AI Coming to Google Search Soon; Elon Must Plays Both Sides-Founds New AI Co; Sega Close to Buying Angry Birds Maker; Apple Launches High Yield Apple Savings Account

After Microsoft added artificial intelligence to its Bing search engine, Google went into high gear. 9to5google.com reports that the Alphabet owned search giant was already well into developing their own AI, called Magi, and now will be releasing the first stage of their AI search features ‘imminently.’ As if to show how nervous Google is about getting left behind…their CEO Sundar Pichai did a long interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes last night. Magi will allow Search to “answer questions about software coding and write code based on a user’s request,” which Google has the technology for with PaLM. Users will have the ability to ask follow-up questions, while it would feature ads under generated results. Google presently has a team of 160 working full time on the AI project. Look for the first wave of features in May, with another by fall.

After joining in with other tech leaders calling for putting the brakes on artificial intelligence until some guard rails are set up, we find out that Elon Musk has started a new company called X.AI. According to theverge.com it was just incorporated last month in Nevada. There had been rumors that Musk was planning to get into generative AI…strengthened when he recently bought thousands of graphic processing units. So while Elon has been openly opposed to OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018, he’s apparently gearing up to be a competitor. 

Game maker Sega is apparently close to closing a deal to by Rovio Entertainment, the makers of the Angry Birds mobile games for a billion dollars. Reuters.com says the deal could be finalized this week. Sega has outbid an Israeli game company that had tried to purchase Rovio for $750 million. Talks with that company, Playtika, ended in January. 

It was announced with some fanfare last year, and now Apple has gone live with its so-called high-yield savings account…called, shockingly, Apple Savings. The account is available to Apple Card users, who can route Daily Cash rewards from using the Apple Card into a 4.15% savings account. Apple says that the 4.15% APY rate is “more than 10 times the national average.” The company also says that Apple Savings has “no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements.” The savings account is administered by Goldman Sachs, the same firm as the Apple Card. 

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.