Google and OpenAI are racing to rewire the internet

“Google will do the Googling for you.” 

Out of everything said onstage at Google I/O this year, I’ve been thinking the most about that line from Search executive Liz Reid. It summarizes not only how Google is fundamentally changing Search but also how the company is increasingly on a collision course with OpenAI.

At this point, it’s no secret that OpenAI is working on a search engine. Shivakumar Venkataraman, a Google Search veteran VP, just joined OpenAI to lead search efforts under engineering chief Srinivas Narayanan. My understanding is that the project has been messy with a lot of turnover and that OpenAI is realizing how difficult it is to get through the messy behind-the-scenes details of building a search engine. Still, it’s easy to see why OpenAI feels the pressure to go in this direction; just look at how Google is changing Search: