Google's 'Peacetime' CEO Sundar Pichai Faces Criticism As The AI War Heats Up

When co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced that they were leaving their day-to-day roles at Google parent Alphabet in 2019, handing Sundar Pichai the keys to the kingdom, they mused about Google's age. "If the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost," they wrote. "We believe it's time to assume the role of proud parents--offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!" Four years later, as Google faces incursions from AI rivals dead set on dethroning the company's iconic search business, the absent parents have returned home. Microsoft, a once-dormant rival, has sprung to life with a new version of Bing, aided by OpenAI, the upstart maker of the generative AI bot ChatGPT.