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Notes -
I will admit this isn't an effortpost:
As is common knowledge and more deeply discussed elsewhere in this very comment section (e.g. https://www.themotte.org/post/349/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/62270?context=8#context), Google got "scooped" by ChatGPT not because they were beat on the technology side, but because they were beat on the productization side. Some are comparing this to Xerox PARC, where Xerox invented or incubated many elements of modern computer technology -- the GUI, the mouse, etc. -- but, being blind to their actual utility, got "scooped" by Apple and others and subsequently lost out on trillions of dollars of market value.
What's deeply, deeply hilarious to me is: during this entire time, Google management were so busy posturing, and their internal A.I. safety teams were so busy noisily complaining sexism / racism / phobias of various sorts (not so much human extinction), and they developed such a reputation for being a place to coast, that despite 130,000 elite-educated, overpaid people sitting around ostensibly unleash their brilliance, they're now in a position where Microsoft has a puncher's chance (realistically, maybe 5 - 10%) of catching up and even surpassing Google's decades-long search dominance. Even better, competing with Microsoft now means that Google might have to cannibalize a $100B / yr line of business, whereas Microsoft cannibalizing Bing means it sacrifices maybe a ham sandwich / year line of business.
Posturing about DEI was maybe 1% of the issue. The much more significant one is that the internal culture is something between a university department and a retirement home. To the extent DEI and failing to execute on product are related, it's because of that shared cause.
This is indeed a problem Google has, but it was by no means a cause of them being scooped in this case. The Bard thing they announced has been in the making since before ChatGPT was released, and from what I can say, while it felt somewhat worse than ChatGPT, it would have still blown everyone’s minds, had their launched what they had in December 2023.
The real problem is what the OP said: they were loathe to release it, for couple of independent reasons. They didn’t feel it is good enough, for one thing, AI “””safety””” was definitely a major consideration, and finally they were afraid of it canibalizing their main business.
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