The Front Page is a good watch for all Walter Matthau-Jack Lemmon fans. It’s a black comedy, involving newspaper men, who will stop at nothing to get a (their) story printed.
Matthau plays the scheming, 1920s Chicago tabloid newspaper editor Walter Burns, who is just about to make a splash around the hanging of a convict, Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Lemmon stars as the star reporter Hildy Johnson, who had enough of his job and boss, calls it quits and make plans to marry Peggy Grant (Susan Sarandon) and start an advertising career in Philadelphia. Walter has to do everything in his capacity to manipulate Hildy to cover this one last story. Things go berserk, when convict Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton) escapes from death row just prior to his execution..
Here’s an excellent video on the launch of new Bing, powered with an improved ChatGPT features. One cannot but appreciate the pace at which Microsoft rolled out this new version and even gave a sneak peak into how it integrates into the overall MS ecosystem. Right now it is not available to everyone and there is wailist that one needs get on it (Shucks!) but here are a few takeaways with the associated screen grabs.
Pic 1.
Search queries analysis, where the bulk goes into Navigational and Informational. Existing search does a decent job of these two, while everything else is an open field for new players.
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Everything else category in search is right now vertical driven. Example Amazon that focuses on shopping related. This is where Generative AI can play a big role in integrating all these into a single window for the user.
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The Prometheus Model of Bing and its value chain. Using its search index (which is further improved by AI) it would improve relevancy and retrieve up-to-date results. And in a chat window will deliver conversations with annotated answers which are location specific. All these delivered under a safety umbrella guided by its AI principles and values.
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Why Bing? Ipproved search built on Core Fundamentals (Perfected over the years and AI impoved), Integration of Chat (Pumped up ChatGPT), Prompt Generation embedded in MS tools (Clippy’s huge makeover on the anvil), Improved Interactive and hosted on world class infrastructure (Azure Cloud).
Pic 5
Safety first at various levels. Model tuning with enough flags based on zillions of test interactions, Real time layer that derives from the model and also learns continuously, and ability to build safeguards in the application level using the existing meta language.
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The forever learning process of Bing, through its daily usage, the analysis aided by OpenAI , the improvements being fed to Prometheus model, and in turn improvements being passed on in the next user interaction.
Here is the full video.
The Bing thing
Tailpiece: Satya Nadella mentions in WSJ interview that making money out of the new Bing will start the accepted way of advertising (dominated by the 800 pound Gorilla-Google) and take it from there. (Cloud subscription, product based subscription etc…on the cards?)
Tailpiece: If you grew up watching Doordarshan in 80s, you would certainly remember these ads of Gold Spot, ‘The Zing Thing’. Here is a sample ad.
Tailpiece: Prometheus in Greek Mythology
In some versions of the myth, he (Prometheus) is also credited with the creation of humanity from clay. Prometheus is known for his intelligence and for being a champion of mankind, and is also generally seen as the author of the human arts and sciences.[4] He is sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion, the hero of the flood story. (Source: Wikipedia)
“The Professionals” (1966) is a Western adventure film with top-notch characters and cinematography. Similar to “The Magnificent Seven,” it features four individuals with unique skills who come together for a mission.
The film follows wealthy man Joe Grant as he hires a team of soldiers of fortune to rescue his kidnapped wife Maria. The team, led by Henry Fardan, includes Bill Dolworth, Hans Ehrengard, and Jake Sharp. They journey through dangerous Mexican terrain and must use their skills to retrieve Maria and survive the trip back.
The film draws inspiration from the Mexican Revolution and includes themes of deceit and betrayal. With a rousing score by Maurice Jarre, the film features nonstop action and twists, leading to a satisfying conclusion. The film received three Academy Award nominations in 1966, including for Best Direction and Screenplay. “The Professionals” was a hit in 1966 and marked a successful period for lead actor Lee Marvin.
