How AI works at Google

This week I read the Google 10-k. I also finished Will & Ariel Durants Lessons of History. It’s a strange book to read (made me uncomfrotable at times), but was fascinating. A great reminder from the book:

Why Google still exists

Google is probably the most important company in the world. Everyone uses search. Many entertain themselves with YouTube. No one questions the value it brings to society. However, many feel like the core search business finally sees a worthy competitor from Open AI.

That being said, Google is still the 800 pound Gorilla to be beaten when it comes to AI technologies. Here are some quick hits on how they’re keeping so far ahead

YouTube

YouTube throws off more profit than Netflix. YOUTUBE IS WORTH MORE THAN NETFLIX. Instead of buying content, like Netflix does, YouTube pays creators a fee for views based on advertisements. This means they have better payment terms for their content.

YouTube’s growth is stagnant based on their results the previous year, but most of that was attributed to changes in foreign exchange rates. Overall, YouTube has about 25% of the worlds population as daily active users. This in and of itself is one of the worlds largest companies.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud is a rockstar. Just recently I deployed some code on it and while the process was terrible… I got to see why it’s growing. You can do everything on it.

Not only is the Infrastructure layer growing, but it grew 28% from the previous year. This is happening for 2 major reasons:

1. Compute loads get more intensive as compute costs decrease due to technology innovation

2. Google Workspace. So many people run their businesses on top of Google

As more businesses come online and compute continues to become cheaper, this line item will continue to grow.

DeepMind

As an AI nerd by training, I love DeepMind. It’s done so much interesting stuff, like optimise electricity costs or tickle your dopamine receptors to draw you into YouTube rabbit holes.

DeepMind is now being integrated into every part of Google’s business. That means that they will look to use AI to build an advantage in every piece of the business they can. As one example, they used DeepMind to optimise electricity costs in their cloud facilities.

What’s important is that for the first time, Google sees it as a part of their general business, not “Other Bets.” This means that AI is now a core part of Google’s operating structure.

Articles

The world’s peak population may be smaller than expected

Very interesting article about population decline. It seems like the sources of population growth are decelerating faster than we thought they would. One example is Nigeria, which is now projected to have 530 million people by 2100, instead of the 850 million projected decades ago. Fertility rates are falling, but what does that mean?

Does this imply that the population growth story is over and that we may only be able to grow economies with technology. Or that contraction is possible? This is bad for an economy, but not necessarily for people. Economies project consistent growth… why? Who knows? So decreases in growth are important to watch. Definitely an interesting story to pay attention to

Nvidia is not the only firm cashing in on the AI gold rush

This article goes into depth on a few of the other players in the AI industry that should see large gains in their market cap. Some of these include the networking sector, Chip production etc..

Just to note, Nvidia also sold about $10 billion of their own stock. As I said last week, this is another signal that the stock is overvalued

What I learned

People will always do what they cannot not do

This week I called a mentor of mine. We talked about technology, and he told me about some observations he had made about people.

He then proceeded to smack me over the head with this double negative gem.

You will always follow your interests, and can only fake it for so long. Act accordingly. Oh wait… you can’t control how you act. Better said… DECIDE ACCORDINGLY.