Google creates "code red" scramble for its AI rivals
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Google's increasingly strong position in the AI race suddenly has competitors looking nervous and defensive.
Why it matters: Hundreds of billions of dollars have poured into the AI chase, and the stakes for winning — or lagging — are enormous.
Driving the news: OpenAI has issued a "code red" alert inside its building, the WSJ reported, with CEO Sam Altman calling for an intense push to improve ChatGPT.
- Apple on Monday announced its top AI strategy executive is stepping down, a move reports characterized as "abrupt."
- Nvidia, meanwhile, has recently taken to loudly insisting that no, it's not worried about anyone cutting into its dominance at the center of the AI ecosystem.
Between the lines: All three moves share a common denominator: Google's surge.
Zoom in: OpenAI's biggest threat is Google's Gemini, whose latest model has drawn rave reviews since last month — and Google has the money, data and chips to compete on a different level, as Axios' Megan Morrone writes.
- Apple has struggled to deliver key pieces of its Apple Intelligence effort, and is considering a turn to Gemini to power new versions of Siri, Axios' Ina Fried reports.
- And Nvidia is facing pressure from signs customers are exploring alternatives to its chips. Reports last week say Meta's in talks to use Google's custom chips, called TPUs, in its data centers — a deal the Wall Street Journal wrote "would represent a potential crack" in Nvidia's market dominance.
The bottom line: Axios a month ago asked the top AI executives for their private take on the American rival they fear most. They all offered up the same name: Google.
- Today, Google looks like the company everyone is publicly scrambling to catch.
