Google vs. Google: The internal struggle holding back its AI

Summary

The 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

00:00

🤖 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.

05:00

😥 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.

10:04

😴 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.

Keywords

💡AI race

The video discusses the race between big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to lead innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). Google is seen as falling behind despite previously being a front runner, leading to loss of investor and market confidence. Examples from the script showing this concept include investors wondering 'where was the company' leading AI, and claims Google is 'struggling to get its footing in the AI race'.

💡ChatGPT phenomenon

The video refers to the explosive popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot and how it captured public imagination for AI potential. Meanwhile, Google did not have a competing viral chatbot despite previous claims it would dominate AI. This shows Google struggling to keep up with the pace of innovation set by rivals.

💡AI image generation

The video focuses extensively on Google's troubled rollout of AI image generation tools like Imagen and DreamStudio. Controversies like racial bias and refusal to condemn pedophiles led Google to pause these tools. This exemplifies the challenges around trust and ethics in emerging AI.

💡AI hallucinations

So-called 'AI hallucinations' refer to bizarre, biased or inappropriate content generated by AI models. Both Google and competitors have struggled with their AI chatbots and image generators hallucinating in concerning ways. Resolving hallucinations remains an obstacle to safe deployment.

💡Search dominance

The video suggests Google is reluctant to disrupt its core search advertising business which has been hugely lucrative. This makes it harder for Google to adapt to the AI shift compared to rivals without existing search dominance to protect.

💡Brain drain

Top AI talent leaving Google to found startups is referred to as a 'brain drain' problem. This talent exodus could hamper Google's ability to compete in AI against hungrier competitors. Poaching by rivals also intensifies the war for scarce experts.

💡Cloud competition

The video notes Google Cloud is a distant third in market share and profitability compared to the leading duo of Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Lagging in cloud infrastructure could put Google at a disadvantage in deploying AI innovations at scale.

💡Innovation culture

Questions raised about Google's ability to ship products and avoid killing off services speak to concerns over its innovation culture. The contrast with hungry startups centred on new AI capabilities is stark. Is Google still attractive to top entrepreneurs?

💡Leadership pressure

Intense competition in AI and high profile failures for Google like scrapped gaming service Stadia have led to some calls for new leadership. But investor activists and Wall Street have so far reserved judgement on CEO Pichai despite missteps.

💡AI transparency

Google is critiqued in the video for extremely limited visibility into its plans and priorities for investors and the public. This "hermit approach" may buy patience but also risks falling further behind competitors revealing more about their AI roadmaps.

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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