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This morning, Google CEO Sundar Pichai inaugurated a new center dedicated to artificial intelligence in Paris. The hub is located in a newly renovated building near Google’s head office in Paris. It will host around 300 researchers and engineers.
But if you pay close attention to Google’s location in Paris, you might think that Google has already launched an AI research center in Paris back in 2018, In fact, the company told me it doesn’t plan to create a new AI team for this new hub. There is some new office space, but the team of 300 researchers and engineers who will be working from the new hub were already working for Google Research and DeepMind – as well as YouTube and Chrome.
And yet, several high-profile government members, such as Bruno Le Maire (Minister of the Economy) and Valéry Pécresse (President of the Île-de-France region) were there to welcome Sundar Pichai and congratulate Google on the announcement.
Image Credit: Google
Let’s analyze this communication effort, given the involvement of Google’s top leaders and government members. With this announced position, Google wants to be on top of the list when it comes to attracting AI talent.
Google could send an email to its employees letting them know when they can pick up their badge for the new office. Instead, the company decided it was a PR opportunity. The company needs to show that it cares about AI and that it is a priority.
And that’s why Google thinks it can attract AI talent to Paris. Over the past few years, many tech giants have set up AI research labs there. In addition to Google, Facebook (now Meta) created its own Paris research laboratory back in 2015 This research group is called FAIR, for Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research – with Yann LeCun at the helm of the AI initiative.
Since then, many researchers and engineers have left their jobs at Big Tech companies to create startups. Mistral AI is arguably the most emblematic example of what the young startup has already done raised hundreds of crores Using the dollar to develop new fundamental models.
but there’s A thriving ecosystem of AI startups in Paris, examples include Nabla, dust, Sword And Giscard, In a few years, some of the people working for these startups may also choose to work for Google if they are looking for something different.
Everything is AI now
At the same time, this once again shows that Google is insecure about Artificial Intelligence. Given that this building will host teams working not only on AI research projects but also on consumer products like YouTube and Chrome, Google could easily call it “Google Hub.”
But the company decided it was an AI hub. They want to say loud and clear that they are an AI company. Sure, tech giant Recently launched Gemini Ultra, This is the most powerful large language model ever created. But most people also think of ChatGPIT when they think of AI assistants.
one year ago At a press conference in Paris, Google unveiled its AI chatbot assistant Bard, now called Gemini. This was a quick attempt to catch ChatGPT.
But this was as much about launching a product as it was about planting a flag indicating that the company is capable of releasing an LLM-based chatbot – and then repeating it. You can consider that today’s new AI Hub is a continuation of the strategy of regular announcements about AI.
Image Credit: Eric Lagnel/Studio Architecture for Google
To be fair, Google isn’t the only tech giant to make grand gestures about AI investments. In addition to its financial commitment to ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI, Microsoft also announced today Investing €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion) over the next two years in AI infrastructure in Germany.
Once again, this investment is not specifically focused on artificial intelligence. Microsoft is planning to build a data center in Germany for its Azure cloud platform. Azure has some products focused on AI, but it is a very large cloud provider with customers that have nothing to do with the AI industry. So it’s not just a Google thing.
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