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Comment by lateforwork | Hacker News Reader

Go to https://copilot.com and ask a question. You can see from the answer that it is clearly for entertainment only. Three years ago Microsoft was considered a leader for having the foresight to invest in OpenAI. Today they are a laggard.

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On the contrary, the first companies to acknowledge the new AI Winter will have a big competitive advantage over those still dumping money into the bottomless pit.

My local ice cream shop has never invested anything in AI. Do you think they'll come out of this ahead?

I've seen the "success" a non-software company has been having, trying to integrate AI into their processes. A hypothetical competitor who chose not to do so would absolutely be coming out ahead right now.

I can't say whether this trend would continue, but the answer to your question today is "yes".

Genuinely curious, what could an LLM even do for an ice cream shop? Checkout already takes less time than scooping a cone, and it's even quicker with cash. Maybe it could surveil the customers and employees? But I think that will lose you more customers than it gains.

Generally I would expect the ROI to be negative, like we've seen with most corporate AI projects, so yeah any ice cream shop that didn't invest in "AI" is going to come out ahead of one that poured money into the pit.

There's more to AI than LLMs.

My local ice cream shop doesn't even have a computer in the building. Well, unless you count the credit card terminal.

Ice cream tends not to sell well in winter.

New York City seems to be a counterexample - gelato and ice cream stores everywhere that seem to do decent trade year-round...

Alas, no winter in my locality ever.

People still believing in AI being a temporary thing are the same ones refusing to get a mobile phone in the late 90s. Stating it wasn't needed and just a nice to have.

Ok, so that’s good for Apple.

Microsoft is invested heavily in OpenAI?

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