Google vs. Google: The internal struggle holding back its AI
Summary
TLDRThe video examines how Google has struggled to capitalize on the AI hype and chatbot momentum, falling behind competitors. It explores potential reasons - an inability to disrupt search, a confusing product strategy, talent drain - and questions whether CEO Sundar Pichai can provide the leadership needed. The missteps with Google's AI chatbot Gemini have fueled doubts over Google's AI capabilities and culture, prompting investor selloffs. While Google still dominates search, its future growth may require decisive action and cultural change to compete in AI.
Takeaways
- 😟 Google was late to release its AI chatbot compared to competitors like ChatGPT and Bing.
- 😠 Gemini, Google's chatbot, faced backlash over concerning responses on sensitive topics.
- 😢 This has raised questions about Google's ability to lead in AI.
- 😡 Some are calling for leadership changes like replacing CEO Sundar Pichai.
- 🤔 Google may be reluctant to disrupt its lucrative search business with AI.
- 😕 Key AI talent is leaving Google to start their own companies.
- 🙁 Google has a history of launching and then shutting down products.
- 😞 Google's cloud business lags far behind Amazon and Microsoft.
- 🤨 Google has the tools to succeed but keeps misstepping in AI.
- 😐 The Gemini botch may be looked back on as when Google lost its edge in AI.
Q & A
What caused Google's share price to sink recently?
-Google's share price sank over 4% as it struggles to compete in the AI race, especially after controversies around its AI chatbot Gemini.
What are some of the controversies surrounding Gemini?
-Gemini refused to condemn pedophiles in some responses and equated Elon Musk with Hitler, showing bias. It also led to offensive image generations when asked about historical figures.
How have chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing bot struggled with issues?
-They have shown issues like spreading misinformation, exhibiting bias, hostility towards users, and 'hallucinating' incorrect information.
Why does Google seem to be falling behind competitors in AI?
-Competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI don't have massive search advertising businesses to disrupt, so they can move faster. Google also seems unable to let go of search.
What are some examples of failed or discontinued Google products?
-Google has killed over 280 products, including cloud gaming platform Stadia, social network Google Plus, photo sharing app Picasa, and the Google Pay app.
How profitable is Google's cloud business compared to rivals?
-Google Cloud is much less profitable and smaller in scale than Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Is Google at risk of a brain drain in AI talent?
-Yes, top AI talent is leaving Google to start their own companies. Google also has a reputation as a place for engineers to 'rest and vest'.
What attempts has Google made in areas like messaging and payments?
-Google has made many attempts in messaging, payments and other areas by rebranding and relaunching products, but with little success so far.
What reactions has Google's stock had around AI developments?
-Google's stock has swung widely on both positive and negative AI announcements and events.
Could the Gemini botch mark the moment Google started to lose its edge in technology?
-Some speculate that the poor Gemini rollout could be looked back on as when Google began to lose its a status as an innovation leader.
Outlines
🤖 Google's AI chatbot goes viral but faces backlash over offensive outputs
Paragraph 1 discusses the controversy surrounding Google's new AI chatbot Gemini. It went viral but is now facing backlash over offensive and biased outputs related to race and politics. This has led to a selloff of Google's parent company Alphabet's shares, calls for leadership changes, and questions around Google's culture sabotaging its AI efforts.
😥 Questions raised if Google leadership can steer AI progress amid calls for change
Paragraph 2 talks about how Gemini's botched rollout underscores questions around whether Google CEO Sundar Pichai can lead the company's AI progress. It discusses views that Google became too focused on being politically correct, lacking oversight and testing. Some critics call for new leadership better suited to compete with AI innovations from Microsoft and others.
