Sundar Pichai opens up on the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT before Google's chatbot, cites YouTube and Instagram

OpenAI launched its chatbot, ChatGPT, in 2022, initiating a new era in artificial intelligence (AI). This left behind tech giants such as Google, which had been working on artificial intelligence technologies for years. What was Google's reaction to OpenAI releasing ChatGPT ahead of its chatbot Gemini?

CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, recently shared his reaction to the release of ChatGPT at Dreamforce, Salesforce's annual technology event, on Thursday.

What did Sundar Pichai say?

“But you're right, credit to OpenAI, they put it out first,” a report by Business Insider quoted Pichai.

Pichai's remarks came when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sought Google's reaction, which he called the "absolute leader in AI" at the time, when “this little company in San Francisco called OpenAI emerges with this product ChatGPT”.

The Google CEO mentioned that the company had already made enough progress on AI products, including an internal version of a chatbot.

Comparison with YouTube and Instagram

Pichai further compared the time of ChatGPT's launch to others he had observed in the consumer internet sector. For example, when Google was developing video search in 2006, YouTube "came out of nowhere," Facebook was getting popular with photos in its feed, and then Instagram surfaced, the report said. Notably, Google bought YouTube, and Facebook purchased Instagram later.

"We knew in a different world, we would've probably launched our chatbot maybe a few months down the line," Pichai said. “We hadn't quite gotten it to a level where you could put it out and people would've been OK with Google putting out that product. It still had a lot of issues at that time,” he added.

Sundar Pichai flags reputational risks

Pichai said Google had already extensively invested in AI, including its research teams and producing its own chips and infrastructure, and that it was well-positioned when ChatGPT was released.

However, after ChatGPT's launch, Pichai said Google would not immediately release a chatbot competitor because it posed greater "reputational risk" than OpenAI.

Launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, it was backed by Microsoft, a competitor of Google, and was considered a major challenge to Google in the artificial intelligence sector. Meanwhile, Google management issued a "code red," and the CEO redirected several teams to focus on AI, the New York Times reported.

Google released its chatbot, which was initially named Bard and later renamed Gemini, in March 2023.