Google employees criticize CEO Sundar Pichai for ‘rushed, botched’ announcement of GPT competitor Bard

Google employees are criticizing leadership, most notably CEO Sundar Pichai, for the way the company handled the announcement this week of its ChatGPT competitor called Bard.

Staffers took to the popular internal forum memegen to express their thoughts on the Bard announcement, referring to it as “rushed,” “botched” and “un-Googley,” according to messages and memes viewed by CNBC.

On Monday, Google got ahead of a Microsoft event the following day and had Pichai publicly divulge some details of the company’s chatbot technology. More about Bard was revealed on Wednesday at an event held in Paris.

In between those events, Microsoft, an early investor in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, showcased how its Bing search engine will integrate with the buzzy chat technology, inviting reporters to a demonstration at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

During Google’s Wednesday event, search boss Prabhakar Raghavan briefly shared some slides with examples of Bard’s capabilities. People tuning in expected to hear more, and some employees weren’t even aware of the event. One presenter forgot to bring a phone that was required for the demo.

Meanwhile, people on Twitter began pointing out that an ad for Bard offered an incorrect description of a telescope used to take the first pictures of a planet outside our solar system.

While Google employees often turn to memegen to humorously poke fun at the company’s quirks and missteps, the posts after the Bard announcement struck a more serious tone and even went directly after Pichai.

“Dear Sundar, the Bard launch and the layoffs were rushed, botched, and myopic,” read one meme that included a serious picture of Pichai. “Please return to taking a long-term outlook.” The…