Google: Simplicity Is Not a Core Competency
August 18, 2025
This blog post is the work of an authentic dinobaby. Sorry. No smart software can help this reptilian thinker.
Telegram Messenger is reasonably easy to use messaging application. People believe that it is bulletproof, but I want to ask, “Are you sure?” Then there is WhatsApp, now part of Darth Zuck’s empire. However, both of these outfits appear to be viewed as obtuse and problematic by Kremlin officials. The fix? Just ban these service. Banning online services is a popular way for a government to “control” information flow.
I read a Russian language article about an option some Russians may want to consider. The write up’s title is “How to Replace Calls on WhatsApp and Telegram. Review of the Google Meet Application for Android and iOS.”
I worked through the write up and noted this statement:
Due to the need to send invitation links Meet is not very convenient for regular calls— and most importantly it belongs to the American company Google, whose products, by definition, are under threat of blocking. Moreover, several months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself called for «stifling» Western services operating in Russia, and instructed the Government to prepare a list of measures to limit them by September 1, 2025.
The bulk of the write up is a how to. In order to explain the process of placing a voice call via the Google system, PCNews presented:
- Nine screenshots
- These required seven arrows
- One rectangular box in red to call attention to something. (I couldn’t figure out what, however.)
- Seven separate steps.
How does one “do” a voice call in Telegram Messenger. Here are the steps:
- I opened Telegram mini app and select the contact with whom I want to speak
- I tap on my contact’s name
- I look for the phone call icon and tap it
- I choose “Voice Call” from the options to start an audio call. If I want to make a video call instead, I select “Video Call”
One would think that when a big company wants to do a knock off of a service, someone would check out what Telegram does. (It is a Russian audience due to the censorship in the country.) Then the savvy wizard would figure out how to make the process better and faster and easier. Instead the clever Googlers add steps. That’s the way of the Sundar & Prabhakar Comedy Show.
Stephen E Arnold, August 18, 2025
The Early Bird Often Sings Alone
August 17, 2025
Mathematicians, computer developers, science-fiction writers, etc. smarter than the average human have known for decades that computers would outpace human intelligence. Computers have actually been capable of this since the first machine printed its initial binary 01. AI algorithms are the next evolution of computers and they can do research, explore science, and extrapolate formulas beyond all the last known recorded digit of PI.
Future House explains how its Robin the AI system is designed to automate scientific discovery: “Demonstrating End-To-End Scientific Discovery With Robin: A Multi-Agent System.” Future House developed AI agents that automated different segments of the discovery process, but Robin is the first unified system that does everything. Robin’s inventors automated the scientific process and used the new system to make a generated discovery by using the past AI agents.
They asked Robin to:
“We applied Robin to identify ripasudgl, a Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibitor clinically used to treat glaucoma, as a novel therapeutic candidate for dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD), a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.”
Robin did follow the scientific process. It made an initial hypothesis, but mechanized investigation instead of doing things the old-fashioned way, and then it made a discovery. Everything was done by Robin the AI system:
“All hypotheses, experiment choices, data analyses, and main text figures in the manuscript describing this work were generated by Robin autonomously. Human researchers executed the physical experiments, but the intellectual framework was entirely AI-driven.”
Robins creators are happy with their progress:
“By automating hypothesis generation, experimental planning, and data analysis in an integrated system, Robin represents a powerful new paradigm for AI-driven scientific discovery. Although we first applied Robin to therapeutics, our agents are general-purpose and can be used for a wide variety of discoveries across diverse fields—from materials science to climate technology. “
Mathematicians are chugging away at AI development, including number theorists. Listen to Curt Jaimungal’s podcast episode, “The AI Math That Left Number Theorists Speechless” and within the first five minutes you’ll have an understanding of where AI is at being very smart. Here’s the summary: it’s beyond human comprehension.
Whitney Grace, August 17, 2025
Remember the Metaverse
August 17, 2025
This blog post is the work of an authentic dinobaby. Sorry. No smart software can help this reptilian thinker.
The “Metaverse” was Mark Zuckerberg’s swing and a miss in the virtual world video game. Alphabet is rebooting the failed world says Ars Technica, “Meta’s “AI Superintelligence” Effort Sounds Just Like Its Failed ‘Metaverse.’” Zuckerberg released a memo in which he hyped the new Meta Superintelligence Labs. He described it as “the beginning of a new era for humanity.” It sounds like Zuckerberg is described his Metaverse from a 2021 keynote address.
