Google is in a weird place right now

Are you single and ready to mingle, reader? I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm not single but am always ready to mingle — in a professional sense, that is. Even if I were on the proverbial market, I'm not sure how much I'd want to rely on tech to find love.

One person told Insider how dating an AI chatbot is the best thing that's happened to him in decades. Another shared how the same dating service helped ease her anxious attachment style. It's giving "Be Right Back" from Black Mirror.

More relatably, former 10 Things in Tech writer Jordan Parker Erb tried using ChatGPT to respond to Hinge matches. And then, she had a dating coach rate ChatGPT's responses to Tinder matches.

But the coach warned: "It's really important to try to steer away from (AI) when it comes to dating."

I guess ChatGPT won't be planning my Valentine's Day. But for now, let's jump into today's tech.

P.S. I'm finally hosting the Reddit AMA on tech layoffs (it was delayed due to technical difficulties). It's on Thursday, February 9 at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET in the r/cscareerquestions subreddit. I look forward to chatting with you soon!

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Google is in a weird place right now. After Microsoft announced integration of ChatGPT with Bing, all eyes were on Google to do something. And it did. The search giant had a knee-jerk reaction that resulted in what my teammate Hasan Chowdhury said was a FOMO-filled event on Wednesday.

• Bard is Google's competitor to ChatGPT and will become available to the public in coming weeks. It's currently only open to "trusted testers," and my teammate writes that "trusted" is the key word, since Google doesn't trust you.
• Google has had the majority of search users for a long time. But now that Microsoft has upgraded Bing with ChatGPT, it's primed to win over some of Google's users.
• Yet, in this crucial moment, Google seems to only be able to react with fear, Hasan writes.

Lean into Google's discomfort here.

In other news:

Google is about to destroy online search. Bard will save you time searching for things online. But at the same time, the chatbot will sometimes give you wrong answers. We break down chatbot hallucinations for you here.

Microsoft's new Bing refuses to write cover letters. Unlike ChatGPT, the upgraded Bing rejected my colleague Huileng Tan's request to write a cover letter for a job. The chatbot said it would be "unethical" and "unfair to other applicants." More on the job rejection here.

Pharmacy startup Medly is shutting down. An Insider investigation previously revealed that the startup grew faster than it could handle, leaving patients out in the cold. Its remaining 22 locations will shutter in February. Check out the store closures here.

The CEOs that are taking massive pay cuts. The economic downturn has hammered tech companies. In response to the harsher conditions, prominent CEOs including Apple's Tim Cook and Intel's Pat Gelsinger have voluntarily cut their pay. Get the full list here.

Why most returned items end up in landfills. According to an estimate by tech platform Optoro, as many as 9.6 billion pounds of returns ended up in landfills in 2021. That's equivalent to 10,500 fully loaded Boeing 747s. The simple reason for this is cost. Dive into this trash-hole with us here.

Twitter suffered one of its largest outages ever. Users on Wednesday were suddenly unable to tweet, direct message, or follow people on the platform. Inside the company, it was a "scramble" to find the source of the problem. Read more here.

The biggest lessons after driving 20 electric cars. Insider's EV maven Tim Levin faced a road trip disaster in one vehicle. Then, he experienced a "face-melting rip" in the world's fastest supercar. Gather round for EV storytime here.

Odds and ends:

"I moved to a tiny Alaskan village to be a teacher." Taryn Williams told Insider what living and working in a village of 89 people is like. She teaches five students and lives off the land. Check out her story (with photos!) here.

Enter the life of the FBI's former chief New York spy hunter. Charlie McGonigal lived a double life. He's an FBI spy hunter who was charged with taking money from a sanctioned Russian oligarch. Now, he's facing two federal indictments. Dive into his life of greed and espionage here.

What we're watching today:

• New York Fashion Week Women's Fall/Winter 2023 begins.
• Paramore headlines the first night of the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest. Ain't it fun?
• Quarterly earnings for Lyft, PayPal, and other companies. Keep up with earnings here.
• Another court hearing for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He's facing money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud charges. If you don't know anything about crypto, here's Insider's guide to catch you up on the SBF saga.

Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in San Diego. (Feedback or tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Matt Weinberger in San Francisco and Hallam Bullock in London.