OpenAI engineer says Google built a ChatGPT-like bot a year before OpenAI

An OpenAI engineer who previously worked at Google Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.77% has claimed the search giant developed a ChatGPT-like chatbot nearly a year before OpenAI's November 2022 launch but chose not to release it over fears it would cannibalize its search business.

The Claim

Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, now OpenAI's head of core products overseeing both ChatGPT and Codex, made the claim in a post on X responding to AI engineer Cheng Lou, who had referenced a Jeff Dean interview in which the Google executive said the company had an internal bot before ChatGPT but "didn't think it was better than just googling."indiatoday+1

"I was part of that team. Basically ChatGPT one year before it came out. Called LMChat and then another codename," Sottiaux wrote. He added: "Google was too nervous to release it and DeepMind was blocked from shipping products that could disrupt Google. I think about this a lot."moneycontrol+2

Sottiaux left Google DeepMind in July 2024 to join OpenAI, where he rose to lead the Codex product before being promoted to head of core products earlier this year. His claims have not been officially confirmed by Google.wired+1

Google's Early AI Advantage

The disclosure reignites a long-running debate about Google's caution in deploying conversational AI despite its foundational contributions to the field. Google researchers published the 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," introducing the Transformer architecture that underpins modern large language models, including the GPT series. The company also developed advanced conversational systems including LaMDA, PaLM, and Meena, but none were released as consumer chatbots before ChatGPT.mashable+2

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean acknowledged in 2022 that the company had similar capabilities to OpenAI but cited concerns about hallucinations and user trust as reasons for its cautious approach.indiatoday+1

The Cost of Caution

ChatGPT reached one million users in five days and 100 million in two months after its November 2022 launch, forcing Google into a reactive posture. The company responded months later with Bard, which has since evolved into Gemini. According to India Today, ChatGPT now has about one billion monthly active users, with Gemini approaching 950 million.moneycontrol+2

Sottiaux's account suggests the cost of Google's hesitation was not merely technical delay but a deliberate strategic choice to protect its search revenue — a decision that handed OpenAI a head start in defining the generative AI era.