That Google memo about having ‘no moat’ in AI was real | Hacker News Reader

That Google memo about having ‘no moat’ in AI was real

theverge.com

29 pointsmfiguiere11 comments

The title is a bit misleading because it cuts off the main point that members of their leadership disagree with the premise.

Fwiw, I don’t think Google has any sort of AI moat. I think the biggest moat that Google has is YouTube and Gmail where inertia prevents the change away.

It's also a bit misleading because it only quotes DeepMind CEO as saying "I think that memo was real" and "And I haven’t read that specific memo in detail, but I disagree with the conclusions from that"

I do not think you should rule out Google Search. It is the default in Safari and Chrome and Firefox and still is the most popular website.

(BTW we should ignore that most people use it to find a simple website like Facebook or some other one word search for a super simple URL, and Google sort of forces you to buy ads unless you want your competitors to show up before you.)

The thing with Google search is that I don’t think a lot of people actively seek it out to use it.

By being the default it’s just convenience. If a better default agreement came about, I think you’d see that moat disappear, which to me makes it not a moat.

In fact I think Google has actively made Google search a worse product over the past few years that other poorer alternatives are now actually not that different.

Yes, but it being default is much like Internet Explorer on Windows. For most people there was no incentive to use a different browser until they let it stagnate for so long that Chrome and Firefox ate its lunch.

Google search is very similar. The alternatives have to give the user a reason to go through the hassle of switching to something else. I don’t believe we’ve reached that tipping point yet.

They are doing high value agreements to make it the default though and I think Google is going to get a worse and worse deal because people don't care. A few years back it would have been an empty threat to switch because your user base would have rebelled.

Yep but what if Microsoft shows up with a bigger bag of money? The moat is artificially implemented not a true differentiator of product.

There’s also Google Play Services on Android which helps them maintain control of most of the Android ecosystem.

Google has several moats, but they are way behind on AI.

how are they behind?

> As mentioned in the introduction, these tests reveal clear strengths for each system. If you’re looking to accomplish verbal tasks, whether creative writing or inductive reasoning, then try ChatGPT (and in particular, but not necessarily, GPT-4). If you’re looking for a chatbot to use as an interface with the web, to find sources and answer questions you might otherwise have turned to Google for, then head over to Bing. And if you are shorting Google’s stock and want to reassure yourself you’ve made the right choice, try Bard.

That is hardly a ringing endorsement for Bard.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/24/23653377/ai-chatbots-comp...

Anyone at Google can write a memo about anything.

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