Hello, Paresh here, jumping in for Steven. I'm a senior writer at WIRED, currently covering how the growing AI data-center supply chain is affecting communities across the US.
When OpenAI declared a “code red” this month to refocus its teams on competing with Google, I couldn’t help but think back to December three years ago when the companies’ roles were reversed. Google was the one blasting the sirens to catch up to OpenAI. What followed the next month, in January 2023, were the first sweeping layoffs in Google’s history. “A difficult decision to set us up for the future,” as the company described it at the time.
I wonder whether the ChatGPT developer could make similar workforce cuts early next year. This speculation inspired me to come up with a whole set of predictions about what might come in the year ahead. Here’s a look at six of the ideas, fine-tuned with the real intelligence of WIRED colleagues.
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