I look at the surprising strength of Google this week. Meta has a new chief AI research, and much more. If you haven’t already, check out this week’s Decoder episode about deepfakes.
Do you use a coding tool with AI like Cursor, GitHub Copilot or GitHub Copilot? I’d like to know what works, and what doesn’t…
I think we are doing very good through this moment.
I spent time with Google executives at the company’s I/O Conference in May and it was clear that they felt confident. Now, I can see why.
ChatGPT does not make Google Search obsolete. AI makes Google stronger.
On Google’s earnings call, Sundar Pichai said that AI Overviews are driving more queries for the types that show them. This growth continues to grow over time. Pichai said that this was especially true for younger users, a group that had been losing interest in the 10-blue links version of Google for a very long time. ChatGPT does not appear to be slowing down the growth of Gemini either. Pichai stated that Gemini’s daily prompts increased by more than 50% from the previous quarter. Gemini has now more than 450 millions monthly users. This is up from 350,000,000 in March. Google processed quadrillion AI tokens last month across all of its products, which is over double the amount it processed in May. Google’s response to the AI talent battles is another sign of confidence. Pichai stated on the earnings call that he looked at both retention metrics and the new talent coming into the company, and both were healthy. “I know that individual cases can make headlines. When we look at the numbers deeply, I believe we are doing well through this time.
My sources say that Pichai, Demis Hassabus and Mark Zuckerberg have been more willing to let people go and less interested in bidding wars. Compare this to the mood at OpenAI where Mark Chen (19459038) compared Meta’s poaching The feeling of a home invader
The industry believes that DeepMind has enough bench strength to withstand defections, and that it can make quick reverse acquisitions, like its Windsurf deal. This is because more AI startups are looking for a way out of the money-intensive games that only Big Tech can play. Hassabis stated that “meta is not the frontier at this time.” In an interview with Lex Fridman this weekIn an interview with Lex Fridman this week .
Google’s position is not unassailable. GPT-5 will be released soon and could surpass Gemini. ChatGPT has been the Kleenex for chatbots and this is not likely to change anytime soon. Google is also experimenting with chatbots. Sending fewer clicks will threaten the give-and take model that has driven its business up to this point. There is a real possibility that the US government will break up Google’s business. It will at least have to stop paying Apple in order to maintain the default status of the iPhone.
AI isn’t as dangerous to Google’s business as many people thought. Google’s strength is growing.
Overheard
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO in a memo to employees, acknowledging recent layoffs as well as the company’s rising stock price.
I think that ‘No bad people should ever benefit from our business’ is a pretty hard principle to run on.
Anthropic CEO Dario Ammodai In a leaked messageto employees about seeking funding from Middle East.
Simo faiths ( ) subtly laying out the groundwork for Ads in ChatGPT.
I’ve created billionaires in my management team more than any CEO anywhere in the world. They’re doing fine.”
Nvidia CEO. Jensen Huang. On the All-In podcast
I was given an offer [the] that would explode the same day.
Windsurf’s Second Hire, Prem Nair On X, describing theway Google hired away X’s core engineering staff.
Personnel Log
This week, there have been some interesting career moves:
- Mark Zuckerberg has hired Shengjia Zhang who co-created ChatGPT at OpenAI and GPT-4. He will report to Alexander Wang
- At Microsoft, AI chief Mustafa Suleyman ( ) has recruited several Google DeepMind employees, including Amar subramanya (), the VP of Engineering for Gemini. Jacob Andreou, a former Snap executive, leads product and growth at Suleyman’s organization.
- Speaking about Snap, its SVP of revenue product, Darshan kanti is leaving right before earnings, which is not a good thing. Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger and Duolingo’s CEO Luis von Ahn join the board of Figma ahead of its IPO. Instacart CPO Daniel Danker (19459037) will join Walmart as the “head of global AI Acceleration”reporting to CEO Doug McMillon (19459038).
- Tom Conrad (19459038) is officially the permanent CEO at Sonos. Tom, fix the app!
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- Alex Heath
I think that ‘No bad people should ever benefit from our business’ is a pretty hard principle to run on.
Anthropic CEO Dario Ammodai In a leaked messageto employees about seeking funding from Middle East.
Simo faiths ( ) subtly laying out the groundwork for Ads in ChatGPT.
I’ve created billionaires in my management team more than any CEO anywhere in the world. They’re doing fine.”
Nvidia CEO. Jensen Huang. On the All-In podcast
I was given an offer [the] that would explode the same day.
Personnel Log
- Mark Zuckerberg has hired Shengjia Zhang who co-created ChatGPT at OpenAI and GPT-4. He will report to Alexander Wang
- At Microsoft, AI chief Mustafa Suleyman ( ) has recruited several Google DeepMind employees, including Amar subramanya (), the VP of Engineering for Gemini. Jacob Andreou, a former Snap executive, leads product and growth at Suleyman’s organization.
- Speaking about Snap, its SVP of revenue product, Darshan kanti is leaving right before earnings, which is not a good thing. Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger and Duolingo’s CEO Luis von Ahn join the board of Figma ahead of its IPO. Instacart CPO Daniel Danker (19459037) will join Walmart as the “head of global AI Acceleration”reporting to CEO Doug McMillon (19459038).
- Tom Conrad (19459038) is officially the permanent CEO at Sonos. Tom, fix the app!
List of links
You can follow topics and authors in this story to receive email updates and see more stories like this on your personalized homepage.
- Alex Heath
