Did you mean?

Paul Buchheit traces Google’s early AI work, including how data and machine learning shaped its search products and how he built the first “Did you mean?” feature. He argues that Google’s risk aversion and focus on protecting search helped create an opening for OpenAI, whose researchers were drawn to the promise of publishing their work. He favors open source AI as a way to distribute power and individual agency, while warning that expensive training runs could concentrate control. He expects AI capabilities to keep improving and urges people to build tools in the open and shape their use around freedom.