But in its scramble to play catch-up, the company also released a pair of AI products that initially proved embarrassing.
Beyond AI, Google in December announced Willow, a chip the company calls its biggest step in the march toward commercially viable quantum computing.
When addressing employees, Pichai often name-checked co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to remind them of Google's scrappy roots.
And in the spring, Pichai greenlit a hackathon, allowing employees to build using Google products that have yet to be announced.
Executives repeatedly said the contract didn't violate any of the company's "AI principles."
Persons:
Sundar Pichai, Stephanie Keith, We've, Pichai, Demis Hassabis, Glenn Chapman, Sergey Brin, Liz Reid, Reid, Jaque Silva, YouTube's, Willow, Peter Kneffel, Prabhakar Raghavan, Nick Fox, Raghavan, Demis, Larry Page, Jung Yeon, Brin, DeepMind, they've, Brin's reemergence, Google DeepMind, Pau Barrena, Anat Ashkenazi, Ashkenazi, Tayfun, Chris Rackow, Anakin, Darth Vader
Organizations:
Google Inc, New York Times, Getty, Google, Meta, CNBC, AFP, Microsoft, YouTube, UC Berkeley, Nurphoto, Justice Department, Chrome, DOJ, Trillium, Gemini, Google's Labs, Employees, Pichai, Mobile World Congress, MWC, Afp, Anadolu, Amazon, Nimbus, National Labor Relations, Star
Locations:
NY, New York City, German, U.S, Austin , Texas, Atlanta, Seoul, View , California, San, Barcelona, Pau, Gaza, Rafah, Mountain View , California, United States