Google's Recent Progress in AI Could 'Create Some Temporary Economic Headwinds' For OpenAI, Altman Warns Employees (theinformation.com) 20
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told colleagues last month that Google's recent progress in AI could "create some temporary economic headwinds for our company," though he added that OpenAI would emerge ahead, The Information reports [non-paywalled source]. From the report: After OpenAI researchers heard that Google had created a new AI that appears to have leapfrogged OpenAI's in the way it was developed, Altman said in the memo that "we know we have some work to do but we are catching up fast." Still, he cautioned employees that "I expect the vibes out there to be rough for a bit."
Lol fuck this guy (Score:1)
He messed with rich people money. He might be getting the ole Bankman-Holmes reality check.
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Or maybe the Epstein version ...
Altman seems to make verbal mistakes (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Altman seems to make verbal mistakes (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems like honest frankness over disingenuous double speak. I don't know how his board and investors will take it. But, it's a breathe of fresh air for me after suffering through so much CEO horseshit.
Re:Altman seems to make verbal mistakes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Even a broken horse shits correctly twice a month. (Or something like that.)
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Altman has these occasional bouts of honesty. Usually, he just lies like a good CEO is supposed to. But in the past he said things like LLMs definitely not being a path to AGI and the like.
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He's trying, maybe badly, to get ahead of the story and control the narrative.
The fact that he's willing to admit, so soon after it's public release, that Google's Gemini 3.0 is better than their own GPT 5.1 is a bit surprising though.
Having played with "Gemini 3.0 Pro Thinkiing" at the surprisingly generous usage limits of the free tier, I have to say, even as an LLM cynic that initial impression is very good.
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It can be a viable strategy to lean into bad news perhaps even more than is warranted. When you proclaim in 3-4 months time that you've overcome that disadvantage, people find that marginally more credible, even if that is wrong.
When you speak *exclusively* in CEO optimism speak, at some point people just stop believing anything positive you say.
What "recent progress" ? (Score:2)
Sounds to me like they intentionally hallucinate to postpone the inevitable crash a bit longer.
Re: What "recent progress" ? (Score:4, Informative)
Today children... (Score:1)
Temporary? (Score:3)
No, the competition is just getting started.
The thing is, there's money to be made in AI, LOTS of money. And that will motivate all kinds of competition. Sam Altman should be shaking in his boots.
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> The thing is, there's money to be made in AI, LOTS of money
Sure, just about everyone is losing money pushing "AI", but they'll make it up on volume.
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works for spammers & scammers
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Think again. Microsoft is raking in *billions* from Copilot. https://www.geekwire.com/2025/... [geekwire.com] Other companies are raking in profits from AI, even if they themselves don't have AI products. https://themesetfs.com/insight... [themesetfs.com]
As with any gold rush, it's the tool makers that rake in the profits.
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FWIW, Amazon lost money every quarter for nearly a decade. It hasn't been doing that recently.
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Agreed,
If Sammy is saying, as the horse-bolting leader, that the biggest gorilla on the planet has already overtaken him then I'm not sure how he thinks he's ever going to get that lead back.
As for AI, LLMs specifically, I don't think there's much money in it at all. Like search, no one is that interested in giving up money for it. It has to be converted to ad revenue to make money.
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Those AI search summaries you mention, that nobody will pay for...that's the loss leader. The real money is in specialized AI. Microsoft is embedding AI into its products, especially Office and Visual Studio, for extra cost, and people are handing over their wallets for it, at a rate of $13B per year at this point. https://www.geekwire.com/2025/... [geekwire.com] SalesForce is also making over $5 billion a year on their "AI and Data Cloud" whatever that includes. https://investor.salesforce.co... [salesforce.com]
You're right, nobody will
Why it matters (Score:2)