GPT-4o, announced by OpenAI early this month, has been available for free to all users since yesterday. Anyone with an account can now browse, vision, perform data analysis, upload files and use GPTs. The difference from the paid version has become very small, which is an important step for the wide adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The free availability of GPT-4o means that many features previously accessible only to paid users are now available to anyone with an account. Free users now have access to thousands of GPTs created by companies and individuals, as well as tools for analyzing data such as Excel files. As well as numerous other features previously unavailable to free users.

Changes and improvements

The new version GPT-4o, introduces some impressive improvements, as we also discussed in a previous article. One of the most important new features is the ability to use live video in prompts, allowing users to engage in a conversation with the AI. The introduction also showed exactly how this works and the different uses that are possible.

In addition, free users can also use a web-browsing tool, the AI can remember previous prompts and you have the ability to upload files for assistance in summarizing, writing or analyzing documents.

The GPT Store, a marketplace for apps built on ChatGPT, has also become accessible to free users. These features were previously only for paying ChatGPT Plus users.

The benefits for paying users

Although the gap between free and paid versions has narrowed, some major advantages for paying users remain.

Paid users have: 5x higher usage limits and have the ability to develop custom GPTs. If you use the free version, you will soon find yourself running into limits and depending on how you want to use it, it may be worth upgrading.

In addition, paid users can generate images and will be the first to access new features, such as the upcoming macOS desktop app and real-time voice and video.

GPT-4o's new audio and video capabilities, first available to a small group of trusted partners through its API, will be rolled out more broadly in the coming period. This includes features such as voice assist, which can translate visual input into audio descriptions in real time, which is a significant improvement for accessibility.

Implementation and future

The macOS app will roll out soon, with the Windows version expected later this year. Meanwhile, OpenAI continues to add new features and make improvements, allowing users to further customize and personalize the AI experience. These ongoing improvements make it attractive for developers and users to create and offer their own GPTs, similar to having their own app in the App Store.

In short, with the introduction of GPT-4o as a freely available tool, OpenAI is taking an important step in the adoption of AI technology. This makes advanced AI applications more accessible to a wider audience.

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Because most new AI updates and tools are launched mainly outside Europe, we in the Netherlands can quietly watch how this is received by users. So too with the AI Overviews introduced by Google two weeks ago. This new part of Google Search shows AI-generated summaries above search results, but the results still appear to be unreliable. This has led to a lot of criticism.

For example, there is an example where AI Overviews indicates that you can add some glue to the sauce if the cheese is not staying properly on your pizza. And so there are countless other examples. Search Engine Roundtable even keeps a record of embarrassing outcomes.   

Screenshot 2024-05-30 at 16.44.46

Influence of Criticism on Google's Reputation

This criticism may affect Google's reputation for reliable search results. In addition, it could lead to a decrease in the number of people clicking through to Web sites.

Possible Disabling of AI Overviews

The concerns are so serious that several experts suggest that Google may temporarily disable the feature. This also happened previously with Gemini's images, when it was found that unwanted images were being generated. These situations seem to have become increasingly common recently due to the challenges and risks of developing and implementing AI technologies (too) quickly. During a fascinating interview with Google's CEO Sundar Pichai by Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of technology news website The Verge, initial reactions to AI Overviews and other AI developments were discussed.

Pichai parries most of the tough questions by emphasizing that new technologies always cause short-term disruption, but that Google is focused on creating value for users. He claims that users find these new AI features useful and are even more likely to click on links in AI previews. He also indicates that Google is working to improve the accuracy and reliability of AI results, but acknowledges that challenges remain.

Challenges of AI

Examples include the problem of "hallucination" where AI generates incorrect information. Patel also challenged Pichai with his "Google Zero" issue, asking what happens when Google's traffic to websites goes to zero. If AI chatbots and AI-generated search results summarize everything a user needs, why would people still visit a Web site? And then what is the point for businesses to publish content on their Web sites? Pichai acknowledges the concerns of businesses and content creators about AI systems using their work without returning sufficient value. He indicates that Google is trying to strike a balance between innovation and protecting the interests of content creators.

In a recent data breach at Google, thousands of APIs used in ranking Web sites have become public. Interestingly, much of the information from this document directly contradicts what Google has publicly communicated. Let's look at what the key findings are from the leaked documents and how they may be relevant to your business if you are in the business of marketing and want more (organic) traffic to your website.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

One of the biggest secrets within marketing is how search engines like Google use their algorithm to rank websites in search results. When you do optimizations for this, it is called search engine optimization, or SEO. 

