Full Width 
Shortcuts 
Sign Up 
Log In 
Articles 
Reading List More from Essays - Benedict Evans
A quarter century after 'don't be evil', a judge has found that Google is abusing its monopoly in search. But no-one knows what happens next, and whether this ruling will change anything. Will Apple build a search engine? Will ChatGPT change search? Does it matter?
A quarter century after ‘don't be evil’ a judge has found that Google is abusing its monopoly in search. But no-one knows what happens next, and whether this ruling will change anything. Will Apple build a search engine? Will ChatGPT change search? Does it matter?
Hundreds of millions of people have tried ChatGPT, but most of them haven’t been back. Every big company has done a pilot, but far fewer are in deployment. Some of this is just a matter of time. But LLMs might also be a trap: they look like products and they look magic, but they aren’t. Maybe we have to go through the slow, boring hunt for product-market fit after all.
Meta has spent at least $50bn on VR and AR so far, but we’re still in the VR winter: the devices aren’t good enough or cheap enough and the user base is flat. But no matter how good the devices get, how many people will care?
More in startups
How a Chinese AI lab spun out of a hedge fund shook up the entire tech industry.
Patrick interviews me; the energy transition; Americans die young; family and fertility; educating the poor; AI and growth
The Chinese app has just “blown the roof off” and “shifted the power dynamics.”
Soundtrack: The Hives — Hate To Say I Told You So In the last week or so, but especially over the weekend, the entire generative AI industry has been thrown into chaos. This won’t be a lengthy, technical write-up — although there will be some inevitable technical complexities,
The Modi government has dedicated $1.2 billion to building the country’s AI capabilities, and U.S. firms are receiving a warm welcome.
