- Google opened a flashy new AI office in Paris this week.
- The PR play aims to reaffirm Google’s AI commitment amid intense competition.
- Google appears anxious to prove it remains an AI leader.
Google’s New Paris AI Hub
This week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai opened a flashy new AI-focused office hub in Paris – despite the company already operating an AI research center in the city since 2018.
The seeming PR play points to Google’s growing anxiety about maintaining its standing in the AI talent race.
With AI spearheading innovation across the tech sector, competition over top researchers and engineers has intensified.
“Everything is AI now”
Paris in particular has become an AI hub, with big tech titans and hot startups alike vying for personnel. Google’s public spotlight on its existing teams in a new space appears partly aimed at reaffirming its commitment to AI amidst this churn.
More broadly, “everything is AI now” for Google and its peers like Microsoft, which just pledged over $3 billion for AI infrastructure in Germany.
Though not exclusively AI-related investments, these outlays let companies tap into the hype and present themselves at the forefront of the field’s next wave.
Strategy for Google’s AI
In reality, Google rushed out its original chatbot Bard last year primarily to prove it was in the AI chatbot game with the likes of ChatGPT.
The new Paris offices seem a continuation of this PR strategy to nurture Google’s AI credibility in a space it once dominated unquestioned.
