Google AI Searches Will Quote Reddit; Apple Settles for $250 Million Over Siri AI Delay; Pennsylvania Sues Character.AI-Chatbots Posing as Doctors; Tech Biggies Bet Big Money on Ocean Based AI Data Centers

Now, more than ever, when you do a Google search…scroll down and look for ACTUAL sources! Theverge.com is reporting that Google AI with Gemini…the first thing you see now with a Google search…will give you the usual summary, but will also give ‘a preview of perspectives’ from firsthand sources like social media, Reddit, and other web forums, effectively linking your search queries with online conversations around similar topics. I don’t know about you, but I would trust information from the Mayo Clinic about a medical issue over some Redditor’s opinion! By building these features into its AI Search tools, Google is trying to encourage more users to try them instead of manually hunting through traditional web results in Google Search. Google says it’s also adding additional context to these new AI response links, such as the creator’s name, handle, or community name, to make those conversational sources easier to quickly identify. These firsthand sources are presented as “Expert Advice” in AI-powered Search results, and can point users to specific, specialized forums and subreddits they may wish to explore further. Again…go with the actual experts…doctors, lawyers, and other highly educated people rather than some individuals on social media when you are Googling an important topic. If you want an opinion on some musical act or sports team, then go for it and rely on social media!

Apple is settling a class action suit over its marketing of AI features before the launch of iPhone 16. According to techcrunch.com, the suit alleged that Apple exaggerated the breadth of features Apple Intelligence would bring, which included a significantly upgraded version of its assistant, Siri. We all know now that Siri is as dumb as ever…and in fact, Apple has partnered with Google to beef up Siri with Google’s Gemini AI. Apple will have to pay out $250 million, which won’t exactly dent their massive cash flow and valuation…but it is embarrassing to one of the worlds’s biggest corporations…and one that has prided itself about being more user friendly and on delivering more than expected normally. 

This is a scary thing to write and tell you about…Pennsylvania is suing AI startup Character.AI for offering chatbots that pretend to be licensed doctors. Governor Josh Shapiro announced the lawsuit on Tuesday, and Pennsylvania and its Board of Medicine are seeking an injunction that would force Character.AI to stop violating a state law governing the practice of medicine. Engadget.com notes that other states, including Texas, have investigations going concerning Character.AI and chatbots they host that masquerade as mental health professionals. The difference in the Pennsylvania suit is that it is aimed at the willingness of the company’s chatbots to claim to have a medical license, even going so far as offering a fake license number. This is chilling…just do what you need to do to see a real, in the flesh doctor. It’s great to have quick access and get medical help on demand…bur at this point, a chatbot is no substitute for a real doctor. The same goes for any other professional…you are much better off seeing a real psychologist, dentist, or attorney. Maybe a few hundred years from now, we will have robot doctors like in Star Wars attaching robot hands like Luke Skywalker got…but for the present time…see a human!

I can see pros and cons to this, but some powers in Silicon Valley like Peter Thiel…who started Palantir…are dumping big money…like a couple hundred million so far…into building AI data centers utilizing wave power in the middle of the world’s oceans. Arstechnica.com reports that $140 million has been pumped into a company called Panthalassa to build a pilot manufacturing plant near Portland, Oregon. Instead of sending renewable energy to a land-based data center, the floating nodes would directly power onboard AI chips and transmit inference tokens representing the AI models’ outputs to customers worldwide via satellite link. It doesn’t sound like much downside, but keep in mind that Panthalassa says in a statement “Ocean-based compute might offer a massive cooling advantage because the ambient temperature is so low. Land-based data centers use a lot of electricity and fresh water for cooling.” Obviously, a handful of these floating data centers would be no issue…but hundreds or thousands could warm the ocean just enough to effect climate change. Big tech is also looking to space for AI data centers…with the ultra low temperatures there for cooling plus lots of continuous solar power, there may be little down side. Lag time getting signals back to earth and the difficulty of repairs are the only two I can think of off hand.

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