to announce new Apple Watch models, including the Apple Watch Series 9. The updates for the Apple Watch are anticipated to be relatively minor compared to the iPhone 15.

Other Products and Software Updates: While the focus will be on the new iPhones and Apple Watches, there might be other product announcements as well. Apple has already unveiled the Apple Vision Pro, a revolutionary spatial computer, at WWDC in June. Additionally, new features and updates are expected for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17.

Fun Fact

The First Video Game

Many people believe that the first video game was "Pong" or maybe "Space Invaders." However, the first video game ever created predates those by decades. In 1958, a physicist named William Higinbotham developed a game called "Tennis for Two" at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The game was displayed on an oscilloscope screen and allowed two players to control paddles and hit a ball back and forth, much like a game of tennis. It was a very basic game by today's standards, but it was revolutionary for its time and laid the groundwork for the video game industry we know today.

More Notes

1. Huawei’s Mystery Phone Rallies China in Fight Against US Curbs

2. Meta closes nearly 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ foreign influence campaign

3. Google Photos for iOS Gets 'Locked Folder' for Sensitive Snaps 

4. James Webb telescope captures clearest-ever image of Whirlpool galaxy

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