Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai Challenges Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to AI Showdown
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has challenged Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to an AI showdown, of sorts. Speaking at the The New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, Pichai expressed his desire for a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own AI models and Google’s models. This comes after Nadella questioned Google’s place in the AI arms race following the search giant’s AI product mishaps earlier this year.
Nadella had stated that Google should have been the default winner in the AI race, citing the company’s vertical integration and capabilities in data, silicon, and models. Pichai responded by saying that Google’s AI models are better than Microsoft’s, and that Microsoft is using someone else’s models, a reference to OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs).
The market for chatbots and AI tools has exploded since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in late 2022, and both Microsoft and Google have been working to improve their AI capabilities. Google has used its own LLMs for years, while Microsoft has partnered with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine.
The escalating AI arms race has seen tech companies spar, particularly between Microsoft and Google. In October, Microsoft publicly accused Google of running “shadow campaigns” in Europe, claiming those efforts were designed to discredit the search giant with regulators.
When asked about Pichai’s comments, Microsoft did not immediately respond.