An internal email from Microsoft Corp. MSFT has surfaced, indicating that the company’s investment in ChatGPT-parent OpenAI was driven by concerns about falling behind Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL AI capabilities.
What Happened: The email, disclosed as part of the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google on Tuesday, was written by Microsoft’s chief technology officer Kevin Scott in 2019. Scott expressed deep concern about the gap in AI model-training capabilities between Google and Microsoft, reported Bloomberg.
He wrote, “We are multiple years behind the competition in terms of machine learning scale.” The email also highlighted the lack of infrastructure and development speed at Microsoft compared to OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed inquiries regarding the email during his testimony at the trial last fall. “As it relates to search, we wanted to sort of ensure that we could think about innovation” within the search domain using large language models such as those developed by OpenAI, he said. Adding, that the investment, however, “was not made with the narrow focus on just search.”
The Justice Department has argued that Google’s monopoly in the search market may have delayed the release of OpenAI’s innovations. Closing arguments in the case will be presented by Google and the Justice Department on Thursday and Friday, with Judge Amit Mehta anticipated to deliver his decision later this year, the report noted.
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Why It Matters: The email’s release sheds light on the intense competition in the AI space, particularly between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, leveraging the startup’s generative-AI technology to enhance its Bing search service, Edge internet browser, and integrate an AI Copilot service into Windows.
In December 2022, almost a month after OpenAI released ChatGPT to public and received massive appreciation, Google reportedly declared a “code red.” At the time, it was reported that Google CEO Sundar Pichai was involved in a flurry of meetings to define the tech giant’s AI strategy.
In February 2023, Google introduced Bard (now rebranded as Gemini), as an answer to ChatGPT, however, the chatbot gave an incorrect answer during the launch event, making it a laughingstock. On Google’s internal forum “Memegen,” employees characterized the troubled launch as “rushed,” “botched,” and “un-Googley.”
Earlier this year, Google also faced backlash for its Gemini AI, after the chatbot generated historically inaccurate images and text.
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