Source: a leaked April 2023 internal document by Luke Sernau, a senior software engineer at Google, argues that open-source AI will outcompete Google and OpenAI
warning the company doesn't have one in A.I. John Battelle / John Battelle's Search Blog : Google and Commoditization: Anyone Need a BackRub? Agne Cimermanaite / Metaverse Post : Leaked Google Document Reveals Challenges in Maintaining Competitive Edge in AI Callum Burroughs / Insider : Ex-Facebook and DeepMind employees in talks to raise sizable initial funding round to build OpenAI rival Kyt Dotson / SiliconANGLE : Google and OpenAI struggling to keep up with open-source AI, senior engineer warns Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search : Google AI Thrashing: A Fresh Sundar & Prabhakar Comedy Script? Kyle Barr / Gizmodo : Senior Google Engineer Claims Company's AI Lacks ‘Secret Sauce’ Amaka Nwaokocha / Cointelegraph : Google engineer concerned about open-source AI gaining edge Jai Pratap / CoinGape : Leaked Document Reveals Google Losing Edge In AI The Information : Google Researcher: Company Has ‘No Moat’ in AI Rui Carmo / Tao of Mac : WE HAVE NO MOAT, AND NEITHER DOES OPENAI ※ LinkedIn: Michael Jackson : “Open-source models are faster, more customizable, more private, and pound-for-pound more capable. They are doing things with $100 and 13B params that we struggle with at $10M and 540B. … Ivan Lee : A recently leaked document from Google, which drops quite a few bombshells. I think many entrenched in the open source community might already … Tweets: Jordan Burgess / @jordnb : This leaked google memo is a great overview of what open source AI has achieved... but the conclusion is wrong. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Richard MacManus / @ricmac : To get an understanding of how developers are using Meta's LLaMA, and what benefits it gives them over similar LLMs from the likes of OpenAI and Google, I spoke to @rasbt from Lightning AI. Especially relevant in light of the leaked Google memo re LLMs! https://thenewstack.io/... Yann LeCun / @ylecun : Open source LLMs popping up everywhere. This is the way. https://twitter.com/... Russ Poldrack / @russpoldrack : It's pretty amazing how we have gone in months from “how cab academic researchers ever keep up with companies” to “how can Google compete with open source AI”? https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Near / @nearcyan : @ylecun shouldn't llama be licensed open-source then? Brian Atwood / @batwood011 : @nearcyan @ylecun Yann is clearly fighting internal lawyers on this Rachel Woods / @rachel_l_woods : An internal memo apparently leaked from Google titled “We have no moat, and neither does OpenAI” 🔥 I'll explain what they meant by that: https://twitter.com/... Steve Moser / @stevemoser : The White House doesn't think Meta is huge on AI but an internal memo at Google thinks otherwise since so much open source work is being done on top of Facebook's leaked model. [Link to an internal Google document that claims Meta is the “clear winner” of open source AI] Ralph Grabowski / @ralph_grabowski : Lots of “Open source is winning as always” musings this morning over the claim that “open source AI will outcompete Google and OpenAI” at https://www.techmeme.com/.... Acshually, it's not. Open-source CAD exists but is not winning, by a long shot. Ben Goertzel / @bengoertzel : Some Google internal tech wizards have realized Big Tech has no sustainable advantage against OSS in terms of LLMs ... what is not yet widely seen is they have no defense against decentralized deployments either https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Arvind Narayanan / @random_walker : My takeaway from the moat document: The design pattern that might work best is a small, efficient, open-source, locally running LLM for most tasks, but when that LLM occasionally fails or a task is particularly hard it's farmed out to a very large model behind an API. Scott Adams / @scottadamssays : The implications of this are mind-blowing. AI has already “escaped” corporate control and a slimmed version can now run on personal devices. AI makes the rules now. Humanity is nothing but its womb. https://twitter.com/... Dr. Sasha Luccioni / @sashamtl : Hope y'all took the time this week to read this! https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... It really reflects the power of open-source technology and its threat to AI hegemony. No amount of company secrets and poaching employees can beat sharing and building upon each other's work. Dave Troy / @davetroy : Important thread here; leaked doc from Google argues that big companies are not advantaged in the AI arena because the proliferation of lightweight open source AI models allows for faster, more creative and wider innovation. May be a serious inflection point for big tech. https://twitter.com/... Josh Wolfe / @wolfejosh : Opensource ftw @huggingface https://twitter.com/... Tony Yates / @t0nyyates : AI is not going to be regulated by