'LaMDA was ChatGPT before ChatGPT': Microsoft's AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman claims Google nearly pipped OpenAI to launch its own chatbot - and it could've completely changed the course of the generative AI 'boom'
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Microsoft's AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, revealed that Google was close to launching its own generative AI named LaMDA before OpenAI's ChatGPT. Google had developed LaMDA as a conversational AI but faced internal skepticism and safety concerns, preventing its release. Despite a significant divide in opinion within the company, with some viewing it as the future of search, the project ultimately did not launch. Suleyman later co-founded Inflection AI and joined Microsoft to lead its AI initiatives after leaving Google.
LaMDA was genuinely ChatGPT before ChatGPT. It was the first properly conversational LLM that was just incredible. And you know, everyone at Google had seen it and tried it.
Probably half the people were just brutal skeptics and were like this is never going to be safe. It's always going to have hallucinations. It's going to undermine our search business.
The other half were convinced the technology represented the future of search and would mark a step change in how users interact with the web.
We were desperate to try and ship it. We couldn't ship it. They just couldn't get their heads around it.
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