Google taps Larry Page and Sergey Brin to tackle ChatGPT and A.I. Chatbots

A rival chatbot has shaken Google out of its rut, founders who left three years ago recommitting and more than 20 A.I. projects underway.

Last month, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, held several meetings with business leaders. The subject: A rival's new chatbot, an intelligent artificial intelligence. product that appeared to be the first notable threat in decades to Google's $149 billion search business.

Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who hadn't spent much time at Google since leaving their day-to-day roles with the company in 2019, reviewed Google's AI product strategy, according to two people familiar with the meetings who were not authorized to discuss it. They approved plans and came up with ideas to integrate more chatbot functionality into Google's search engine. And they offered advice to business leaders, who put A.I. at the center of their plans. current CEO of the company, Sundar Pichai, underscored the urgency felt by many Google executives about artificial intelligence and this chatbot, ChatGPT.

The bot, which was launched by small San Francisco company OpenAI two months ago, amazed users by simply explaining complex concepts and generating ideas from scratch. More importantly for Google, it looked like it could offer a new way to search the Internet for information.

New A.I. technology has shaken Google out of its routine. Mr Pichai declared a "code red", upsetting existing plans and reviving AI. development. Google now plans to unveil more than 20 new products and demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot functionality this year, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times and two people with knowledge of the plans. weren't allowed to discuss it. .

At the same time, Alphabet is downsizing. On Friday, the company announced it would cut about 12,000 jobs after a surge in hiring during the pandemic and amid concerns of a slowing economy. The layoffs were designed "to ensure that our people and our roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company," Mr. Pichai wrote in a memo to employees.

"This is a moment of significant vulnerability for Google," said D. Sivakumar, a former Google research director who helped found a startup called Tonita, which makes search technology for e-commerce businesses." ChatGPT put a stake in the ground, saying, 'This is what a compelling new search experience could look like.'" Mr. Sivakumar added that Google had overcome previous challenges and could roll out its arsenal of A.I. to stay competitive.

Since stepping back from their daily duties, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin have taken a hands-off approach with Google, two people familiar with the matter said. They left Mr. Pic hai run the company and its parent company, Alphabet, while pursuing other projects, such as flying car startups and disaster relief efforts.

Their visits to the company's offices in Silicon Valley over the past few years have mostly been to learn about so-called Moonshot projects that Alphabet calls "Other Bets," one person said. Until recently, they weren't very involved in the search engine.

But they've been keen on bringing A.I. into Google products for a long time. Vic Gundotra, a former senior vice president at Google, said he gave Mr. Page a demo of a new Gmail feature around 2008. But Mr. Page was unimpressed with the effort, asking "Why can't it automatically write this email?" for you?" In 2014, Google also acquired DeepMind, a leading London-based A.I. research lab.