The Metaverse exists but not many people use it outside of Meta employees who actively avoid using certain features. It’s possible that the public hasn’t given Zuckerberg enough time to develop the virtual world. But when augmented reality uses a pair of ugly coke bottle prototype glasses that cost $10000, the average person isn’t going to log in. To quote the article:
“Today, those kinds of voices of internal skepticism seem in short supply as Meta sets itself up to push AI in the same way it once backed the metaverse. Don’t be surprised, though, if today’s promise that we’re at "the beginning of a new era for humanity" ages about as well as Meta’s former promises about a metaverse where "you’re gonna be able to do almost anything you can imagine."
Zuckerberg is blah blah-ing and yada yada-ing about the future of AI and how it will change society. Society won’t either adapt, can’t afford the changes, or the technology is too advanced to replicate on a large scale. But there is Apple with its outstanding google-headset thing.
One trick ponies do one trick. Yep. Big glasses.
Whitney Grace, August 17, 2025
The HR Gap: First in Line, First Fooled
August 15, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby being a dinobaby.
Not long ago I spoke with a person who is a big time recruiter. I asked, “Have you encountered any fake applicants?” The response, “No, I don’t think so.”
That’s the problem. Whatever is happening in HR continuing education, deep fake spoof employees is not getting through. I am not sure there is meaningful “continuing education” for personnel professionals.
I mention this cloud of unknowing in one case example because I read “Cloud Breaches and Identity Hacks Explode in CrowdStrike’s Latest Threat Report.” The write up reports:
The report … highlights the increasingly strategic use of generative AI by adversaries. The North Korea-linked hacking group Famous Chollima emerged as the most generative AI-proficient actor, conducting more than 320 insider threat operations in the past year. Operatives from the group reportedly used AI tools to craft compelling resumes, generate real-time deepfakes for video interviews and automate technical work across multiple jobs.
My first job was at Nuclear Utilities Services (an outfit soon after I was hired became a unit of Halliburton. Dick Cheney, Halliburton, remember?). One of the engineers came up to me after I gave a talk about machine indexing at what was called “Allerton House,” a conference center at the University of Illinois decades ago. The fellow liked my talk and asked me if my method could index technical content in English. I said, “Yes.” He said, “I will follow up next week.”
True to his word, the fellow called me and said, “I am changing planes at O’Hare on Thursday. Can you meet me at the airport to talk about a project? I was teaching part time at Northern Illinois University and doing some administrative work for a little money. Simultaneously I was working on my PhD at the University of Illinois. I said, “Sure.” DeKalb, Illinois, was about an hour west of O’Hare. I drove to the airport, met the person whom I remember was James K. Rice, an expert in nuclear waste water, and talked about what I was doing to support my family, keep up with my studies, and do what 20 years olds do. That is to say, just try to survive.
I explained the indexing, the language analysis I did for the publisher of Psychology Today and Intellectual Digest magazines, and the newsletter I was publishing for high school and junior college teachers struggling to educate ill-prepared students. As a graduate student and family, I explained that I had information and wanted to make it available to teachers facing a tough problem. I remember his comment, “You do this for almost nothing.” He had that right.
End of meeting. I forgot about nuclear and went back to my regular routine.
A month later I got a call from a person named Nancy who said, “Are you available to come to Washington, DC, to meet some people?” I figured out that this was a follow up to the meeting I had at O’Hare Airport. I went. Long story short: I dumped my PhD and went to work for what is generally unknown; that is, Halliburton is involved in things nuclear.
Why is this story from the 1970s relevant? The interview process did not involve any digital anything. I showed up. Two people I did not know pretended to care about my research work. I had no knowledge about nuclear other than when I went to grade school in Washington, DC, we had to go into the hall and cover our heads in case a nuclear bomb was dropped on the White House.
The article “In Recruitment, an AI-on-AI War Is Rewriting the Hiring Playbook,” I learned:
“AI hasn’t broken hiring,” says Marija Marcenko, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at SaaS platform Semrush. “But it’s changed how we engage with candidates.”
