OpenAI not only managed to surpass Google with its artificial intelligence chatbot, but also accidentally contributed to another almost impossible thing: forcing the two artificial intelligence research teams of Alphabet’s flagship subsidiary Google and artificial intelligence laboratory DeepMind decided to join forces to catch up with OpenAI.
Software engineers at Google Brain, Google’s artificial intelligence project, are working with employees at DeepMind to develop software to rival OpenAI. Google previously launched the Bard chatbot to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but accidentally overturned at the demonstration site. Shortly thereafter, Alphabet decided to launch a joint project called Gemini. Bard’s release was also internally influenced by the resignation of a prominent Google AI researcher who had warned Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and other executives about the project’s development.
This move also reflects Google’s adjustment of its product roadmap in multiple departments such as search and cloud to cope with the competition brought about by the cooperation between OpenAI and Microsoft. OpenAI has integrated technologies such as ChatGPT into products from Microsoft, which provides funding and computing power to the startup.
But Gemini has to use it as a last resort. Alphabet’s two AI labs rarely collaborate or share code with each other. But with both now looking to develop machine-learning models that compete with OpenAI and both requiring massive amounts of computing power, Alphabet has been forced to co-operate, people familiar with the matter said.