Through much experimentation and testing over time, we have gotten a good idea of what works, but it always remained based on assumptions. Virtually no one (even most employees within Google) knew what the algorithm was looking at. Until now.

Google turns out not to be entirely honest

In the past, Google has made many statements about which factors are important for optimizations. However, many marketers were skeptical of these statements, and rightly so, it now appears. The leaked documents show that Google has not always been honest. Optimizations that they claimed would not work actually turn out to be important ranking factors.

What does the document say?

The leaked document is highly technical, discussing more than 200 factors that can affect Web site rankings. These range from the quality of content, to technical optimizations and user experience. It further reveals that Google collects data from users (including through Chrome and navigation within Google), to use as input. 

Want to read some of the documents yourself? Then check out the following pages: Api reference, data & click signals.

How did the data become public?

The data comes from the developer platform GitHub. Google notes the APIs they use here. APIs are a piece of code that allow applications to exchange information with each other. Usually, information that Google does not want made public is put private. However, sometimes employees forget to do this. When that happens, this data can be copied and distributed.

No response from Google

We initially learned from several sources that Google had not released an official statement or response about the leak, including not confirming whether the information was real or fake news. This lack of communication left much room for speculation about the authenticity of the leaked data.

However, Google has since put out a statement. Google warns against making incorrect assumptions based on information that has been taken out of context, is out of date or incomplete. Google does not want to comment on the specific elements from the leaked documents to avoid manipulation of their algorithm. They stress that it would be incorrect to assume the data is complete, relevant or current.

This emphasizes the importance of building a strong brand. The focus should remain on building a good Web site that provides a fine user experience and good content.

What can we learn from the Google data breach?

User behavior 

The leaked information emphasizes the importance of how a user behaves on your Web site. Key elements are:

  • How long a visitor stays on the page.
  • Whether the visitor clicks back and clicks on another search result.
  • Whether the visitor is "satisfied." 

This indicates that the quality of your content and the user experience on your Web site are crucial. If a visitor goes to look around but is not actually of much use to your information and quickly clicks away, this has a negative impact. 

On-page SEO / Content

  • It is important to Google that authors who publish on your website are experts on the topics they write about. This principle, known as EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness), was previously known in the marketing industry through Google algorithm updates.
  • Having bad content on parts of your site can impact your entire website.
  • Google looks at the "freshness" of content. This means that you want to update content when it is no longer relevant or outdated. For this, Google looks at the content on the page, the URL and the edit date. 
  • Another important factor they Google looks at is "titlematchScore," this indicates that page titles are still relevant. Here, it is important that this page title matches a user's search intent. 

We recommend ensuring that your website provides a good user experience according to best practices, such as fast load times, mobile-friendliness and clear navigation, and that you publish content that matches the user's search intent. This will lead to better quality traffic, which will ultimately improve your search rankings in Google. 

Backlinks

Backlinks continue to play an important role in Google's ranking process. Despite the view that naturally obtaining links to your website or link building would be redundant, the paper shows that diversity of links with high authority is still very important. Anchor text of links (the clickable text in a link) also plays a role here. Both internal anchor text (links to other pages within your own site) and external anchor text (links from other domains to your website) are important.

Google also further tracks domain registration data (think registrar, domain purchase date and more). 

The importance of a strong brand

One of the biggest insights from Google's data breach is the importance of a strong brand. Want to increase your organic search results and traffic? Then focus on building a popular brand that people search for, both in Google and beyond. 

An important channel beyond Google for this is social media. Recent updates have made it easier for smaller businesses and brands to get more visibility, too. We wrote an article about it where you can find more information.

Whitelist

This point is related to having a strong brand. Indeed, what we see is that during elections and the COVID period, among others, Google gave certain websites priority in search results. This means that well-known and trusted websites such as major news organizations and official health authorities were given higher visibility. 

Some sites are excluded from certain algorithm updates because they are on a whitelist, so they did not experience a drop in traffic when normally they might have. This highlights the importance of building a strong brand identity and authority in your niche.

Conclusion

The leaked document offers valuable insights into how Google's algorithm analyzes websites and incorporates them into its index. However, there is no way to prove whether every API feature leaked is currently being used as a ranking factor within Google. 

But at least for businesses, this means that it is important to have a good SEO strategy that focuses on high-quality content, a good user experience and building a strong domain authority. In addition, building a strong brand that is visible on many relevant online channels is essential to increase organic traffic.

Would you like help with your content or SEO strategy? Then contact us with no obligation. We would be happy to help you further.

Last week a lot happened again in the field of AI. But not only in terms of AI, there are also significant changes going on on social media platforms that can have a big impact. In this article, we discuss the major algorithm changes within Instagram. How the value of followers is decreasing and how you can respond to these changes within social media. Got curious? Then read on below.