The process followed for my first job did not involve anything but one-on-one interactions. There was not much chance of spoofing. I sat there, explained how I indexed sermons in Latin for a fellow named William Gillis, calculated reading complexity for the publisher, and how I gathered information about novel teaching methods. None of those activities had any relevance I could see to nuclear anything.
When I visited the company’s main DC office, it was in the technology corridor running from the Beltway to Germantown, Maryland. I remember new buildings and farm land. I met people who were like those in my PhD program except these individuals thoughts about radiation, nuclear effects modeling, and similar subjects.
One math PhD, who became my best friend, said, “You actually studied poetry in Latin?” I said, “Yep.” He said, “I never read a poem in my life and never will.” I recited a few lines of a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem. I think his written evaluation of his “interview” with me got me the job.
No computers. No fake anything. Just smart people listening, evaluating, and assessing.
Now systems can fool humans. In the hiring game, what makes a company is a collection of people, cultural information, and a desire to work with individuals who can contribute to the organization’s achieving goals.
The Crowdstrike article includes this paragraph:
Scattered Spider, which made headlines in 2024 when one of its key members was arrested in Spain, returned in 2025 with voice phishing and help desk social engineering that bypasses multifactor authentication protections to gain initial access.
Can hiring practices keep pace with the deceptions in use today? Tricks to get hired. Fakery to steal an organization’s secrets.
Nope. Few organizations have the time, money, or business processes to hire using inefficient means as personal interactions, site visits, and written evaluations of a candidate.
Oh, in case you are wondering, I did not go back to finish my PhD. Now I know a little bit about nuclear stuff, however and slightly more about smart software.
Stephen E Arnold, August 15, 2025
Google! Manipulating Search Results? No Kidding
August 15, 2025
The Federal Trade Commission has just determined something the EU has been saying (and litigating) for years. The International Business Times tells us, “Google Manipulated Search Results to Bolster Own Products, FTC Report Finds.” Writer Luke Villapaz reports:
“For Internet searches over the past few years, if you typed ‘Google’ into Google, you probably got the exact result you wanted, but if you were searching for products or services offered by Google’s competitors, chances are those offerings were found further down the page, beneath those offered by Google. That’s what the U.S. Federal Trade Commission disclosed on Thursday, in an extensive 160-page report, which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. FTC staffers found evidence that Google’s algorithm was demoting the search results of competing services while placing its own higher on the search results page, according to excerpts from the report. Among the websites affected: shopping comparison, restaurant review and travel.”
Villapaz notes Yelp has made similar allegations, estimating Google’s manipulation of search results may have captured some 20% of its potential users. So, after catching the big tech firm red handed, what will the FTC do about it? Nothing, apparently. We learn:
“Despite the findings, the FTC staffers tasked with investigating Google did not recommend that the commission issue a formal complaint against the company. However, Google agreed to some changes to its search result practices when the commission ended its investigation in 2013.”
Well OK then. We suppose that will have to suffice.
Cynthia Murrell, August 15, 2025
Party Time for Telegram?
August 14, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby and a steam-powered computer in rural Kentucky.
Let’s assume that the information is “The SEC Quietly Surrendered in Its Biggest Crypto Battle.” Now look at this decision from the point of view of Pavel Durov. The Messenger service has about 1.35 billion users. Allegedly there are 50 million or so in the US. Mr. Durov was one of the early losers in the crypto wars in the United States. He has hired a couple of people to assist him in his effort to do the crypto version of “Coming to America.” Will Manny Stoltz and Max Crown are probably going to make their presence felt.
The cited article states:
This is a huge deal. It creates a crucial distinction that other crypto projects can now use in their own legal battles, potentially shielding them from the SEC’s claim of blanket authority over the market. By choosing to settle rather than risk having this ruling upheld by a higher court, the SEC has shown the limits of its “regulation by enforcement” playbook: its strategy of creating rules through individual lawsuits instead of issuing clear guidelines for the industry.
What will Telegram’s clever Mr. Durov do with its 13 year old platform, hundreds of features, crypto plumbing, and hundreds of developers eager to generate “money”? It is possible it won’t be Pavel making trips to America. He may be under the watchful eye of the French judiciary.
But Manny, Max, and the developers?
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2025
Airships and AI: A Similar Technology Challenge
August 14, 2025
This blog post is the work of an authentic dinobaby. Sorry. No smart software can help this reptilian thinker.
