36

I recently noticed a new webpage: https://stackoverflow.co/labs/

enter image description here

What's the purpose of this new webpage? When was this created? Was there any staff announcement about this webpage?

I just got to know that Stack Overflow Labs is sponsoring GenAI Stack Exchange site. If it's supposed to be a "central hub to share our experiments, demos, insights, and news", why is it sponsoring the site? Is the income generated from SE network sent to Stack Overflow Labs to sponsor Gen AI SE? All of this is so confusing to me.

Improve this question
9
  • 37
    It's a "Look at all the AI stuff we're doing!" campaign to attract new business. corporate-aligned things don't necessarily get announced to the public community directly (see "Teams for Communities")
    – Kevin B
    Jun 14 at 17:50
  • Pretty sure this is the idea mentioned in AI Tool example 2.
    – Laurel
    Jun 14 at 19:11
  • @KevinB You mean Stack Overflow for Teams Communities?
    – Random Person
    Jun 14 at 19:20
  • 1
    @RandomPerson yes.
    – Kevin B
    Jun 14 at 19:21
  • 2
    Honestly, when I received the email notification I thought it was a phishing attempt. The sender address was @stackoverflow.*email* and the web page is stackoverflow.*co*
    – SapuSeven
    Jun 20 at 15:30
  • 3
    @SapuSeven See MSO: New official secondary domain: stackoverflow.co
    – Random Person
    Jun 20 at 16:01
  • 2
    At least it provides a nice place for StackOverflow's potential customers to view all their genAI failures. Much better than forcing them to search though MSO and MSE looking for interesting ideas to avoid in their own experiments with AI. A valuable community service to the developers of the world.
    – Chindraba
    Jun 29 at 1:45
  • 2
    I speculate that the current GenAI sponsorship is a temporary placeholder, and Stack Exchange are hoping some big name will see the WeAreDevelopers talk and offer e.g. server usage or free API calls, in return for exposure. I note this all coincides with Stack Exchange unilaterally declaring jailbreaking off-topic which may be to avoid deterring potential advertisers.
    – Rebecca J. Stones
    Jul 27 at 6:06
  • 3
    The last edit should be rolled back and post a follow up question asking about the sponsorship of GenAI SE.
    – user1359324
    Jul 27 at 14:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
18

We did not announce it on Meta SE or Meta SO.

It was released on June 13, 2023.

The purpose is to have a central hub to share our experiments, demos, insights, and news - across all Stack Overflow products. We plan to continually add to this site as we experiment and release new solutions.

We announced Stack Overflow Labs in conjunction with our Developer Survey release. It's on the Dev Survey results site and in the two blog posts we wrote about the Dev Survey (results blog and AI-focused blog).

Improve this answer
13
  • 1
    Are the "experiments, demos, insights, and news" only AI-specific?
    – Random Person
    Jun 14 at 19:16
  • 11
    Labs will be a place for the experiments we're doing, not just AI-specific ones.
    – J007B Staff
    Jun 14 at 19:24
  • 1
    Any particular reason why I can't sign up for news from Labs using a Gmail email address? Since it includes "all Stack Overflow products", that should include the public Q&A across the whole SE network in addition to Stack Overflow. Unless you're going to make a commitment to announce things here on Meta SE, everyone should be able to get news from Labs.
    – Thomas Owens
    Jun 14 at 20:06
  • 9
    @ThomasOwens - we originally had an error with gmail addresses but we resolved it yesterday. Update: Confirmed the bug is back - I was able to replicate the error and have flagged it to be fixed.
    – J007B Staff
    Jun 14 at 20:10
  • @JC007B OK. I tried today after I saw this question and it didn't work. Still doesn't work now - just says "please use your work email address".
    – Thomas Owens
    Jun 14 at 20:15
  • 20
    "We did not announce it on Meta SE or Meta SO" - that's obvious. The question is why. Do you consider the labs to be too minor so people should just find out by chance about it? Do you consider us, the community, unworthy to get such updates? Because sadly, that's how it looks like. But kudos for the new site.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Jun 15 at 7:31
  • 2
    @ThomasOwens - bug should be fixed. Let us know if you still have a problem.
    – J007B Staff
    Jun 15 at 15:39
  • 4
    @JC007B Confirmed - it works. No error messages and I received the confirmation email.
    – Thomas Owens
    Jun 15 at 15:48
  • 11
    @ShadowWizardStrikesBack Probably because we are not the intended audience for that site. Everything announced there has been separately announced here or on the SO blog. So far it's just a repackaging of things that have already been shared with the community, just written in a way apparently designed to look good for the company.
    – kaya3
    Jun 23 at 14:30
  • 1
    I second the question: why wasn't it announced here on Meta?
    – HolyBlackCat
    Jun 23 at 16:06
  • Is SO Labs also a sponsor for sites in the SE network? Or is the sponsorship too, specific for AI sites only? @JC007B
    – Random Person
    Jul 27 at 5:47
  • @RandomPerson-onstrike: Just GenAI Stack Exchange at the moment.
    – V2Blast
    Jul 27 at 20:38
  • @V2Blast Feel free to edit the answer or post a new answer.
    – Random Person
    Jul 29 at 20:11
5

This addresses the first part of the question in OP title: "What is Stack Overflow Labs?" and the question

What's the purpose of this new webpage?

From a comment at JC007B's answer:

Labs will be a place for the experiments we're doing, not just AI-specific ones.

Right now (23-June-2023), however, it is only show-casing AI-related experiments.

Screenshot of SO Labs page, showing AI related projects in various stages of completion, from 23-june-2023

Improve this answer
3
  • I'm not really sure how this answers my question. I think it would be better to post this as a comment under JC007B's post.
    – Random Person
    Jun 23 at 18:30
  • @Random It is addressed to this part of the question: "What's the purpose of this new webpage?", differently than JC's answer. "Across all SO products", JC says, but many of them are omitted on Labs. Only AI-related projects are mentioned there.
    – Conrado
    Jun 23 at 19:08
  • 4
    it also seems to be quite selective in which blog posts it shares, in that it happily includes blog and news posts that are supportive of AI and not all necessarily related to experiments, while leaving out similar AI related blog posts that aren't. ;)
    – Kevin B
    Jul 20 at 21:04

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .