TECHNOLOGY: 𝙄𝙨 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝘿𝙤𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙙? 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙚𝙘𝙝 𝙂𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙁𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙆𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝘽𝙈?

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗞𝗼𝗱𝗮𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆

Eastman Kodak Company incorporated in 1892 to market the Kodak film camera jointly developed by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong - was in its hay-day - one of the most iconic American companies. For a century until 1990s, the company ruled the imaging world with their world beating Kodak consumer cameras and film which brought the joys of photography to millions around the world.

"Kodak Moments" the slogan of the Kodak Company's marketing campaigns in the 1980s is referred to in dictionaries today as "𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩...."

Unfortunately for Kodak, the same beautiful slogan is now an informal business term for a "𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵-𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘤𝘺..."

Kodak invented the digital camera, helped NASA to take digital photos on the moon, but ignored the technology to protect its film camera and film roll business which was raking in millions at the time. However, the Japanese rivals Nikon and Canon saw the potential of the digital image sensor in photography and... the rest as they say is history. 

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜𝗕𝗠 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹, 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 & 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗶𝘁.

In 1981, IBM launched the PC and by 1984, IBM's revenue from the PC market was $4 billion, more than twice that of Apple. A 1983 study of corporate customers found that two thirds of large customers standardizing on one computer chose the PC, while only 9% chose Apple. A 1985 Fortune survey found that 56% of American companies with personal computers used PCs while 16% used Apple.

However, IBM Ignored the Operating Software aspect of it and allowed Microsoft to steal the market and mint Billions with is MS DOS and later with Microsoft Windows. IBM lost the hardware market to clone makers from the far east, especially from Taiwan and China. Eventually, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2004.

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀

Google had been working on AI applications for years. At Google IO event in 2011, Google introduced its first iteration of voice search powered by AI, allowing users to search using spoken language. From that point onwards, Google kept announcing various AI initiatives, advanced AI technologies and products at each successive Google IO event. However, since November 2022, when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public, Google it seems had been playing catch-up

𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗟𝗟𝗠𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿.

Analysts as well as a large percentage of current and ex-Google employees feel that Google led by Sundar Pichai is really afraid to admit that their cash-cow Search and revenue stream linked to Search is mortally threatened by LLMs.

It is as certain as day and night that once people get hooked on getting their information through a LLM query, people will cease to use transitional search which directs them to a website and paid-sponsored sites and links.

Google it seems still hasn't figured out a business model of earning revenue through a LLM based query.

As such, even though Google has been investing massively in AI since at least 2010, people feel that Google will lose its edge to others like OpenAI.