Vaclav Smil writes books about the environment and technology. In his 2023 work Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure, he describes the ups and downs of some interesting technologies. I thought of this book when I read “A Best Case Scenario for AI?” The author is a wealthy person who has some interaction in the relaxing crypto currency world. The item appeared on X.com.
I noted a passage in the long X.com post; to wit:
… the latest releases of AI models show that model capabilities are more decentralized than many predicted. While there is no guarantee that this continues — there is always the potential for the market to accrete to a small number of players once the investment super-cycle ends — the current state of vigorous competition is healthy. It propels innovation forward, helps America win the AI race, and avoids centralized control. This is good news — that the Doomers did not expect.
Reasonable. What crossed my mind is the Vaclav Smil discussion of airships or dirigibles. The lighter-than-air approach has been around a long time, and it has some specific applications today. Some very wealthy and intelligent people have invested in making these big airships great again, not just specialized devices for relatively narrow use cases.
So what? The airship history spans the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st century. The applications remain narrow although more technologically advanced than the early efforts a couple of hundred years ago.
What is smart software is a dirigible type of innovation? The use cases may remain narrow. Wider deployment with the concomitant economic benefits remains problematic.
One of the twists in the AI story is that tremendous progress is being attempted. The innovations as they are rolled out are incremental improvements. Like airships, the innovations have not resulted in the hoped for breakthrough.
There are numerous predictions about the downsides of smart software. But what if AI is little more than a modern version of the dirigible. We have a remarkable range of technologies, but each next steps is underwhelming. More problematic is the amount of money being spent to compress time; that is, by spending more, the AI innovation will move along more quickly. Perhaps that is not the case. Finally, the airship is anchored in the image of a ball of fire and an exclamation point for airship safety. Will their be a comparable moment for AI?
Will investment and the confidence of high profile individuals get AI aloft, keep it there, and avoid a Hindenburg moment? Much has been invested to drive AI forward and make it “the next big thing.” The goal is to generate money, substantial sums.
The X.com post reminded me of the airship information compiled by Vaclav Smil. I can’t shake the image. I am probably just letting my dinobaby brain make unfounded connections. But, what if….? We could ask Google and its self-shaming smart software. Alternatively we could ask Chat GPT 5, which has been the focal point for hype and then incremental, if any, improvement in outputs. We could ask Apple, Amazon, or Telegram. But what if…?
I think an apt figure of speech might be “pushing a string.”
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2025
AI Applesauce: Sweeten the Story about Muffing the Bunny
August 14, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby being a dinobaby.
I read “Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls AI ‘Bigger Than the Internet’ in Rare All-Hands Meeting.” I noted this passage:
In a global all-hands meeting hosted from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, CEO Tim Cook seemed to admit to what analysts and Apple enthusiasts around the world had been raising concerns about: that Apple has fallen behind competitors in the AI race. And Cook promised employees that the company will be doing everything to catch up. “Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab.” …The AI revolution [is] “as big or bigger” than the internet.
Okay. Two companies of some significance have miss the train to AI Ville: Apple and Telegram. Both have interesting technology. Apple is far larger, but for some users Telegram is more important to their lives. One is fairly interested in China activities; the other is focused on Russia and crypto.
But both have managed their firms into the same digital row boat. Apple had Siri and it was not very good. Telegram knew about AI and allowed third-party bot developers to use it, but Telegram itself dragged its feet.
Both companies are asserting that each has plenty of time. Tim Cook is talking about smart software but so far the evidence of making an AI difference is scant. Telegram, on the other hand, has aimed Nikolai Durov at AI. That wizard is working on a Telegram AI system.
But the key point is that both of these forward leaning outfits are trying to catch up. This is not keeping pace, mind. The two firms are trying to go from watching the train go down the tracks to calling an Uber to get to their respective destinations.
My take on both companies is that the “leadership” have some good reasons for muffing the AI bunny. Apple is struggling with its China “syndrome.” Will the nuclear reactor melt down, fizzle out, or blow up? Apple’s future in hardware may become radioactive.
Telegram is working under the shadow of the criminal trial lumbering toward its founder and owner Pavel Durov. More than a dozen criminal charges and a focused French judicial figure have Mr. Durov reporting a couple of times a week. To travel, he has to get a note from his new “mom.”