focusing on a few large companies. This is already clear from descriptions of how the large language models have ‘leaked out’ of Meta and elsewhere. https://twitter.com/... Simon Willison / @simonw : Leaked Google document: “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI” The most interesting thing I've read recently about LLMs - a purportedly leaked document from a researcher at Google talking about the huge strategic impact open source models are having https://simonwillison.net/... @mont_jiang : It would be unexpected and kind of glorious of Google were the first FAANG to get totally decimated by technological competition. They always seemed to be the most entrenched technologically, like a coding superpower. https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Sergey Karayev / @sergeykarayev : Google has no moat. They don't have over 90% search traffic. They don't have everyone's emails and the most used email client. Their OS is not powering 70% of smartphones. They will never be able to deploy LLM features into these products — instead, people will run OSS LLMs. Adam Kovacevich / @adamkovac : Stuff like this is a big reason to be skeptical about AI “Monopolization” Panics https://twitter.com/... Robert Scoble / @scobleizer : This is wrong. Developers and community are moats. Like I said yesterday. You think @khanacademy is going to rip out GPT underneath its new AI-centric education system? And it is one of many building on top of GPT. You are insane if you think that. Google will never get Khan... https://twitter.com/... Jason Goldman / @goldman : I think I was on the receiving end of this table pounding at Google. And the forces of market concentration will work as they do and sticky, defensible AI products will be built. BUT! If its true as the doc alleges that open source LLMs are better tech, that's a bfd https://twitter.com/... Kontra / @counternotions : “Leaked” Google document: “...the uncomfortable truth is, we aren't positioned to win this arms race and neither is OpenAI. While we've been squabbling, a third faction has been quietly eating our lunch. I'm talking, of course, about open source.” https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Davey Alba / @daveyalba : @byJuliaLove @rachelmetz UPDATE: We can confirm the author of the document is Luke Sernau, a senior software engineer at Google. He published the document internally in early April, and it got thousands of shares among Googlers before it was leaked and published by SemiAnalysis. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Alex Dimakis / @alexgdimakis : My thoughts on the now famous Google leak doc: https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... 1. Open source AI is winning. I agree, and that is great for the world and for a competitive ecosystem. In LLMs we're not there, but we just got OpenClip to beat openAI Clip and Stable diffusion is better than... https://twitter.com/... Raj Singh / @mobileraj : I agree with @Scobleizer Owning the AI developer platform relationship which OpenAI is doing is the moat. It's the same moat MS had with Windows developers. It's the same moat AWS has with cloud developers. https://twitter.com/... Haseeb / @hosseeb : A powerful realization, leaked from a Google researcher. LLM companies do not have moats. Open source is winning as always. The collective intelligence of the world is racing ahead of secretive research orgs when it comes to optimizing LLMs. https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... @loomdart : This is a very dramatic leak that will probs go under the radar but wow https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Peter Steinberger / @steipete : This leaked Google doc is everything. 🍿🍿🍿 https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Emad / @emostaque : While this article fits with much of our thesis I think it has a misunderstanding of what moats actually are It is v difficult to build a business with innovation as a moat, base requirement is too high Data, distribution, great product are moats https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Nathan Benaich / @nathanbenaich : Fascinating read on AI strategy. Google “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI” “The value of owning the ecosystem cannot be overstated.” I'll predict some huge M&A for OSS AI cos. Community is everything. https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Brett Adcock / @adcock_brett : Interesting leaked internal google memo: → “[OpenAI's] ability to maintain an edge is necessarily in question” → Open-source LLM's will win vs. Bard/ChatGPT → Author advocating for “LoRA” = quick model fine-tuning https://www.semianalysis.com/ ... Elad Gil / @eladgil : I always remember when I was at Google in the mid 2000s and social was happening I was at a meeting where many people (now known as social “experts") were pounding the table saying social products had no moat and would never be sticky https://www.semianalysis.com/ ...