Sergey Brin appears to make first request in years to access Google code as AI battle heats up, report says

• Sergey Brin last month appeared to make his first request in years to access code, Forbes reported.
• The Google cofounder made the request on January 24 following the release of ChatGPT.
• It follows reports of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai asking Larry Page and Brin for help in the AI battle.

Google cofounder Sergey Brin appeared to make his first request in years to access code, according to a Forbes report, as the artificial intelligence battle continues to heat up.

Brin, who stepped down from his executive role at Alphabet in 2019, made a request on January 24 for the data that trains Google's natural language chatbot, called LaMDA, according to screenshots seen by Forbes.

LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is an AI that analyzes human speech and recognizes commands in it. Google announced its existence in 2021 and released its beta version last year.

The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted Google to prioritize its own AI activities. The CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, announced Monday the release of its direct ChatGPT competitor: Bard, an AI that is powered by LaMDA.

In December, Pichai called Larry Page and Brin following a "code red" following the release of ChatGPT. The cofounders, who remain on the board of Alphabet, had "several" meetings with executives to strategize about Google's AI, and approved plans to incorporate more chatbot features into its search engine.

While Brin's code access was followed by a small technical change, some employees didn't welcome his request, Forbes reported. One commented "Fix Google First," while another said "At least talk to us."

The first comment could be a reference to Google's decision to lay off 6% of its global workforce last month.

Brin's request also underlined Google's sense of urgency in its efforts to compete with ChatGPT.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, in collaboration with OpenAI, unveiled on Tuesday the release of the "new Bing," its AI-powered search engine claiming to be "more powerful than ChatGPT."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.