Google CEO challenges Microsoft CEO to an AI duel… kind of

Google and Microsoft are not only rivals when it comes to AI, both pass comments back and forth about each other’s business strategies and products. This time, it is Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, who kind of challenged Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella for an AI duel today at the The New York Times’ Dealbook Summit. Pichai directly taunted the Redmond giant for using OpenAI’s models.

The Google CEO says he is ready to compare its AI models against Microsoft’s

When interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Pichai about Nadella’s comments from earlier this year. Pichai in a humorous way replies, “I’d love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own models and our models any day, any time.” To remind you, Nadella questioned Google about its AI product mishaps.

Sorkin further quoted Nadella’s statement from a podcast that reads, “Google should have been the default winner in the world of big tech’s AI race. Google is a very competent company and obviously, they have both the talent and the compute. They’re the vertically integrated player in this. They have everything from data to silicon to models to products and distribution.”

After reading the comments, Sorkin says, “You guys were the originals when it comes to AI” looking at Pichai. The interviewer continued, “Where (do) you think you are in the journey relative to these other players?” to which Pichai replied, “They’re using someone else’s models.” Sorkin then jokingly responded, “You’re throwing down the gauntlet.”

Pichai laughed at Sorkin’s remark and shook his head. He further added, “I’m just — I have a lot of respect for them and the team.”

Microsoft had publicly criticized Google in the past

The latest remarks from Sundar Pichai come as Microsoft openly accused Google of running “shadow campaigns” in Europe. In October, the Redmond-based tech giant publicly said that Google is inducing third parties to discredit its cloud computing business.

Microsoft also hinted that Google is trying to influence authorities with this tactic which the latter recently denied. All that said, someone at Microsoft could be taking notes of Pichai’s comments to backfire at Google. We’ll see what happens next.