Major algorithm changes at Instagram

Instagram is going to make major changes to its algorithm in the coming months. As a result, published content from both accounts with many followers and accounts with few followers will have an equal chance of being shown to users of the platform. Each post will initially be shown to a small audience. This can be both followers and non-followers), which, according to the algorithm, is likely to find it interesting. If this proves to be the case, the best performing content will be shown to a slightly wider audience. Next, the best performing content will then be shown to an even wider audience.

Original and relevant content is most likely to gain visibility.

If the algorithm detects copied content, it will make only the original visible in the recommendations. So it doesn't really matter anymore how many followers you have. The idea that all your followers get to see all your content is outdated.

In order for your organic content to be visible at all in users' timelines (in between ads), it must at least be very relevant and original. In addition, it is important to make each post so that it is relevant to both non-followers (who may be seeing you for the first time) and followers (who already know you). It is important to keep a close eye on the reach, impressions and engagement of your Instagram account in the coming period and anticipate these changes in a timely manner. Read more about these changes here and watch CEO Adam Mosseri's announcement here

Instagram algorithm changes

How do you anticipate social media changes?

The changes by social media platforms are part of the trend whereby they are trying in many ways to keep users within their own environment for longer. These include discouraging the use of (unpaid) external links to other platforms, such as your website. They do this by limiting the reach of these posts, such as on X, Facebook and LinkedIn.

With TikTok and Instagram (with the exception of Stories), external links are not even possible at all. As a result, they are becoming more and more content distribution platforms, than a place to build a "private" group of followers that you can reach how and when you want. Reaching people regularly on social media will become increasingly difficult. One thing is certain: because of changing algorithms, you have zero control over it.

Here's how to avoid dependence on social media to reach your audience

If you don't want to rely too heavily on social media to reach your audience, consider the following:

Focus on own channels

Build your own channels that you have control over. Think of your own website, a member environment or community, app and a newsletter.

Develop sustainable content and content programs

Consider a podcast show, webinars, online training or courses, event recordings, research reports, books, offline events, etc. Publish your content basically on your own channels and use parts of it on social media.

Provide PR

Try to be mentioned in others' posts (and mention others yourself in your posts). Participate in others' podcasts or webinars, get articles and interviews in other media, etc. Be continuously visible in a relevant wide network on many different channels.

Conduct active external community management

See that someone else's post is trending and reaching a lot of your audience? Then become part of the interaction to become visible.

Temporary no-click content

Create social media content that is timely and urgent to prompt people to take an immediate (non-commercial) action, without having to click on anything. Make sure this content is appropriate for both people who already know you and people who don't yet know you.

Personal touch

Make your content as personal as possible in a way that is very relevant to your audience.

Refer people to your own channels

Use social media and other external channels as much as possible to direct people to your own channels, where you can better reach them directly.

Invitation to the webinar: Develop valuable GPTs in 4 steps

The GPT-4o, announced by OpenAI last week, will become largely available to all users for free. This will also allow users to start using the custom GPTs. This makes it much more attractive to now develop your own GPTs and offer them to your colleagues and (potential) customers. Compare it to your own app in the App Store. 

Want to know how to use custom GPTs to make your content available in innovative ways, generate leads and improve your services? Join our webinar and discover in 4 concrete steps how to develop valuable custom GPTs. We'll provide you with both strategic insights and practical examples that will get you started right away.

It is no coincidence that OpenAI announced major updates last Monday. Indeed, a day later, the annual Google I/O 2024 event took place, presenting the latest developments and innovations to developers and tech enthusiasts.

Whereas OpenAI has bundled all the capabilities within ChatGPT, Google announced numerous AI updates for different tools. This can make it a bit confusing which tools you all need for different applications. But it is becoming increasingly clear that AI functionalities are being integrated into all Google tools such as Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android and Search.

An important update that could potentially have a major impact on Web site search behavior and search traffic in the near term is the new AI Overviews

AI Overviews are generative AI summaries that appear at the top of search results pages instead of the usual blue links and ads. In the video below, you can see how Google's search engine is really going to look very different after 25 years.

Preparing for rollout of AI Overviews

AI Overviews, like many other AI updates, is being rolled out in the U.S. this week. It will be available worldwide by the end of the year. 

There are still many uncertainties and doubts about the effects of AI Overviews on Google search traffic, ads and other marketing aspects. We will keep a close eye on these developments and continue to keep you informed.

