- Google CEO claps back at Satya Nadella's comments about teasing Google with a “new Bing”.
- Sundar Pichai said that listening to someone else's music is one way you can go wrong.
- Pichai said competition in tech is normal and he has a clear understanding of what Google needs to do.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella once said that he hoped the “new Bing” would bring Google “out and show they can dance.”
“And I want people to know that we nailed them, and I think that will be a great day,” Nadella said after launching the revamped Bing search engine built with OpenAI in February 2023.
But Google CEO Sundar Pichai loves listening to his own music, he said in a new interview with Bloomberg published Wednesday.
“One of the ways you can do things wrong is listening to noise outside and playing someone else's dance music,” Pichai said in the interview in response to Nadella's comments.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
Microsoft announced its “New Bing” powered by OpenAI in February 2023. Nadella previously told The Verge that he waited 20 years to compete with Google, and that it “should be the default winner” of the Big Tech AI race.
Despite Google's early investment in AI and all its resources and talent, Microsoft started to lead the AI race when it partnered with OpenAI and the new Bing and 365 Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool for Microsoft apps. .
Google, meanwhile, is in a tight spot.
When ChatGPTT launches in 2022, Google will reportedly Issued a “Code Red” employees about a potential threat to their search business. The company also refocused on its AI strategy after the new competition.
Soon after, Google launched its AI chatbot Bard, now called Gemini. Later, when it announced the upgrade, Google faced almost immediate backlash for misrepresentation of historical data created by the image-generator tool.
But the tech giant is taking advantage of its huge user base to promote its AI products.
Google recently announced that it is making its own AI chips. It's also ramping up its AI efforts with a series of cloud advancements, the general availability of TPU V5P, the new release of Gemini 1.5, and various AI additions to Google Workspaces.
It has been restructuring its teams and cutting headcount over the past year to make room for its biggest priorities, namely AI advancements. In 2023, Google is planning to reduce its workforce by about 6% and thousands of layoffs have been reported so far in 2024.
Pichai told Bloomberg that AI is in its early stages and competition is always a part of working in the tech sector.
“It's happening at a fast pace, but you know changes in technology get faster over time,” Pichai said in the interview. “So it's not a surprise to me at all.”
“I think we have a clear sense of what we need to do,” Pichai said.
Meanwhile, Google still dominates search compared to Bing – which Nadella acknowledged after his comments about nailing its rival.
“I think when you have a 3% share of global search and you're competing with someone who has 97%, there's a “Even a small gain is an exciting moment.” Springer, in an October interview. “But Google is a very strong company, and they're going to come out stronger.”
“Google has a number of structural advantages: They already have stakes, they control Android, they control Chrome,” Nadella said. “I always say Google makes more money on Windows than all of Microsoft combined. It keeps us grounded.”
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On February 28, Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in a Dutch court, alleging damages caused by the company's advertising practices.