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☆ Google CEO says he isn't worried about catching up to OpenAI after declaring a 'code red': 'I feel very comfortable about where we are.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai isn't in a rush to catch up to OpenAI, he told Wired. Releasing Google's AI products before ChatGPT was launched "wouldn't have worked out as well," he said. Pichai's thoughts on AI come months after the CEO declared a "code red" for Google's search engine. "In some ways, it was an exciting moment for me, because we are building that underlying technology and deploying it across our products," Pichai told Wired in an interview published on Monday. Since the disastrous demo, Google has announced a slate of new AI products.

Persons: Sundar Pichai isn't, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, —, Bard, James Webb, John Hennessy Organizations: Wired, Service, Microsoft, Google, James Webb Space, Gmail Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Biden aides tap Google chair for chips research effort, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - The Biden administration picked the chairman of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), John Hennessy, and four other technology industry experts to help with research-and-development of next generation computer chips, U.S. officials told Reuters. Hennessy and the selected individuals are set to be announced by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, according to the officials, who declined to be identified. They will be responsible for picking a board of trustees to run the National Semiconductor Technology Center. That public-private partnership was authorized to lead research on next-generation chips as part of last year's bipartisan $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research law, which also subsidizes new chip plants. The nonprofit board is expected make politically sensitive decisions, including where in the United States to locate the center's research facilities.

Persons: Biden, John Hennessy, Hennessy, Joe Biden, Janet Foutty, Jason Matheny, Don Rosenberg, Brenda Wilkerson, Trevor Hunnicutt, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: Google, Reuters, Commerce Department, National Semiconductor Technology, Stanford University, Deloitte, RAND Corp, Anzu Partners, Qualcomm, Thomson Locations: United States, China, Taiwan

☆ Biden administration taps Google chair for chips research effort
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - The Biden administration says it has picked the chairman of Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), John Hennessy, and four other technology industry experts to help with research and development of next-generation computer chips. They will be responsible for picking a board of trustees to run the National Semiconductor Technology Center. That public-private partnership was authorized to lead research on next-generation chips as part of last year's bipartisan $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research law, which also subsidizes new chip plants. The nonprofit board is expected make politically sensitive decisions, including where in the United States to locate the center's research facilities. "This selection committee is the next step to helping us stand up the NSTC and ensure it succeeds for generations."

Persons: Biden, John Hennessy, Hennessy, Joe Biden, Gina Raimondo, Janet Foutty, Jason Matheny, Don Rosenberg, Brenda Wilkerson, Trevor Hunnicutt, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: Google, Inc, Commerce Department, Reuters, National Semiconductor Technology, Stanford University, Deloitte, RAND Corp, Anzu Partners, Qualcomm, Thomson Locations: United States, China, Taiwan

☆ ChatGPT cost a bomb to make with OpenAI's losses growing to $540 million last year, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI's losses climbed to $540 million in 2022 as it developed ChatGPT, a new report claims. The Information said that the startup's costs soared in the months before it launched the chatbot. AI tools like ChatGPT are expensive given the significant computing power needed to run them. OpenAI's development of the technology came at a steep price, with its losses roughly doubling to around $540 million last year, a new report claims. OpenAI's revenue is projected to rise significantly this year, with expectations that revenue will hit $200 million this year before climbing to $1 billion in 2024, according to Reuters.

☆ Google employees who tested its ChatGPT rival Bard reportedly called it 'cringeworthy' and a 'pathological liar,' and said the AI's responses could 'result in serious injury or death'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google employees who tested Bard called it "cringeworthy" and a "pathological liar," per Bloomberg. Google employees tasked with testing their employer's AI chatbot Bard were not all that pleased by what they found, according to Bloomberg. After testing the bot, one employee reportedly called Bard "cringeworthy," and another called it a "pathological liar," according to screenshots of internal discussions obtained by Bloomberg. Google employees called the announcement "rushed" and "botched." Read Bloomberg's full report on Google employees' responses to Bard here

☆ Here are the top generative-AI startups founded by ex-Googlers that are raising hundreds of millions in 2023, despite a tough funding market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Google built much of the foundational technology behind today's generative-AI boom. Some Googlers who built key technology are raising millions to start their own AI companies. While OpenAI has garnered considerable attention for ChatGPT, much of the foundational AI technology that made the chatbot possible got its start inside Google. Excited by ChatGPT and the potential of generative AI, some employees from Google have left the company to found their own AI startups with the belief that generative AI will alter how humans and computers interact. Below are some companies that former Googlers founded that capitalize on their work in generative AI and natural-language processing.

☆ Google employees are already internally testing a smarter version of its chatbot called 'Big Bard'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Googlers are testing the company's Bard chatbot ahead of release. Staff also have access to a superior version, named "Big Bard." Big Bard produces much richer and more humanlike responses. Insider viewed examples of users asking both versions similar questions, and Big Bard produced richer and more humanlike responses. Big Bard appears to be a preview of what a more advanced version of the chatbot might look like.

☆ Two Google engineers built a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot years ago, but execs reportedly shut it down due to safety concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ex-Google engineers developed a conversational AI chatbot years ago, per The Wall Street Journal. Google is now racing to catch up with Microsoft's AI and plans to release its AI chatbot this year. "It caused a bit of a stir inside of Google," Shazeer said in an interview with investors Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan last month. But Google's AI plans may now finally see the light of day, even as discussions around whether its chatbot can be responsibly launched continue. Alphabet chairman John Hennessy agreed that Google's chatbot wasn't "really ready for a product yet."

