The launch of ChatGPT a few months ago started an artificial intelligence arms race among big tech companies. Microsoft has invested billions into Open AI, the company that created ChatGPT, and plans to integrate the technology into its Bing search engine. And the chatbot’s debut forced Google, which had been researching AI for years, to jump into the game and rush to market with its own AI product, Bard.
After decades of search dominance, rapid growth has left Google on the defensive. The company asked its AI team last month to “prioritize working on responses to ChatGPT.” And the urgency for Google to get the game up has left some staff scrambling over the “rushed” and “botched” announcement of its own chatbot currently in Beta testing.
In the latest glimpse of Google’s pressure, newly-leaked audio taken by an insider announced the company’s Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian rebuffed critics at a company town hall last month, saying the battle for AI dominance is just beginning.
“There are other companies taking shots at us saying we’re late to market. We’ve missed the AI boat,” Kurian said in the recording. “I will tell you that this is the first minute of a new game, and the game is never finished in the first minute.”
Kurian further encourages employees to work together, and cheers on workers working on the company’s AI plans.
“We are committed as an organization to providing the best capabilities in the market, and I can promise that our engineers will deliver amazing AI technology to our customers,” said Kurian.
Google didn’t get back right away fortunerequest for comments.
The company is targeting intense pressure and high stakes in the AI race. Bing, which controls only a fraction of the search market, has much to gain from its successful AI search product, while Google has everything to lose.
“We believe that Microsoft is aiming not only to lower Google’s search margins, but also to prevent Alphabet from running Google Cloud and other businesses at a loss,” analysts ARK Invest wrote in a note earlier this month.
While OpenAI is seen as a small company that is more likely to take a risk like – releasing a chatbot to the internet publicly – Google has to consider its reputational concerns and how AI problems released to the public could damage the company.
The new chatbot, Bard, is currently only available to a limited group of “trusted testers.” And even though Google made the leap with Bard, the chatbot incorrectly gave the wrong answer during a videotaped demo announcing the product earlier this month, impacting the California-based tech giant’s $100 billion market value.
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