In December 2022, the two founders of Google -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- held a meeting with a number of Google executives. the topic? Chatbot competitor ChatGPT.
Page and Brin actually haven't appeared on Google for a very long time, since 2019 to be precise. However, the presence of ChatGPT from OpenAI was considered a major threat to Google, and the two masterminds had to go down the mountain to find a solution to fight the chatbot.
As quoted by us from the New York Times, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, asked Page and Brin for help in reviewing Google's artificial intelligence (AI) product strategy, which was revealed by two people who knew the executives' meeting with the Google founder.
Pichai invited Page and Brin due to the concerns of a number of Google executives who felt threatened by the presence of the ChatGPT AI chatbot.
Both of them agreed on the plans and ideas raised by Google executives, namely to install the chatbot feature into Google's search engine service. Page and Brin also suggested that Google prioritize AI as Google's flagship feature.
As a result, Google now plans to showcase more than 20 new products and demonstrate its chatbot embedded in search engines. There is no exact date for this launch, but it will likely take place at the Google I/O 2023 event in May.
This plan to change the focus to AI came after Google laid off 12,000 of its employees, which they did because they recruited too many employees at the start of the pandemic.
Before ChatGPT arrived, Google seemed to be more "play it safe" with AI, because if they released the chatbot too hastily it was feared it could damage Google's reputation.