‘Greatest Jiu Jujutsu In The History Of Capitalism’: VC Investor Worries, Then Hopes For Google To Prevail In AI Deathmatch

As the artificial intelligence revolution takes shape, industry watchers see a looming battle for supremacy. In an episode of the bi-weekly BG2POD podcast aired on Feb. 8, co-hosts Brad Gerstne r and Bill Gurley discussed about innovators’ dilemma and how AI’s phase change may affect the biggest names in tech.

Innovators’ Dilemma: The innovators’ dilemma Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) is facing currently is that almost the entirety of its profits come from an advertising model around 10 blue links, said Gerstner, founder of technology-focused investment firm Altimeter Capital.

“That is just at its core seems somewhat at odds with what Perplexity is doing, what ChatGPT is doing in the age of answers,” he said.

Box co-founder Aaron Levie, who joined as the guest in the episode, weighed on the differences between Google and the likes of Perplexity and ChatGPT.

“The big problem is like you go to a search box, you type in search and they give you a lot results and Perplexity and ChatGPT are just totally different product interfaces, and so they can’t clearly make the Google homepage just do that,” he said.

Gerstner pointed out that, in 1999, Google was just a different interface to the portals that existed at the time. He also expressed surprise at why Yahoo, which had an existing business model that required it to sell real estate, didn’t just copy Google then.