OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged that Google’s efforts were not as effective in 2023 as it is now. He said that if Google had chosen to focus on OpenAI at that time, the ChatGPT-maker would have been in a “really bad place.” Speaking on the Big Technology Podcast with Alex Kantrowitz, Altman called Google a ‘huge threat’. Expressing concerns about Google’s dominance in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Altman said that Google’s immense power and business model could pose a significant threat in the AI space. “Google is still a huge threat…you know extremely powerful company,” Sam Altman said during the podcast. “I think they would have just been able to smash us,” said the OpenAI CEO.
He also stated that Google’s business model is one of the strongest in the tech industry, adding it may take some time for OpenAI to beat it. Altman also questioned whether integrating AI into existing systems like web search will work or not. He suggested that a complete redesign with AI at the forefront would be more successful.Sam Altman’s latest remarks contradicts his previous statement when he identified Apple as the company’s ultimate rival while declaring “code red” and redirecting resources from moonshot projects to salvage ChatGPT’s slipping dominance. Speaking at a lunch with journalists in New York recently, Altman argued that future AI competition will be won through devices, not software alone, and today’s smartphones simply aren’t built for AI companions, The Wall Street Journal reports.The comments reveal Altman’s strategic vision even as OpenAI scrambles to defend its turf. Earlier this month, he issued an internal “code red” memo ordering employees to pause side projects—including the much-hyped Sora video generator—for eight weeks to focus exclusively on improving ChatGPT. The directive represents a dramatic course correction: abandoning the company’s founding mission of achieving artificial general intelligence to chase mass-market appeal instead.
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