Google Ramps Up AI Development For Fear Of Falling Behind In Competition

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is directing employees to address competition with the new AI chatbot ChatGPT.   

Created by OpenAI, the bot reportedly conversational manner could have the potential to overtake Google’s search engine, leading managers at the tech giant to issue a “code red.”  

According to Sridhar Ramaswamy, former SVP of Ads and Commerce at Google, ChatGPT could potentially keep users from clicking ad links in Google searches, a massive portion of the company’s revenue.   

Pichai has attended various AI strategy meetings in an effort to thwart any competition with the increasingly popular tool. Some employees have even been told to develop similar programs like OpenAI’s DALL-E, a tool that generates images using text. 

Five days following its launch, ChatGPT gained a cool 1 million users, where they were able to interact with the conversational-like chatbot about anything from common search engine inquiries, to advice on how to write a college essay.   

However, users have cited major problems with the platform, with some claiming that ChatGPT responses can often be sexist and racist. Additionally, the bot is unable to distinguish between fact and misinformation, the latter of which has come into focus in recent years.  

Because of these flaws, Google has been wary of releasing its AI chatbot LaMDA for fear of similar issues.