Google is dethroning OpenAI as the king of consumer AI
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Gemini 3 was the star of the show as Mr Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet, took the stage at the Google developers conference on May 19.
PHOTO : BLOOMBERG
The Economist
The amphitheatre complex where Google holds its annual software-developers’ conference has a cheesy, fairground feel. Recreational vehicles are parked on site. Employees whiz in on the tech company’s multi-coloured bicycles. There are stands and sideshows everywhere. On stage, Mr Sundar Pichai, its boss, tells a corny joke about Google’s overworked chips, known as TPUs, doing “teraflops into bed”.
The event is by no means as sleek as Apple’s developer jamboree held in June, which tries to retain some of the minimalist chic of the late Steve Jobs. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, Google long ago upstaged the maker of the iPhone (its models will power many of Apple’s AI features going forward). It now looks as though it may steal the consumer AI crown from OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT as well.