Here's what you can already do to make your content more future-proof:

  1. Prepare - No one yet knows exactly what the impact of AI Overviews will be. Do start adjusting your SEO strategy ahead of time by focusing more on keywords that people use when they get closer to making a purchase. Also, be sure to update your content so that it appears in AI Overviews (similar to how you optimize your content for "featured search results").
  2. Ensure high relevance and engagement - Make sure your content offers your readers the most relevant information, practical tips and answers to their (buying) questions. This can help your pages appear higher in AI Overviews.
  3. Leverage your own experience - You have something that AI does not: your own human experience, customer stories and specific expertise in your field. Incorporate these unique insights into your content as much as possible.

Check out all the announced Google updates here.


Take a leap forward in your marketing AI transformation every week

Every Friday, we bring you the latest insights, news and real-world examples on the impact of AI in the marketing world. Whether you want to improve your marketing efficiency, increase customer engagement, sharpen your marketing strategy or digitally transform your business,'Marketing AI Friday' is your weekly guide.

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OpenAI is taking a giant leap forward with the introduction of GPT-4o, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks. This greatly improved version of GPT-4 can reason about audio, image and text in real time, is faster, more accessible and largely available for free to everyone!

The announcement was made during this livestream, in which several live demos were done with the new features. You can see a summary in the video below. 


An overview of GPT-4o

✔️ GPT-4o (the 'o' stands for 'omni') can process and generate combinations of text, audio and images. It responds to audio as quickly as a human responds, its performance for text in non-English languages is greatly improved, and it is 50% cheaper to use via its API.

✔️ Voice Interaction: You can talk to GPT-4o in real time and interrupt in the middle of a sentence. It responds instantly, without long silences. It can recognize emotions in your voice and respond in matching emotions, appearing increasingly human. And it can even sing. (This does make Apple's Siri look very old-fashioned.)

✔️ Visual recognition: It can now view the real world in real time. You can have live images, photos and screenshots analyzed. During the demo, they showed how GPT-4o can help solve a math problem if you write a sum on a piece of paper. It can also give hints first without immediately revealing the answer. Among other things, this makes it an even more powerful tool in education and homework.

✔️ Real-time translation: GPT-4o can translate spoken text in real time, as they showed during the demo with translation from English to Italian and vice versa. But you can also, for example, take a picture of a menu in another language and talk to GPT-4o to translate it and learn more about the dishes, and get recommendations.

✔️ It is possible for multiple people to play live games such as rock-paper-scissors, where ChatGPT can be the "showmaster" or "referee," for example.

✔️ GPTs can talk to each other and sing together!

✔️ Most current features of GPT-4 and the use of GPTs and custom GPTs are made available to all users free of charge. Also for anyone who does not have a paid subscription. This is a significant change and can start to give a huge acceleration to the use of ChatGPT and the development and use of custom GPTs.

This update will be rolled out with all features to paid ChatGPT users and ChatGPT Free users with usage limits in the coming weeks.

According to OpenAI, GPT-4o is just the beginning, with much more coming soon, especially for the paid versions.

🔗 View the entire demo here
🔗 View additional information including more impressive examples here


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Last week, an interesting interview was published by Bloomberg Originals. In it, Emily Chang talks with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, about the future of AI and the challenges and opportunities it presents. You also get a nice insight into the Plex, Google's headquarters (village).

Interesting points from the conversation

  1. Change in Search: Pichai describes how Google is adapting to changing technology. AI is having a big impact, and while Google has not always been first with new technologies such as search engines or browsers, it has always been a leader in innovation.
  2. Integrating AI: Google is integrating AI into all aspects of the company, which is crucial to staying relevant in a rapidly changing tech world. 
  3. Future vision and leadership: Pichai shares his long-term vision for Google and AI, emphasizing that continuous innovation and adaptation to changing technologies are essential. "Technology changes quickly, and we must innovate to stay ahead." He also talks about the importance of taking responsibility for mistakes and learning from challenges. 
  4. Impact of AI on everyday life: He reflects on how technology, such as AI, has caused and will continue to cause profound changes in everyday life, and highlights AI's potential to solve problems and improve quality of life.

    "AI has been around for decades, but it seems like everything is happening everywhere, all at once," he said.

    "The challenge for everyone and the opportunity is, how do you have a notion of what's objective and real in a world where there's gonna be a lot of synthetic content?"

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Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, recently spoke at Stanford about the future and impact of AI. He shared his insights on AI opportunities and risks and offered advice to aspiring AI entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of continued innovation and ethical considerations in the rapid development of AI.