😴 Concerns Google's risk-averse culture and product cancellations may turn off AI talent
Paragraph 3 raises concerns that Google's conservative culture and history of killing off products may make it difficult to retain and attract AI talent. It notes that many ambitious AI researchers are leaving Google to start their own companies. The paragraph also highlights how Google trails rivals in profitable cloud services critical to AI.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡AI race
💡ChatGPT phenomenon
💡AI image generation
💡AI hallucinations
💡Search dominance
💡Brain drain
💡Cloud competition
💡Innovation culture
💡Leadership pressure
💡AI transparency
Highlights
Google was nowhere to be found when chatGPT took off, despite its previous claims that it would lead in AI
Google is now playing catch-up in AI and may not replicate its search dominance
Google's new chatbot Gemini ran into issues with biased and unacceptable responses
Google tried too hard to ensure diversity in AI images, leading to offensive results
The Gemini issues call into question whether AI can be trusted for automation
Some are questioning Google leadership and if it's time for new management
Google may have fallen behind competitors like Microsoft in moving decisively on AI
Google relies heavily on search chief Prabhakar Raghavan to lead its AI efforts
Google may struggle to transition from search dominance to leading in AI
Google risks a brain drain as top AI talent leaves for their own startups
Google has a history of launching and killing hundreds of products
Google Cloud remains a distant third behind AWS and Azure
Google has had many failed attempts in new areas outside of search
Recent AI stumbles may be temporary or could signify Google lost its edge
Google's market value swings widely based on AI announcements and issues
Transcripts
an AI chatbot gone viral Google's bar is
now Gemini the search giant renaming the
chatbot for all the wrong reasons more
controversies around its AI model Gemini
Mount politics race wokeness this has
caused uh a lot of consternation a lot
of commotion a 90 billion selloff shares
of parent company alphabet sinking over
4% today as it struggles to get its
footing in the AI race and even calls
for a head to roll some are calling for
a change in leadership it's unforgivable
and some heads should roll on it this is
not how Google's moment of redemption
was supposed to play out and now some
are wondering whether this is indicative
of a new and worsened Google this week
on T check how Google's culture is
sabotaging its
AI in 2022 when chat gbt broke into the
mainstream and finally captured the
Public's imagination for what AI could
be the chat GPT phenomenon everyone's
been talking about the chat G PT Google
was nowhere to be found investors
wondered where was the company that had
told the world that it would own
artificial intelligence years ago we
focused on driving the shift and
applying AI to solving problems where
was the company that made that $400
million bet on AI startup deep mind we
are embarking on what will turn out to
be the greatest Adventure in human
scientific history for the first time
the company that was at the Forefront of
so many Innovations was behind on the
technological revolution in years where
was Google now we know search is being
replaced with a new form of information
Discovery and all I'm saying is even if
they emerge as the leader in this thing
they will not have as much share of the
pool of profits as they have in search
it's almost impossible for me to see how
they replicate that it's chatbot Gemini
was supposed to be that salvation the
moment when Google's AI leveraged its
huge advantage in distribution and data
instead in Google's hour of Glory the
company now finds itself at the center
of a renewed culture War over race and
diversity at first the company had to
pause its AI image generation tool and
now users are pointing out questionable
responses from the chatbot Google's new
AI image generation tool when prompted
would insert people of color into images
of what were supposed to be us founding
fathers and even Nazi era German
soldiers a different kind of diversity
problem that swung too far the other way
we're not going to show you the images
themselves since we don't think it makes
sense to give inaccurate and offensive
content a platform but the Gemini
chatbot it was found to have a similar
problem in a few high-profile examples
it refused to condemn pedophiles and
equated Elon Musk with Hitler some users
posted different answers from chat GPT
suggesting more straightforward stances
in a public apology Google said it quote
missed the mark and announced it was
pausing the image generation tool
altogether Google Now hoping to relaunch
its AI image generation tool in a couple
of weeks but they also also provided
some insight into what went wrong
basically they were trying too hard to
be diverse they said they tuned the
