Alphabet, the owner of Google, asked for help from co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, after issuing a "red symbol", a sign of the seriousness of the situation, following the launch of the writing tool developed by OpenAI. According to what was reported by The New York Times.
The release of "ChatGPT" - artificial intelligence technology - on November 30 raised concerns within Alphabet about Google's search engine continuing to dominate this sector.
CEO Sundar Pichai held meetings on Google's AI strategy last December, and the company issued a "token red" after the AI bot quickly gained momentum.
This led to calls between Pichai, Page and Brin, more than 3 years after the latter two stepped down from their executive positions, although the co-founders remain on Alphabet's board.
According to the report, several meetings were held with the two executives last month to strategize on Google's artificial intelligence, and they agreed on plans to integrate more chatbot features into the company's search engine.
A source - who was not named - told the American newspaper that Page and Brin had not been closely involved in the company's operations since 2019, and had visited Silicon Valley offices only to verify its large projects.
Vic Gundotra, a former senior vice president at Google, told the New York Times that the founders had always been keen on AI.
Page was reportedly not impressed with the new Gmail feature in 2008, saying at the time, "Why can't he auto-write this email for you?"
Google announced a significant reduction in its workforce last Friday (French)
"We continue to test our AI technology internally to make sure it's useful and safe, and we look forward to sharing more experience externally soon," an Alphabet representative told the New York Times.
With Google becoming increasingly concerned about the threat posed by ChatGPT, Thomas Maxwell of Insider identified 12 powerful players working on the technology.
The Insider website stated that the chatbot, which gathered one million users in just 5 days, simplifies the search process, and can also perform complex tasks such as writing a children's book, writing phrases for site accounts covers, and even providing vocational training advice.
The chatbot controversy has also raised concerns about misinformation, with experts from Amnesty International telling Insider that the tool is unable to verify information itself and cannot distinguish between real, verified information and misinformation.
Bloomberg also reported that the tool can generate racist and sexist responses.
And Google announced a significant cut in its workforce last Friday, which led to the abolition of 12,000 jobs, and in an email to employees, Pichai said that he bears "full responsibility for the decisions that led to this situation."