He also gives his clear opinion on ChatGPT: "ChatGPT, with GPT-4 is "mildly embarrassing. It is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again by a lot. But not for long'. Which makes it increasingly likely that the successor to GPT-4 will be launched in the near future. Rumors say that this is already scheduled to happen in the next few weeks/months and that this successor will certainly be 2x as good.

Interesting points from this interview:

  1. Iterative Development: Altman believes in releasing new versions of AI models early and often to learn and improve quickly, even if these models are not yet perfect. "It's important to ship early and often, and we believe in iterative deployment."
  2. Future of AI models: Future AI models such as GPT-5 and GPT-6 will be significantly smarter than their predecessors, which will have a major impact on technology and society. "ChatGPT, with GPT-4, is mildly embarrassing. GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again, by a lot." "GPT-5 is going to be a lot smarter than GPT-4. GPT-6 is going to be a lot smarter than GPT-5. And we are not near the top of this curve."
  3. Impact of AI on society: AI is going to change the way we work, learn and solve problems. Altman emphasizes the need for responsible implementation to minimize negative impacts. "AI and surprise don't go well together. People don't want to be surprised; people want a gradual rollout and the ability to influence these systems." "All tech cycles are this way, right? But this one feels different. It feels bigger."
  4. Personal Reflections: He also reflected on his own career and motivations, emphasizing the importance of resilience and adaptability in a rapidly changing world. "I think the main thing is when you've done it for a while, you know, you get to understand patterns ... you've seen it before."

Take a leap forward in your marketing AI transformation every week

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To use AI effectively and get valuable output, we need good instructions. For that, you can use several models or frameworks. One such model is the RACE Framework, which helps make clear what we expect from AI. 

The RACE Framework helps clarify our assignments to AI in four steps:

What is the RACE Framework?

Role (Role): Clearly define the role the AI agent assumes in delivering an output. Describe the expertise and purpose. For example, should the AI behave as a data analyst or as a content creator?

Action (Action): Summarize what task you want the AI agent to complete, including a summary of the desired outcome. For example, do you want the AI to produce a report, summary, translation or schedule, or should it provide ideas for the content of a new ad?

Context (Context): Provide relevant background information that helps the AI understand the problem or need and generate accurate outputs. 

Execution (Execute): Provide clear instructions on the steps the AI should follow and what the output should look like.


Why is the RACE Framework so useful?

This framework is very valuable, for content marketers, among others:

  • Clarity and focus: The RACE Framework ensures that the AI knows exactly what to do. This prevents confusion and errors.
  • Efficiency: Clear instructions help the AI work faster, saving time and money.
  • Better interaction: The framework ensures good communication between the AI and the user. This is very important for complex tasks.
  • Flexibility: The RACE Framework can be used for many different tasks. It can be easily adapted to the needs of the project or department.

An example of how to use it

A marketing team wants to use AI to develop a podcast about sustainable business:

Role: The AI agent acts as a podcast developer with the role of informing and inspiring listeners about sustainable business.

Action: Develop a podcast series that highlights different aspects of sustainable business by interviewing experts and sharing practical tips.

Context: Interest in sustainable business is growing, listeners are entrepreneurs seeking up-to-date and accessible information about it.

Implementation: The AI should create a structure for a podcast episode and an outline of themes for the first 4 episodes, based on the latest trends and research in sustainable business. Then create a selection of various experts who could be guests in the podcast per episode. And elaborate a content schedule to properly announce the podcast. For each execution task, you can use AI to go deeper, asking follow-up questions and assignments until you get the desired result.  

This example shows how to use the RACE Framework to collaborate more effectively with AI and get better results.


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Elon Musk recently shared details about his plan to summarize and present news on platform X (formerly Twitter), using his AI language model Grok.

Musk aims to provide accurate and up-to-date information that combines news reports and social media reactions from X. This AI system sometimes analyzes tens of thousands of posts to provide a news update. These updates will be presented live and users can go deeper into the content via chat.

Grok, with which Musk plans to compete with ChatGPT, has already begun showing news headlines and integrating social reactions into summaries.

With this, Musk also wants to keep as many users as possible on the platform longer. External links to original articles are not shown in these summaries for the time being and fits in with the trend of discouraging links to other platforms as it causes people to click away.

See also this article and post on Musk's X late last year.

We also see this trend with other social media platforms, such as Facebook, causing many companies to see a significant decline in the number of visitors to their websites from social media.


Take a leap forward in your marketing AI transformation every week

Every Friday, we bring you the latest insights, news and real-world examples on the impact of AI in the marketing world. Whether you want to improve your marketing efficiency, increase customer engagement, sharpen your marketing strategy or digitally transform your business, "Marketing AI Friday" is your weekly guide.

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