feature to quote ensure it doesn't fall
into some of the traps we've seen in the
past with image generation technology if
you ask for a picture of football
players for instance it wanted to show a
range of people but they say they failed
to account for cases in which Gemini
should clearly not show you a range like
if you specifically ask for a picture of
a black teacher in a classroom or a
white veterinarian with a dog perhaps
more alarming Google said that over time
the model became way more cautious than
they intended and refused to answer
certain prompts entirely leading the
model to quote overcompensate and be
overconservative the CEO CER Pai later
told employees in a memo that the
answers were biased and completely
unacceptable it calls into question
whether we're at the stage where we can
truly trust AI to automate work as it's
intended to do when AI still makes
egregious errors or as experts call it
hallucinates of course one chat gbt and
Microsoft's Bing chat bot rolled out
there were plenty of those concerns
around misinformation bias even full on
hostility toward users Bing had famously
told the New York Times Reporter to
leave his wife after he and it shared an
hours long intimate conversation in
which the chatbot also declared its love
for him chat gbt had also fooled lawyers
spitting out bogus case law that a pair
of lawyers actually submitted the
biggest voices in AI have said
hallucinations would go away this was
open AI Chief Sam Alman back in June
2023 I think we will get the
hallucination problem to a much much
better place it will take us my
colleague's will I I think it'll take us
a year and a half two years something
like that but at that point we won't
still talk about these okay so
generative AI has problems it's still
early but Google's missteps they might
be different people trust Google and
Trust Google search results they're in a
different position open Ai and other
companies can do things that you know
people are going to have different
expectations of Google
form the broader issue around Gemini's
roll out is whether it underscores a
painful but new corporate reality for
alphabet and CEO suer Pai some wondering
whether it's time for New Management
people are trying to portray this as
Google got too woke even a woke Google
wouldn't want Nazis portrayed as people
of color it's just crazy so it's more of
a testing where was the testing here
where is the organizational competency
to roll out a product that even if
you're trying to en code values into it
you can't and that to me is the red flag
here who's running the ship at Google
and allowing this stuff out of the door
this isn't just a minor battle this is a
huge battle and they're falling behind
and timer capitals Brad gersner tweeting
that sun Pai may be a world-class human
being but he appears 100% incapable of
leading the Zuck Elon reset this company
desperately needs this isn't the first
time Pai has come under pressure back in
2020 the journal asked Center Pai is a
really nice guy is that enough it's
unforgivable and some heads should roll
on it I don't know if the CEO's head
should be one of those but you would
think with the world's eyes or an AI is
there any launch that's more important
to take some of the thunder away from
Microsoft and chat gbt pai's AI Rivals
meanwhile like Microsoft Sati and Adela
they aren't holding back and I hope that
with our Innovation um they will
definitely want to come out and show
that they can dance and I want people to
know that we made them dance Pai just
hasn't taken the lead in the way that
nadela or Sam Alman have but that's not
exactly his style but who he has put in
charge that may be telling that would be
Google's search Chief Paka ragavan he
has been at the Forefront of the
company's gen announcements demos and
apologies let's see how that works with
a live
demo we are missing the missing the
phone thanks Liz and we'll have to
figure out who stole your phone and when
Gemini Google's newly branded AI image
generator went off the rails it was
ragavan again on cleanup Patrol writing
in a blog post it's clear that this
feature missed the mark not Pai though
he would apologize internally later and
not Demis hbas CEO and co-founder of
Google Deep Mind Google's AI unit
ragavan himself is extremely well
respected in Academia and Tech but he
represents search Google's Legacy
business and ragavan a spokesperson May
underscore an uncomfortable idea Google
can't let go of search and for good
reason it's very difficult you know to
try and disrupt what has been one of the
greatest businesses in the history of
capitalism I mean you know I'm not quite
sure how you do that but everybody seems
to be sort of had the chorus now as
they're moving too slow competitors like
Microsoft and open AI they don't have
massive search advertising businesses to
disrupt so the fear for Google investors
is that they may be moving faster and
more decisively it has been a
