In an interview earlier this week, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Sundar Pichai responded to Microsoft Corporation MSFT CEO Satya Nadella‘s comments about making Google “dance” after the introduction of new Bing.
What Happened: On Wednesday, in an interview with Bloomberg, Pichai dismissed Nadella’s remarks about the “new Bing” and the need for Google to “dance” to its tune. “One of the ways you can do the wrong thing is by listening to noise out there and playing to someone else’s dance music,” he said.
Microsoft announced its “New Bing,” powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in February 2023. That same month, Nadella said, “I want people to know that we made them dance.”
Nadella also stated that he had been waiting for 20 years to compete with Google and that it “should have been the default winner” of the Big Tech AI race.
Despite Google’s early investment in AI and its resources and talent, Microsoft took the lead in the AI race when it partnered with OpenAI and launched the new Bing and 365 Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool for Microsoft apps.
Google was reportedly caught off guard. When ChatGPT was launched in 2022, Google allegedly issued a “code red” to employees about the potential threat to its search business. The company also refocused its AI strategy following the new competition.
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However, Google is now catching up, leveraging its massive user base to promote its AI products. The company recently announced that it is developing its own AI chips and is intensifying its AI efforts with a series of cloud advancements, the general availability of TPU v5p, the new release of Gemini 1.5, and various AI additions to Google Workspace.
Why It Matters: Pichai’s response comes in the wake of a challenging period for Google. The company has been facing increased scrutiny over its ability to keep pace with competitors, with some analysts even calling for a leadership change at the tech giant.
Earlier this year, Pichai’s anxiety about losing talent to rivals, especially Apple Inc., was exposed in a leaked email. Amid an ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, Pichai has reportedly kept a close watch on the loss of key talent to rivals, particularly Apple.
Following this, Google announced a restructuring after firing 28 employees for protesting against the company’s cloud deal with Israel. Pichai emphasized the need for focus, collaboration and respectful disagreements within the company, while announcing a restructuring of Google’s devices and mobile software divisions.
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