Microsoft Is Getting Ready to Eat Google’s Lunch
Plus, What the Super Bowl Taught Us About Families.
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BRENT ORRELL: Microsoft Is Getting Ready to Eat Google’s Lunch.
The opening of Bing Chat to the public, which will occur gradually in the coming weeks as Microsoft builds out capacity, played out against Google’s frantic catch-up effort to get back into a game it has dominated since the advent of internet search. In response to the Microsoft-OpenAI combine, Google has declared a “code red” (insert Jack Nicholson voice: “You can’t handle the search!”) and promised it is rolling out a whole bunch of new AI-infused tools for search and other activities. So far, this has been mostly talk and rehashing of previously announced technology. In one particularly unfortunate moment in its Paris announcement last week, a demonstration short-circuited when the phone needed to show a new product couldn’t be located. That was in addition to Google’s new “Bard” embarrassingly giving the wrong answer to a query at a demonstration.
Never count Google out, of course.
SARAH LONGWELL: Nikki Haley Is the Perfect Republican Presidential Candidate (for 2015).
On paper, Nikki Haley should be a top-tier contender in the 2024 Republican primary. She’s a successful former governor from an important, early primary state. She has an impressive personal backstory, solid foreign policy chops, and great candidate skills, too. This used to be an extremely attractive package for GOP primary voters.
Used to be.
But not anymore.
Even people who aren’t racist and aren’t anti-trans can get rubbed the wrong way by the heavy-handed puritanical approach of the woke movement. Plus, Nikki Haley’s bromides from the Republican Party of 10 years ago. Damon Linker joins Charlie Sykes today.
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MONA CHAREN: What the Super Bowl Taught Us About Families.
My husband went to California on a business trip a few weeks ago. While he was away, I found myself doing something completely out of character—switching on the TV while cooking or reading the paper. I’m a voracious consumer of podcasts and audio books, but somehow, in the empty house, it felt less lonely to have human faces and voices at least notionally in the room. Bob eventually returned, but for millions of Americans, living alone is the norm. In 1960, just 13 percent of households were composed of single adults. By 2021, that figure had more than doubled to 28 percent.
Some people who live alone are not lonely. They are single by choice and involved with friends, extended family, and activities that give their lives shape and meaning. But most of us are not that independent.
JOE PERTICONE: Republicans Want to Run for President Without Having to Confront Trump
After three straight underwhelming elections, Trump’s ascent in 2016 looks like more of an anomaly than a populist paradigm shift. That is evinced not only by his loss in 2020, but also by the fact that in the places where he has played an outsized role and strongly supported his preferred candidates, large shares of Republicans have instead turned out for Democrats.
It’s hard to run for president and not be forced into a position where everything you do is a response to the frontrunner, especially one who commands so much loyalty from the party base that nearly one-third could follow him on an independent spoiler campaign.
I spoke to a couple Republicans who ran in past races for their take on how to actually stand out and push back against an all-powerful frontrunner. They didn’t make it sound fun…
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you have something fun in the works planned. Sadly, I waited too long to buy heart-shaped pizzas for the twins, but thankfully can make some on my own. (It involves tortillas and scissors.)
Is somebody you love seeing red? Well, Bulwark+ is a great gift, albeit not a romantic one. But it’s more romantic than sending them this.
Young D.C. love… Still happens at Dan’s Cafe.
If you’re local… Why not take your sweetheart for a date at the NSA museum? (It’s actually very interesting, I can attest.)
Paying higher interest rates to own the libs! Texas and Florida are only doing business with companies that share their political values, which apparently include paying higher interest rates on debt, despite having a better credit rating than the libs in California.
A defeat in Ukraine… Would have global consequences, write Bill Kristol and Jeffrey Gedmin in Der Tagesspiegel.
Teddy Von Nukem… A Unite the Right marcher, died a day before he was to face trial for smuggling fentanyl over the U.S.-Mexico border. You may remember him from this photo.
The Lindsey Graham defense fund… Who would give him money to protect him from having to tell the truth about January 6? These people.
Where the ghost runner fails… Rob Manfred and the MLB vote, again, to further ruin baseball.
The Ben & Jerry’s Israel saga… Turns out that getting involved in politics can get dicey, when you have owners.
What it’s like… Living in East Palestine, Ohio, according to a Redditor.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
