Google calls in help from Larry Page and Sergey Brin for AI fight

Last month, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders, held several meetings with company executives. The topic: a rival’s new chatbot, a clever artificial intelligence product that looked as if it could be the first notable threat in decades to Google’s $149 billion search business.

Page and Brin, who had not spent much time at Google since they left their daily roles with the company in 2019, reviewed Google’s AI product strategy, according to two people with knowledge of the meetings who were not allowed to discuss them. They approved plans and pitched ideas to put more chatbot features into Google’s search engine. And they offered advice to company leaders, who have put AI front and center in their plans.