OpenAI's Sam Altman says he’s stopped Googling. Here’s what that means for Big Tech’s AI Race
Sam Altman says he no longer uses Google Search, highlighting the shifting dynamics in the AI race.
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For more than two decades, “Google it” has been shorthand for seeking answers online. But for Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, that era appears to be over. Recently, Altman noted, somewhat casually, that he no longer uses Google Search. He said he doesn't Google anymore and that he can't legitimately tell the last time he did a Google search.
It is not difficult to guess what has replaced it. OpenAI last month introduced GPT-5, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date, which Altman described as a “major upgrade” and a meaningful step toward artificial general intelligence, or AGI. He even admitted that using the previous version, GPT-4, now felt “miserable” by comparison.
GPT-5 is currently free for public use, although OpenAI was recently forced to reintroduce GPT-4o after users complained about performance issues under the new system.
Even as OpenAI and Google compete fiercely in the AI space, the two companies maintain a shared dependency on cloud infrastructure. Google Cloud supplies some of the computational power behind ChatGPT, alongside Microsoft Azure and Oracle.
On Alphabet’s latest earnings call, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, struck a diplomatic tone, saying he was “very excited” about the partnership and describing Google Cloud as “an open platform” that has long supported AI developers and startups.
The comments, while brief, highlight a growing irony in the tech sector: today’s competitors are also one another’s most essential suppliers.