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

☆ AI is expensive. A search on Google's chatbot Bard costs the company 10 times more than a regular one, which could amount to several billion dollars.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Alphabet chairman John Hennessy said an AI chatbot search costs 10 times more than a regular one, per Reuters. Analysts expect Google to incur billions in extra AI costs over the next several years. Analysts say the extra costs can amount to billions of dollars over the span of years, Reuters reported. The projected costs of AI search varies. To reduce its AI-related costs, Google said it will run its chatbot with a "smaller version" of its LaMDA AI model, per Reuters.

☆ Microsoft knows Bing's AI chatbot gives out some eyebrow-raising answers. An exec said decreasing them is a priority.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Since then, Microsoft has restricted Bing users to five questions per session. A Microsoft spokesperson didn't respond to Insider's request for additional comment ahead of publication. The emerging AI arms race has sparked debate among industry experts and users over whether Bing's AI launch was a responsible choice. When asked about Bing's responses, a Microsoft spokesperson told Insider last week that user feedback is necessary to pinpoint flaws in the chatbot so they can be improved. "It's important to note that last week we announced a preview of this new experience," the Microsoft spokesperson said at the time.

☆ Citi names the biggest tech winners in emerging A.I. frenzy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

He sees multiple ways the company can win in generative AI, including the market share gain potential in search. However, whether it can retain its user base and grow engagement will be crucial to realizing the revenue opportunity with advertising, Radke noted. Given Alphabet's investments across AI, Radke expects a more robust user experience across search verdicts and products. Opportunity in the GPU business AI search may create a $4.5 billion annual opportunity in the graphic processing unit market, Radke said. He has a price target of $210 on Nvidia, which implies 6% downside from Monday's close.

☆ Google CEO Sundar Pichai asks employees to put two to four hours into helping to improve and 'dogfood' its Bard chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google this week began companywide internal testing of Bard, its AI chatbot for search. In a memo, CEO Sundar Pichai has asked all employees to spend 2-4 hours helping test the product. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent an internal memo to Googlers on Wednesday asking them to contribute 2-4 hours of their time to helping improve Bard, the company's AI chatbot that it intends to integrate into search. Google kicked off "dogfooding," or internally testing, Bard on Tuesday, according to another memo seen by Insider. Read the full memo below:Hi Googlers,Excited to see us opening up Bard for an internal dogfood to help us get it ready for launch.

☆ Google didn't think its Bard AI was 'really ready' for a product yet, says Alphabet chairman, days after the chatbot's very public mistake tanked the company's stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

John Hennessy, the chairman of Alphabet, said Google was hesitant to use its Bard AI in a product as it wasn't "really ready," per CNBC. Google unveiled its Bard AI last week amid intense interest in competitor ChatGPT. But a promo for Google Bard featured a factual error — which sent Alphabet's stock down 9% in a day. Google unveiled Bard amid intense interest in rival chatbot ChatGPT, and just a day before Microsoft rolled out its AI-powered Bing search engine which is built using technology from OpenAI, the parent of ChatGPT. At the conference, Hennessy declined to comment specifically on the public's reaction to Google's Bard, per CNBC.

☆ Father of internet warns: Don't rush investments into AI just because ChatGPT 'is really cool'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Google chief evangelist and “father of the internet” Vint Cerf has a message for business executives looking to rush business deals around chat artificial intelligence: "Don’t." Cerf pleaded with attendees at a Mountain View conference on Monday not to scramble to invest in conversational AI just because "it’s a hot topic." "There’s an ethical issue here that I hope some of you will consider," Cerf told the conference crowd Monday. He’s known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet” because he co-designed some of the architecture used to build the foundation of the internet. Cerf warned against the temptation to invest just because th technology is “really cool, even though it doesn’t work quite right all the time."

☆ It's not just Google — closer inspection reveals Bing's AI also flubbed the facts in its big reveal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Dmitri Brereton said Bing's new AI chatbot "got some answers completely wrong" during its demo. As part of Microsoft's unveiling of the new tech, Bing's AI was asked to list the pros and cons of the three best-selling pet vacuums. "I hope Bing AI enjoys being sued for libel," he wrote. The AI arms race may lead to the spread of misinformationBrereton's observations come as Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft enter an AI arms race. While Brereton told Insider that generative AI search engines like the new Bing can be "quite transformative," he noted that releasing it prematurely "could lead to big problems."

☆ Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy explains why Google was hesitant to put out its ChatGPT competitor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google 's Bard announcement last week was meant to show that the company has similar technology as the popular ChatGPT chatbot, even though it still has ways to go before becoming product-ready, Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy said Monday. Hennessy, who spoke on key trends for 2023, briefly touched on Google being caught in the sudden onrush of interest in ChatGPT and generative AI. Last week, the company launched its response to ChatGPT in a conversation technology it is calling Bard. However, the announcement had the appearance of being rushed to match Microsoft's inclusion of ChatGPT technology into its search engine, Bing, and investors punished Alphabet stock, sending it down 9% for the day. Hennessy said Google was slow to roll out its ChatGPT competitor in part because it's still giving wrong answers.

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