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The problem is that Google has been positioning itself as the leader in AI for over a decade, and now that powerful AI is starting to become a reality, Google s

The problem is that Google has been positioning itself as the leader in AI for over a decade, and now that powerful AI is starting to become a reality, Google seems completely blindsided. They have no idea how to capitalize on this development. Google's problem isn't lack of engineering talent, it's lack of leadership. If Google's board of directors gets their act together and finds new leadership, Google could yet harness what remains of their engineering talent and stay in the game, or even pull ahead. A lot of the pieces are there for Google to succeed. They still have top researchers and the institutional skill to run AI at scale. What they lack is clarity of vision. Under the current management, Google is following the paths of Xerox and Kodak.

spiderice 3y ago
It's surprising to me that Sundar hasn't been fired after missing so badly on AI (along with a host of other misses in his tenure). Maybe it's coming, but I really don't see what the Google board sees in him.
- yellow_postit 3y ago
  Sundar is to Google what Ballmer was to Microsoft. If the board wants to shift focus from high confidence near/medium term revenue they likely need a new leader.
- websap 3y ago
  Since Sundar became CEO in August 2015, Google's market cap went from ~350B to ~2T , why do you think he's an ineffective CEO? Thats 6x returns!
  - glimshe 3y ago
    Check the competitors - why didn't Google grow as fast as Microsoft or Nvidia? So yeah, that's ineffective. Maybe you could have grown Google as much as Sundar because he was essentially sitting on a gold mine found by the Google founders.
    - websap 3y ago
      So, he consistently delivered higher returns than the market, but didn't grow as fast as the 2 fastest companies?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - spiderice 3y ago
    Oh please. I don’t think I need to explain the flaw in this logic
    - websap 3y ago
      You took the time to type this out, so why don't you explain further?
hbn 3y ago
[flagged]
- xnx 3y ago
  Perhaps, but there are other indications that "deranged activists" are not in charge: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25292386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25292386 Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465250 You and I may want a totally unfiltered AI tool, but I don't expect a company with billions of users of all ages and situations to release that tool without guardrails.
- fumar 3y ago
  AI is more than managing prompts and Google's arsenal of ML talent is sky high. I recommend decoupling AI's sociopolitical journey from the underlying technologies. You are going to miss the forest for the trees. I look towards market adoption as the critical milestones, but those figures are closely guarded today. For example, Microsoft baked Copilot into many of its products but which ones have high user engagement and long term adoption?
- loudmax 3y ago
  The woke nonsense isn't the source of the problem, it's a symptom of a deeper problem. The Gemeni image model itself is fine. Despite what some people want to believe, it wasn't trained to be anti-white. The problem was some people in high level management position decided they should insert DEI stuff into the prompt without asking or telling the users, and they forced the engineers to implement this without thinking through the obvious consequences, or even performing basic testing. A competently managed company could still make reasonable efforts to promote DEI (or not), but it would look nothing like the nonsensical images that Gemeni was putting out on launch. Jamming DEI in sideways where it doesn't belong and then having it blow up in their face is a symptom of deeper problems from the top. The DEI is just exacerbating the lack of clarity, which is a much bigger problem. Fixing Gemeni image generation is easy: just undo the stupid prompt insertions. Fixing the chain of decision-making authority that led to those prompt insertions is difficult. They need to restructure management.
ericd 3y ago
I think their problem is that it’s not clear how not to cannibalize their core revenue model if this replaces some percentage of search (a large percentage, in my case).

spiderice 3y ago

It's surprising to me that Sundar hasn't been fired after missing so badly on AI (along with a host of other misses in his tenure). Maybe it's coming, but I really don't see what the Google board sees in him.

yellow_postit 3y ago
Sundar is to Google what Ballmer was to Microsoft. If the board wants to shift focus from high confidence near/medium term revenue they likely need a new leader.
websap 3y ago
Since Sundar became CEO in August 2015, Google's market cap went from ~350B to ~2T , why do you think he's an ineffective CEO? Thats 6x returns!
- glimshe 3y ago
  Check the competitors - why didn't Google grow as fast as Microsoft or Nvidia? So yeah, that's ineffective. Maybe you could have grown Google as much as Sundar because he was essentially sitting on a gold mine found by the Google founders.
  - websap 3y ago
    So, he consistently delivered higher returns than the market, but didn't grow as fast as the 2 fastest companies?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- spiderice 3y ago
  Oh please. I don’t think I need to explain the flaw in this logic
  - websap 3y ago
    You took the time to type this out, so why don't you explain further?

hbn 3y ago

[flagged]

xnx 3y ago
Perhaps, but there are other indications that "deranged activists" are not in charge: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25292386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25292386 Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465250 You and I may want a totally unfiltered AI tool, but I don't expect a company with billions of users of all ages and situations to release that tool without guardrails.
fumar 3y ago
AI is more than managing prompts and Google's arsenal of ML talent is sky high. I recommend decoupling AI's sociopolitical journey from the underlying technologies. You are going to miss the forest for the trees. I look towards market adoption as the critical milestones, but those figures are closely guarded today. For example, Microsoft baked Copilot into many of its products but which ones have high user engagement and long term adoption?
loudmax 3y ago
The woke nonsense isn't the source of the problem, it's a symptom of a deeper problem. The Gemeni image model itself is fine. Despite what some people want to believe, it wasn't trained to be anti-white. The problem was some people in high level management position decided they should insert DEI stuff into the prompt without asking or telling the users, and they forced the engineers to implement this without thinking through the obvious consequences, or even performing basic testing. A competently managed company could still make reasonable efforts to promote DEI (or not), but it would look nothing like the nonsensical images that Gemeni was putting out on launch. Jamming DEI in sideways where it doesn't belong and then having it blow up in their face is a symptom of deeper problems from the top. The DEI is just exacerbating the lack of clarity, which is a much bigger problem. Fixing Gemeni image generation is easy: just undo the stupid prompt insertions. Fixing the chain of decision-making authority that led to those prompt insertions is difficult. They need to restructure management.

ericd 3y ago

I think their problem is that it’s not clear how not to cannibalize their core revenue model if this replaces some percentage of search (a large percentage, in my case).