Google I / O 2023 developer Conference to be held early tomorrow morning: Google walks to AI Crossroads

Beijing time, May 10, Beijing time, at 1: 00 a.m. on Thursday, the 15th I / O developers Conference of Google will kick off in Mountain View, California. But this time, Google is under a lot of pressure because the search giant is suddenly struggling to catch up in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which it has long dominated.

Google developer conference opens tonight. at present, the hype caused by new breakthroughs in AI technology has made Google very passive and on the defensive. Google was forced to try to regain the initiative after established rivals such as Microsoft and OpenAI handed over new "generative" AI tools directly to customers. The conference is an opportunity for Google executives to prove to sceptical investors, competitors and their own employees that Google is still the leader in AI.

Google employees are under a lot of stress. Preparations for the conference heightened tensions last December when Google bosses ordered employees to redouble their efforts on AI after OpenAI's chat robot ChatGPT became popular around the world. Expectations that Google will host a sensational AI event have been dampened by Google's cost-cutting measures. In January, Google laid off 12000 employees and cut some famous benefits.

The scale of this conference is much smaller than that of previous years. In the past, three-day developer conferences used to cover large areas of Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus, but now it has been shortened to just one day. Five current and former employees revealed that this is the most stressful moment they can remember working at Google. "this is a different Google era," one current employee said. "there's a lot of pressure right now."

Showing new technology to customers, media and investors is key for Google, as analysts and industry observers believe it screwed up the Bard chatbot launch in March. This follows OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT and Microsoft's integration of ChatGPT in Bing. "Microsoft and OpenAI are now being chased by all other companies," said Fred Havemeyer, an analyst at Macquarie. "Google is catching up."

"this is a fragile moment for Google in the AI arms race," said Dan Ives, equity analyst at Wade Bush Securities. "time is running out and it's time for Google to restart its AI engine."