Google co-founder Sergey Brin
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It’s been mostly away from day-to-day business since 2019, but the code request submitted on January 24th appears to be the first in years.
As the battle between Silicon Valley companies over artificial intelligence technology heats up, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is back to his software code practice after years of day-to-day absence. .
On January 24th, Brin apparently requested access to the code for the first time in years. forbesTwo sources said the request was related to LaMDA, Google’s natural language chatbot. The project was first announced in his 2021 but has been in the spotlight lately as Google tries to fend off his rival OpenAI, which released his popular ChatGPT bot in November. .
Brin submitted a “CL,” short for “changelist,” to access the data that trains LaMDA, said one person who saw the request. Adding his username to the code was his two-line change to a configuration file, the person said. Dozens of engineers requested his LGTM approval. Some of the approvals came from employees outside that team, who appeared to want to say they gave code review approval to the company’s co-founders, the person added.
Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The move was a minor technical change, but it highlights how seriously the company takes the looming threat from OpenAI and other competitors. Brin and co-founder Larry Page have largely run the company since Page handed control over to Thunder’s Pichai in 2019 to become his CEO of Google parent company Alphabet. absent. However, Pichai recently called on the company’s founder to review his AI strategy for the company and shape its response to ChatGPT. according to New York Times. Brin’s tinkering highlights just how involved co-founders have been.
company reportedly Considering the situation so urgent that Pichai declared “Code Red”, he has shaken up the work of several groups within the company and presented a counter-movement. Google will reportedly launch a number of new AI products later this year.
Brin’s code request was also denounced by Googlers. In response, one commented, “Fix Google first.” Another wrote, “At least talk to us.” This is a reference to the co-founder’s distance over the past few years. Some people link to Google’s internal meme posts from his forums.Some memes showed old men fighting, one source said forbes.
When Pichai announced the biggest layoffs in Google’s history last month, laying off about 12,000 employees, or 6% of the workforce, he did so with a view to refocusing the company on artificial intelligence. . “There is a huge opportunity in front of us to use his AI across our products, and we are ready to tackle it boldly and responsibly,” he wrote in an email to employees.
