When ChatGPT exploded on the tech scene in November 2022, one of the burning questions in the minds of many technologists was how Google — which, up to that point, was known for its prowess in artificial intelligence — could be caught flat-footed when the starter’s gun sounded in the race to bring generative AI to the masses?
Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail, suggested some answers to that question in a recent edition of the Y Combinator Startup podcast.
Buchheit, who left Google in 2006, maintained that after the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began to reduce their roles in Google operations, the development of artificial intelligence began to be tempered by other considerations. “I think it became more about protecting and preserving the search monopoly,” he said on the podcast.
That slowed their AI advancement substantially, added Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore. “Up until that time, they were in a leadership position, then lost it with the refocus,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Tech Companies Surprised
Google wasn’t the only tech company surprised by the wild popularity of ChatGPT, but it did have more to lose from the development, noted Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City. “Many of the other big tech companies were caught by surprise by ChatGPT, in terms of the popularity and how it would resonate with the broad population,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“But where such a high percentage of Google’s business is driven by search and advertising revenue, it’s more important for them than for Apple or Amazon that they be able to harness generative AI in a way that either protects or expands its search business,” he said.
“With Amazon, Alexa has never been a revenue driver,” he continued. “It’s the face or the voice of the company in a lot of places. But it’s clear that Amazon is bringing in more money from AWS and marketing and they’re making more money. , more than searching.”
Buchheit said Google has good reason to be concerned about AI getting into its search gold mine. AI is a disruptive technology, he explained, because it can provide the right answer to Man, you don’t have to click on everything. page full of ads.\ n
Google recognized the conflict between being useful and providing accurate answers in 1998, and they moved on. “The test is that if your results get worse, people will click on more ads,” he said. AI has the potential to disrupt that, Google AI Development.
The Pitfalls of Good Search Results
“There’s no doubt that Google is still one of the leaders in AI, but it’s true that their focus on revenue and profitability may have damaged their ability to be as creative as they are. publish and monetize itself, says Greg Sterling, a news, information and analysis site that can download or reduce AI vision and search. it’s about ad rejection,” he told TechNewsWorld.
