The trillion-dollar market value giant panicked, and the founder urgently returned to AI

Source: Lieyun.com, Author: Sheng Jiaying

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI‌

After three years, co-founder Sergey Brin, who has quit Google’s daily management center, is back!

According to the “Wall Street Journal”, in recent months, Brin has usually been working at Google’s Mountain View, California, office three to four days a week, working with researchers to develop Google’s next big AI system.

Since the birth of ChatGPT, Google has felt unprecedented pressure, and it has also “alarmed” Sergey Brin, who has retired for three years. Brin, who attended meetings about AI at Google’s offices late last year, has increased the frequency and intensity of his participation, according to people familiar with the matter.

At the same time, perhaps because of the founder’s return, people familiar with the matter said that Demis Hassabis, an executive in charge of Google’s Gemini project, said at a recent company-wide meeting that the new large model Gemini will be available as soon as this year.

As of the close of trading on July 21, Eastern Time, Google’s total market value reached 1.52 trillion US dollars. This trillion-dollar market capitalization giant is undoubtedly trying its best to increase the AI competition, and Brin’s return is a booster.

The founder returns, adding AI

In 2019, Sergey Brin and Larry Page both faded out of Google’s daily management work and handed over the CEO’s baton to Sundar Pichai. In their spare time, the two only occasionally visited Google’s cutting-edge technology exploration department “Moonshot”.

The change happened late last year. After ChatGPT exploded out of the circle, everyone saw the infinite possibilities of generative AI, especially after Microsoft said that adding ChatGPT to Bing search directly touched the “soul” of Google.

Google’s No. 23 employee, “the father of Gmail” Paul Buchheit, publicly stated in February that Google will be completely subverted within a year or two. The reason is that when people’s search needs can be satisfied with encapsulated, semantically clear answers, search ads will have no room for survival.

Google is also feeling unprecedented pressure inside. According to reports, in December last year, Pichai had called Brin and Page to talk about ChatGPT.

Since then, Page and Brin, who are still members of the board of directors of Google’s parent company Alphabet, have held several meetings with company executives to discuss Google’s artificial intelligence development strategy.

After many discussions, Google carried out a two-wheel drive to deal with ChatGPT. On the one hand, it accelerated the launch of the ChatGPT-like chatbot Bard. On the other hand, it drove another team to design the search homepage interface, including the dialog UI and how to display other links.

In January of this year, Sergey Brin made a rare request to access Google’s internal software code and data. This is the first time Sergey Brin has made such a request in recent years.

The data and code that Brin hopes to view this time are the “LaMDA” related data used to train Google’s natural language chatbot.

Current Google employees also said: “This is a different Google era, and there is a lot of pressure now.”

It can be seen that Google has felt the urgency of this AI competition from top to bottom. After all, there is a saying in the industry that “one day in AI is one year in the world”. Google has already lost to Microsoft and must accelerate with all its strength.

In fact, Google has been under a lot of pressure recently. In addition to the competitive crisis brought about by ChatGPT, Google’s core revenue advertising business is also declining, and its performance is under pressure.

The advertising business is Google’s core business, accounting for about 80% of its revenue. It is Google’s “cash cow”.

However, with the impact of the general environment, the willingness of advertisers to launch has decreased. In the first quarter of this year, Google’s advertising revenue was US$54.5 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 1%. This is the third decline in advertising sales since Google’s listing in 2004, and the second consecutive decline after the 3.6% decline in the fourth quarter of last year.

At the same time, Google began mass layoffs and cut costs. At the beginning of the year, Google announced that it would lay off nearly 12,000 people worldwide, accounting for more than 6% of its total global workforce. This is the largest layoff in Google’s history.

Under the pressure of cash cow performance, large-scale layoffs and ChatGPT competition, Brin’s return may be a booster.

Previously, Brin had led the Google X department, known as Google’s “Moonshot Factory” (Moonshot Factory), researching future new technologies and new products, including unmanned driving, delivery drones, and more.

In 2018, Brin wrote in a shareholder letter: “The capabilities and potential of AI, and the potential to solve important problems through calculations have never been so great. The new spring of AI is the most significant development in the field of computing (seen) in my life.”

Today, Brin returns to Google, the purpose is to bring Google a new spring of AI.

Retired for three years, paid attention to charity, and quietly invested in airships

After retiring in 2019, Brin did not choose to start a business again, but focused more on charity and investment.

In 2021, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation sent $4.5 million to Rewiring America. It is reported that Rewiring America is a climate organization that “helps mobilize the United States to deal with climate change and promote economic recovery by electrifying everything.” The grant from the Sergey Brin Family Foundation is also used to promote electrification.

In addition to promoting electrification, Brin also pays attention to the field of big health. Sergey Brin announced last September that he would donate $50 million over the next five years to help find a cure for bipolar disorder.

And this year, Brin plans to spend 500 million US dollars to start a non-profit organization called Catalyst4, which is dedicated to the fields of general health and climate change.

It is reported that Catalyst4 has two main goals, one is to “support breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases and disorders of the central nervous system”, and the other is to “work to mitigate and reverse the impact of climate change”.

This is consistent with Brin’s previous actions.

In addition to focusing on charity, Brin is also quietly investing in an airship startup called LTA Research & Exploration.

Brin and Alan Weston, CEO of the company, believe that the airship has a wide range of applications and can transport goods in a green and environmentally friendly way and provide supplies to disaster areas. The future luxury version of the airship can provide the public with a leisurely and unique way of travel.

However, Brin himself is not willing to disclose how much money he has invested in LTA. According to market sources, some factory employees privately said that Brin has invested at least US$250 million in LTA so far.

Since its inception in 2016, the LTA has kept a low profile until recently, with plans to soon unveil its first airship, the Pathfinder 1. According to Weston, Pathfinder 1 has 28 tons of lift and can fly up to 2,000 nautical miles at a time.

LTA plans to build a huge fleet of airships in the future. The Pathfinder 2 and 3 models will be larger and can carry several tons to hundreds of tons of cargo or passengers. According to Weston, LTA’s airships could one day carry as much as 200 tons of cargo, almost 10 times that of a Boeing 737.

In addition, in LTA’s vision, it is also planned to build a super luxury airship called Stratocruiser (stratospheric cruiser), which can accommodate 100 passengers and provide restaurants, bars, gyms, swimming pools and other facilities to create a slow-paced way of air travel.

Today, the founder who has retired for three years has chosen to return to Google, which also makes this AI competition more interesting.