In a cheeky nod to last year’s viral video featuring a montage of every utterance of the word “AI” during the Google I/O keynotes, CEO Sundar Pichai decided to turn the tables this year. As he brought the keynote to a close, Pichai couldn’t resist the temptation to showcase the capabilities of Google’s latest Gemini AI model. With a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, he fed the entire transcript of the keynote into Gemini’s eager algorithms, challenging it to count the number of times “AI” appeared. The result? A staggering 120 mentions, a testament to Google’s unwavering commitment to AI.

Google I/O 2024 Announcements: AI Integration and Competition

Over the past few days, the announcements from Google I/O were nothing short of impressive. Google is going head-to-head with OpenAI and Microsoft, integrating Gemini into a wide range of products. From the introduction of Astra, a multimodal AI tool, to Gemini’s integration across search, photos, and personal assistants, Google is cementing itself as a strong competitor in the AI landscape.

Key Highlights from Google I/O 2024:

• Astra AI Tool: A new multimodal AI tool.
• Gemini Integration: Extending across search, photos, and personal assistants.
• AI Agents and AI Teammate: New AI functionalities aimed at improving user experience.
• Gemini Models: Range from lightweight Gemini Nano to powerful Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash.
• Developer-Focused Tools: Enhancements in Google Colab and other development platforms.

The variety of Gemini’s applications—from the lightweight Gemini Nano to the powerful Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash—demonstrates Google’s ambitious plans. With innovations like AI Agents, AI Teammate, and the new Gemini app, Google aims to make AI a central part of everyday digital experiences, highlighting its strategy to outpace its rivals.

A Glimpse into the Past: Lessons from Microsoft’s Developer Focus

As I attended the keynote and subsequent breakout sessions, a sense of cognitive dissonance emerged. I was reminded of a distant memory from another tech giant and its eccentric CEO. The year was 2006, and a middle-aged man stood on a brightly illuminated stage, wearing a corporate blue button-down shirt and pleated khaki pants. This man, sweating profusely to the point of absurdity, was Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft. He pounded his fist into the palm of his hand and began to chant the word “developers” over and over again, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

Suddenly, I was back in the Google I/O lab session. Developers, a hundred or more, sat in front of me, tuned in. Some struggled to follow along, raising their hands timidly to ask questions but quickly putting them down again as the speaker marched on, leaving no room for stragglers in the AI revolution. It hit me: Google has the wrong mantra. The AI war is being fought for the hearts and minds of developers, but Google is distracted by its consumer core.

Developer Sentiments: Google vs. Microsoft

Despite Google’s impressive technical achievements, developers are the ones who have to build the apps, use the tools, and ultimately decide the victors. Microsoft, in collaboration with OpenAI, remains focused on delighting developers. OpenAI, while known for its consumer-facing products, is actually highly developer-focused, providing comprehensive APIs, extensive documentation, and robust support to make AI integration seamless. Meta, with its open-source Llama 3 models, also positions itself as developer-friendly, allowing anyone to take its AI and build whatever they want, free of charge.

Comparison of AI Developer Focus:

This is not the first time Google has fumbled a lead. Developer traction has been the Achilles’ heel of Google Cloud, a marvelous infrastructure technically superior in many respects. Yet, after over a decade and $45 billion invested, Google Cloud still trails behind with an 11% market share, versus Amazon Web Services at 31% and Microsoft Azure at 25%. Google had a three-year head start, but Microsoft now has almost three times the market share. The reason? Developers.

Google’s Renewed Developer Push with AI

Will Google’s AI push finally break Microsoft’s grip on developers? I asked some of them at I/O. As our lab session came to a close, I approached Layla Bouzoubaa, a doctoral candidate at Drexel University, who was particularly attentive during a session on fine-tuning Gemini models.

“I think impressed is a strong word. I’m currently working with large language models (LLMs) in my research, and I am curious to see if I can use Gemini for my specific research topic which involves fine-tuning,” said Bouzoubaa. “I use OpenAI regularly, and it’s been very straightforward. Learning how to use Gemini within Google Colab seemed a little bit more intimidating from a developer’s perspective.”

Despite some challenges, Google has plenty of inroads with developers and significant opportunities. The company even landed OpenAI’s former developer advocate Logan Kilpatrick, which Business Insider called a big win in the war for AI talent.

Bouzoubaa sees fine-tuning smaller language models (SLMs) as something that is quickly becoming essential. “I don’t have the hardware to host my own model. So, before, fine-tuning a large model wasn’t really a possibility.” However, with smaller language models, Bouzoubaa sees the potential for better results with health data. “I know the models aren’t necessarily trained on the health data that I use, so being able to fine-tune is going to enable more AI applications.”

Developer Perspectives: Opportunities and Challenges

A few rows away, another developer was deeply focused on her laptop. “I’m kind of a Google fangirl,” said April Johnson from Extensis, a 30-year-old software company focused on managing licensed fonts for teams. “Microsoft is doing amazing stuff, but I think Google is still ahead with the deeper problems to solve with AI.”

Johnson was enthusiastic about learning with Google tools. “I use Google Colab all the time, and I like the way you can easily set up prototyping. It’s so easy to just prototype on my computer and then move it to the cloud.”

Near the last row of the room, a man with a beard, suggesting he almost certainly has the root password, hunches over a laptop with a thousand stickers from a hundred conferences like this one. He is Nick Bates from Cyber Drive, a startup creating a smartphone specifically for children. “What we’re using ML for right now is to check for patterns of abuse,” Bates says. “We are not creating our own AI models ourselves, but with Gemini being open, we’re looking at ways to leverage it.”

Another developer seated nearby who wished to remain anonymous echoed, “The problem is the big models are really big, so you need a big machine, and you need a lot of users to make it profitable to actually host yourself. Many of the open-source models are so big I don’t have the space to run them on my laptop.”

Microsoft’s Edge with Developers

As I left the Google I/O conference, it was clear that despite Google’s renewed push to win over developers with AI, Microsoft still has the upper hand. The Redmond giant’s deep roots in the enterprise, combined with its strong developer ecosystem and strategic partnership with OpenAI, give it a significant advantage in the battle for the hearts and minds of developers.

Microsoft’s release of the Phi-3 family of small language models, particularly the Phi-3-mini, demonstrates its capability to compete with SLMs. The model’s optimization for various platforms and its support for larger context windows make it an attractive option for developers looking to integrate AI into their projects.

Google, while technically impressive, still has some way to go in terms of making its AI tools more accessible and user-friendly for developers. The feedback from developers at I/O suggests that Google’s AI offerings can be intimidating to approach, especially compared to the more streamlined experience offered by Microsoft and OpenAI.

The Path Forward: Empowering Developers

As the AI race intensifies, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the key to success lies not just in the quality of the AI models themselves, but in the ability to empower developers to harness their potential. Microsoft, with its long-standing developer focus and strategic partnerships, seems poised to maintain its grip on this crucial audience. Google, despite its technical prowess, will need to double down on its efforts to simplify and streamline its AI offerings for developers if it hopes to catch up.

In the end, the winner of the AI race may well be determined by which company can most effectively rally developers to its cause. And right now, it looks like Microsoft is the one still chanting that word.