They weren't.
Their AI research team is completely dysfunctional and unfocused. They're only interested in doing research and are entirely incapable of the engineering and product focus necessary to build something like ChatGPT.
That isn't the same thing as being caught off guard.
As always, Google has incredible ideas and promise but lacks business execution
https://www.inc.com/nick-hobson/googles-rest-vest-days-for-s...
Too little too late?
Announcing things and actually executing on said announcements are two very different things.
Sundar has never been able to tell the difference between the two.
Correct, but not for the reason you gave.
> Their AI research team is completely dysfunctional and unfocused.
The bigger problem was that they saw the major problems with trustworthiness of LLMs and felt there was still too much brand risk to Google. OpenAI had no such problem.