Sundar Pichai Admits ChatGPT Temporarily Surpassed Google, Recalls "Code Red" Moment at Dreamforce

At Salesforce’s annual technology conference, Dreamforce, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai openly reflected on the moment when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, admitting—rarely for him—that he believed the technology had briefly surpassed Google’s own advancements. Yet he emphasized that this did not slow the company’s ongoing pursuit of artificial intelligence innovation.

In response to questions from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Pichai explained that when ChatGPT debuted and rapidly attracted millions of users—reshaping the way people engaged with search—Google had already been developing its own conversational AI prototypes. However, those early models were still riddled with technical challenges and required several additional months of refinement before a public release could be considered.

Looking back to late 2022, the arrival of ChatGPT—backed by Microsoft—indeed posed a significant threat to Google’s dominance. The New York Times reported at the time that Google’s leadership issued a “code red,” prompting Pichai to personally reassign multiple internal teams to focus exclusively on accelerating AI development.

During the discussion, Pichai likened this moment to familiar cycles in the technology industry. He recalled how, in 2006, while Google was working on its own video search features, YouTube emerged seemingly out of nowhere—and later, as Facebook promoted photo-sharing in its news feed, Instagram swiftly rose to prominence. Such disruptions, he said, are simply part of the natural rhythm of technological evolution.

Although many viewed ChatGPT as an existential threat to Google, Pichai revealed that he felt a sense of excitement rather than fear, seeing it as a signal that “the window of opportunity had shifted.”

He explained that Google had already established a comprehensive foundation for AI—spanning research divisions, custom-designed chips, and massive infrastructure investments—placing the company in a favorable position when ChatGPT captured global attention.

Pichai reiterated his earlier stance on why Google refrained from immediately releasing a direct competitor: the company faced far greater reputational risks and bore the responsibility of safeguarding an ecosystem serving billions of users, requiring a more measured and cautious rollout strategy.

It was not until March 2023 that Google officially launched its own AI chatbot, initially branded as Bard, and later renamed Gemini—marking Google’s formal entry into the rapidly intensifying era of generative AI competition.

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