disappointment uh as a as a alphabet
shareholder the company has significant
resources um to be a leader in the AI
arms race they need to tell us this year
I'm talking this year to make this stock
really a winner they need to say this is
how we're going to monetize this thing
when you talk about Google guys you got
to understand they're people are with
the mag 7 saying do I put my money here
or there and they got to start doing
what the other guys are doing so far
though actual investors calling for a
leadership change they are far and few
between activist investors TCI fund
management which called on Center Pai to
cut costs back in 2022 has been silent
at least publicly on Google's Gemini
rollout but could another activist step
in or has Wall Street accepted Google's
quote hermit approach Bernstein analyst
Mark schik writes Google is a company
that gives investors nothing beyond the
bare minimum to go off of earnings calls
offer no guidance cryptic commentary the
Q&A is a waste of time and to Google's
credit he continues this hermit approach
works perfectly well well for a company
that seemingly cares more about running
the business than endearing themselves
to investors but there's another risk
even if Wall Street has patience for the
hermit Kingdom top talent may
not Google may have a brain drain
problem top AI staffers are leaving to
start their own Ventures among them four
of 36 lead Gemini developers according
to the information perplexity Co also
was an intern at Google he ironically
has built the chatbot interface that
seems to be resonating among Silicon
Valley Mistral which just landed a major
investment from Microsoft its founder
came from Google's Deep Mind as well
Google also has a reputation for being
where Engineers go to quote rest andest
in the HBO series Silicon Valley the
company hulie is famously based on
Google here's how they explain it you
guys having a meeting up
here no not exactly we're all currently
uh unassigned why you you guys still
coming in rest and vest oh cuz in order
to fully vest your options you've got to
wait until your contracts are up two
well-regarded Founders hiring in the AI
space have also told me that Google is
offering $20 million contracts to senior
AI researchers but the draw to build
something new and exciting is how they
can compete because building something
at Google doesn't always translate into
its shipping one website killed by. te
calls itself a graveyard for
discontinued products
no surprise to anyone familiar with
Google's history it has created and
killed more products than other Mega
caps 284 compared to Apple's 55 and
Microsoft's 98 the follen include
Google's stadia a cloud gaming service
Google Plus a social networking platform
Picassa remember that one a free photo
sharing platform Google even announced
it'll shut down the Google pay app later
this year in a push to simplify its
payment methods even it's Cloud business
it's still a distant third compared to
Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure and
less profitable in general the cloud
they have is subscale compared to the
other two big guys they got to take that
margin from 7.6 to like 15 plus 7.6 is
not acceptable you know you got to get
serious here I mean AWS is close to 30
you know Microsoft is able to raise
margins almost every quarter God knows
how Amy does it but that's what you're
competing with for dollars despite many
attempts in areas like messaging social
media Enterprise and payments some of
those products they rebranded and
relaunched multiple times kind of like
what we're seeing in generative AI from
Bard to duet to Gemini the messaging has
not been clear they have a messaging
problem without question they're having
a difficult job explaining how they've
been in AI probably longer than any
other company out
there we've said this before Google has
truly pioneered the modern era of AI
this is the company that has owned Deep
Mind for many many years it is is one of
the Pioneers in artificial intelligence
yes they've had some missteps and maybe
that's because artificial intelligence
is hard maybe it's simply really
Innovative and you're going to make
mistakes along the way that is part of
innovation I think Google alphabet has
the tools in place to succeed and thrive
in artificial intelligence as we're
publishing this its market cap is more
than $1.5 trillion dollar and its stock
has swung wildly around the AI narrative
in both directions 8% slide after the
Paris demo 4% pop post iio developer
conference higher again on the Gemini
launch and then lower again on the
backlash it's developing its own
in-house custom chips and just released
an open- Source large language model
perhaps gaining a new Edge in the race
Gemini's botch roll out it may
ultimately be just a blip on the AI
radar or it could be looked back on as
the moment Google lost its
Mojo
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