Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, believes Google missed its chance to lead in artificial intelligence (AI). He shared his thoughts on a recent podcast. Buchheit said when Google started in 1998, it wanted to be an AI company.
It had lots of data, talented people, and computing power to be a leader in AI. But in 2015, Google made some changes. It became part of a bigger company called Alphabet.
Buchheit thinks this is when Google started to focus more on keeping its search business strong instead of pushing forward with AI. They have, you know, this gold mine, like search is just so valuable,” Buchheit said.
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Meanwhile, AI is an inherently disruptive technology.” He explained that AI gives direct answers, which could make people click on fewer ads. Ads are how search engines make money. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had described search engines as “largely a black art” and “advertising-oriented.” They wanted Google to give high-quality search results as the internet grew.
Google has had some recent problems with its AI projects. Its AI search feature gave strange answers. And its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, made a mistake during a demo that cost the company $100 billion in value.
These issues hint that Google’s change in focus might have hurt its ability to move fast with AI. This could let competitors get ahead in the ongoing race to develop AI technology.
