Google recently announced internally its corporate goals for 2024. Artificial intelligence is at the top of the list.
Google's main goal for 2024 is to "deliver the world’s most advanced, safe, and responsible AI." That's according to an internal document leaked to The Verge's Alex Heath.
Other goals include
- enhancing knowledge, learning, creativity and productivity;
- creating useful personal computing platforms and devices;
- empowering businesses and developers to innovate in the Google Cloud;
- delivering the world's most trusted products and platforms;
- and building an "extraordinary" Google for employees and the world.
The last goal on the list - "improve company velocity, efficiency, and productivity, and deliver durable cost savings" - points to more layoffs. Since the beginning of January, Google has reportedly laid off thousands of employees in various areas.
In a separate internal memo, Pichai cited "ambitious goals" and "big priorities" for this year. To make room for investments, "tough choices" have to be made to become more efficient. According to the memo, layoffs are expected to be smaller than last year, when Google laid off about 12,000 employees in January.
Lack of AI capabilities could cost Google cloud business
Google currently lags far behind Microsoft and OpenAI in AI technology and deployment. According to benchmarks, the Gemini models unveiled last year can barely keep up with those of OpenAI, which is reportedly already working on the next major upgrade to GPT-4.
In terms of productization, Google, like Microsoft, is trying to implement AI into existing products such as its business apps, Pixel smartphones, and generative AI search.
However, Google has yet to produce a successful standalone AI product like ChatGPT. It is rumored to be working on a new chatbot offering based on its most capable Gemini Ultra-model. But so far, Google's Bard chatbot lags far behind ChatGPT in terms of user numbers.
The fact that Microsoft's cloud business is growing faster than Google's thanks to the OpenAI collaboration is likely to be a major pain point for Google. The big tech companies see the cloud as the next growth horizon.
On the positive side, from Google's perspective, the disruption of its search business by chatbots that some expected in early 2023 has also not materialized. That said, the quality of Google search is under pressure from AI spam.
