Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gestures during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2020.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | getty images
google ceo Sundar Pichai told employees last week that “the stakes are huge” for 2025, as the company faces increasing competition and regulatory hurdles and competes with rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
According to audio obtained by CNBC, at the 2025 strategy meeting on December 18, Pichai and other Google leaders, wearing ugly holiday sweaters, hyped the year ahead, particularly as it relates to what’s coming in AI.
“I think 2025 will be important,” Pichai said. “I think it’s really important that we understand the urgency of this moment, and the need to move fast as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we’re going to see the benefits of this technology.” There needs to be a continued focus on unlocking and solving real user problems.”
Some employees attended the meeting in person at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, and others attended the meeting virtually.
Pichai’s comments come after a year full of many experiences intense pressure What Google has experienced since going public two decades ago. While there was strong revenue growth in areas like search advertising and cloud, competition in Google’s core markets increased and the company faced internal challenges That includes concerns about cultural clash and Pichai’s vision for the future.
Additionally, regulation is now stricter than ever.
In August, a federal judge Government That Google illegally monopolizes the search market. The Justice Department asked Google in November forced to divest Its Chrome internet browser unit. In a separate case, the DOJ accused the company of illegally dominating online advertising technology. That lawsuit closed in September and awaits the judge’s decision.
of Britain in the same month competition watchdog Issued a statement of objections to Google’s ad technology practices, which the regulator provisionally found were affecting competition in the UK
“It’s no surprise to me that we’re facing scrutiny around the world,” Pichai said. “It comes with our size and success. It’s part of a broader trend where technology is now impacting society at large. So more than ever, through this moment, we have to make sure that we Don’t get distracted.”
A Google spokesperson declined to comment.
Google still has the dominant market share in the search business, but generative AI has provided all kinds of new ways for people to access information online, and brought with it a number of new competitors.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT launches hype cycle in late 2022, includes investors Microsoft Since then the company has reached a valuation of $157 billion. In July, OpenAI announced that it would launch a search engine One’s own. Perplexity is also promoting its AI-powered search service and recently closed a $500 million funding round $9 billion valuation,
Google is investing heavily to stay on top, mainly through its AI model Gemini. The Gemini app gives users access to a number of tools, including Google’s chatbot.
“Building big, new businesses” is a top priority, Pichai said. This also includes the Gemini app, which executives said they see as Google’s next app to reach half a billion users. The company currently has 15 apps that have reached that level.
“There has been strong momentum with the Gemini app, especially in the last few months,” Pichai said. “But we have some work to do to close the gap and establish a leadership position there in 2025.”
Pichai later said, “Expanding Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year.”
‘It is not always necessary to be first’
At the meeting, Pichai showed a chart of large language models, with Gemini 1.5 leading OpenAI’s GPT and other competitors.
“I expect some back-and-forth in 2025,” Pichai said. “I think we’ll be cutting edge.”
He acknowledged that Google has had to play catchup.
“In history, you don’t always have to be the first, but you have to perform well and really be best in class as a product,” he said. “I think 2025 is it.”
Officials took questions that were submitted by employees through Google’s internal system. In a comment read aloud by Pichai that suggested ChatGPT was “becoming synonymous with AI in the same way as Google does search,” the questioner asked, “How do we plan to tackle this in the coming year? Or are we not focused enough on consumer facing LLMs?”
For answers, Pichai turned to DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, who said teams are going to “turbo charge” the Gemini app and that the company has seen progress in the number of users since launching the app in February. Is. “The products are going to evolve in a big way over the next year or two,” he said.
Hassabis described a vision for a universal assistant that could “work seamlessly in any domain, any modality or on any device.”
Project Astra, Google’s experimental version of the universal assistant which the company announced In May, the first half of the year will be updated.
Another employee questioned whether Google would be able to roll out AI products at scale without charging $200 per month “like other companies.”
“At this time, we have no plans for such a subscription level,” Hassabis responded, adding that he believes the $20 monthly fee for Gemini Advanced is a good value. “I wouldn’t necessarily say never, but there are no plans right now.”
At the end of the meeting, Google welcomed Josh Woodward, head of Google Labs, to the stage. As Zombie Nation’s song “Kerncraft 400” played loudly in the background, he picked up the microphone.
“I’m going to try to do six demos in eight minutes,” said Woodward, who is known for his high level of energy.
Woodward begins by showing Jules, a coding assistant, who is in a Trusted Tester program. “The future of software development is here,” he said.
Woodward then moved to AI notetaking product NotebookLM, which underwent a series of updates in 2024, including a podcasting tool. Woodward demonstrated how the company is trying out a new feature that allows users to “call in” to a podcast.
He then moved on to Project Mariner, an AI-powered multi-tasking Chrome extension. Woodward asked it to add top restaurants tripod advisor On the Maps app. After a brief pause, the demo appeared to work successfully, causing the staff present to applaud.
Throughout the meeting, Pichai kept reminding employees of the need to “stay angry.” Google has gone through an extensive cost-cutting phase that includes eliminating about 6% of its workforce in 2023 and a continued focus on efficiency.
As of the end of the third quarter, Alphabet had 181,269 employees, down about 5% from the end of 2022.
At one point, Pichai referenced the Google founders Larry Page And sergey brinWho started the company 26 years ago, long before cloud computing or AI tools existed.
“In the early Google days, you look at how the founders built our data centers, they were really bad at every decision they made,” Pichai said. “Often, constraints lead to creativity. Not all problems are always solved by counting employees.”
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