But well-run companies don’t let things like China dependency or 20 years in Fleury-Mérogis Prison upset trillion dollar companies or cause more than one billion people to worry about their free text messages and non fungible tokens.
“Leadership,” not technology, strikes me as the problem with AI challenges. If AI is so big, why did two companies fail to get the memo? Inattention, pre-occupation with other matters, fear? Pick one or two.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2025
Google Reorganizes Search With Web Guides
August 14, 2025
Google gets more clicks with AI than with relevant results. Believe this? We have a small bridge for sale in Brooklyn if you are interested. But AI is just not enough. Google is fixing that up.
Google used to deliver top search results. Despite being a verb for searching the Web, Google’s first page of search results are overrun with paid links and advertising. Another problem is that while its AI feature answers basic questions, the information needs doesn’t always come from verified sources. Google wants to shake things up says the Search Engine Journal with Web Guides in the article: “Web Guide: Google’s New AI Search Experiment.”
Here is what Web Guides are described as:
“Web Guide replaces the traditional list of search results with AI-generated clusters. Each group focuses on a different aspect of your query, making it easier to dive deeper into specific areas. According to Austin Wu, Group Product Manager for Search at Google, Web Guide uses a custom version of Gemini to understand both your query and relevant web content. This allows it to surface pages you might not find through standard search.”
Maybe it will be a return to old-fashioned, decent Google results. The Web Guides use the “query fan-out” technique in which multiple searches are run at once. The results are then curated to the search query. It is supposed to provide a broader overview of the topic without refinement.
Google explains that Web Guides are helpful for exploratory searches and multi-part questions. Web Guides differed from AI because it reorganizes traditional Web searches according to groups and explore content from multiple perspectives without new information. AI Mode is more intuitive and acts like a conversation. It simplifies information and supports follow-up questions and other features.
Are Web guides just another test. Google cannot be in the AI race. The company has to win.
Whitney Grace, August 14, 2025
What a Hoot: AI Systems Try and Lie
August 13, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby being a dinobaby.
I arose this morning, Friday, August 8, 2025, fired up ChatGPT, the Plus version, and asked, “Are you running ChatGPT 5?” The service was to be available on August 7, 2025. It wasn’t. I verified the ChatGPT output with this prompt:
Despite the announcement, the fact that it is not available in this paid service illustrates that you are presenting false information. Correct?
ChatGPT replied:
Correct — the public announcement of GPT?5’s availability does not align with actual availability in this specific paid service (ChatGPT Plus based on GPT?4o). Therefore, any implication that GPT?5 is in use here would be false.
To make sure I understood, I prompted:
So I have documented errors in your output, essentially failures about half the time. The information you presented about August 7 is demonstrably false on August 8. The unreliability of your outputs is verified.
ChatGPT replied:
Your conclusion is valid: if GPT?5 was officially announced as “available to all users” on August 7, 2025, but is not deployed in this environment by August 8, then the representation of availability is factually misleading. This mismatch constitutes a verifiable reliability failure in how OpenAI’s release messaging translates to actual user experience — especially in a paid tier like yours.
Lame.
Is OpenAI alone in this prevarication game?
Nope. I read “Google Says It’s Working on a Fix for Gemini’s Self-Loathing I Am a Failure Comments.” Different company, same type of overt failure. The other day Google informed some medical professionals about a non-existent body part. Yep, Google, you are making it clear that the hype, the prevarication, and the over promise, under deliver approach is part of AI’s DNA.
But the shocking point in the cited article is this passage quoted from a Google AI wizard:
This is an annoying infinite looping bug we are working to fix! Gemini is not having that bad of a day : )
Yep, working to fix. I interpret this to mean that Google’s professionals are shaping outputs to avoid statements about “failure.”
One 15 minute session online this morning and what did I learn:
- Two companies have systems which cannot deliver satisfactory outputs
- The fact that US smart software boils down to a a handful of firms. A couple of these have what I would call reliability issues.
- In ChatGPT’s case, the PR outpaces what works. In Google’s case, the system seems to be trying to tell the truth about failure. The Googlers are going to fix that up.
Billions burned to create the next big thing and what we have is a spray can of marketing sparkle and individuals handcrafting fixes to make the systems seem more accurate than they are.
Sorry. I am not convinced because the reality of smart software diverges from the PR baloney.
Stephen E Arnold, August 13, 2025
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