The Rise of OpenAI and Why Google Missed the First Transformer Wave

When people talk about AI today, OpenAI is the name that dominates every conversation. From ChatGPT to GPT-4, OpenAI has become synonymous with the AI boom. But what most people don’t realize is that Google invented the transformer, the very architecture that made all of this possible — and still managed to miss the first big wave of AI.

So how did OpenAI manage to leap ahead while Google sat on its own invention? Let’s break it down.

Google Invented Transformers — And Sat on Them

Transformers, as an architecture, were introduced to the world through Google’s “Attention Is All You Need” paper in 2017. That paper fundamentally changed the way AI could process and generate language.

But even though Google was first to the party, they never pushed transformers to their full potential. Sure, transformers were used internally for things like Google Translate, but when it came to building massive, public-facing AI models — the ones that would blow people’s minds — Google hesitated.

Meanwhile, OpenAI saw what transformers could do and decided to bet everything on them.

OpenAI Understood the Power of Scale

The difference wasn’t just in having transformers — it was understanding what transformers could become if scaled massively.

OpenAI’s entire strategy was based on a simple but game-changing insight: if you scale transformers big enough and train them on massive datasets, they could become general-purpose reasoning engines. Not just chatbots, but systems that could write, code, analyze, and reason.

So OpenAI went all-in on scale.

• GPT-1 was small, just to test the waters.
• GPT-2 stunned everyone with its ability to write full articles.
• GPT-3 went nuclear with 175 billion parameters, setting a new benchmark for what AI could do.

While Google was still debating risks and tweaking internal models, OpenAI was racing ahead, scaling up, and shipping real products.

Why Google Held Back: Fear, Culture, and Corporate Paralysis

So why didn’t Google run with transformers when they had every advantage?

A big reason comes down to fear of reputation risk. Google was terrified of what might happen if they released a large language model and it said something controversial, biased, or offensive.

Add to that a corporate culture focused on research purity over bold product launches. Google’s AI teams are filled with brilliant minds, but also people who want every possible problem solved before anything gets shipped.

Instead of moving fast, they got stuck in internal debates, worrying about every possible way a model could fail. Meanwhile, OpenAI embraced the opposite philosophy: build fast, launch, and learn on the fly.

The First Mover Advantage OpenAI Took and Google Lost

What makes this whole story so wild is that Google had everything they needed to win.

• They had the best AI researchers on Earth.
• They created the transformer architecture.
• They had access to more data and compute than almost anyone.

But they didn’t make the jump from research to real-world products. OpenAI filled that void.

By the time Google realized what was happening, OpenAI had already launched ChatGPT and taken over the public narrative around AI.

OpenAI’s Playbook: Move Fast, Scale Big

OpenAI’s approach was simple:

• Take the transformer architecture and scale it as far as the hardware would allow.
• Train on enormous datasets — scraping the web, books, code, conversations.
• Ship a product, get user feedback, and fine-tune as needed.

Instead of waiting for perfection, they learned by doing, which allowed them to iterate faster than anyone else in the space.

Google’s Wake-Up Call: Playing Catch-Up in the AI Race

Now that OpenAI has taken the lead, Google is scrambling to catch up.

They’ve launched Bard (rebranded now as Gemini) and other AI efforts, but none of them have captured public attention the way ChatGPT did. And here’s the hard truth: being first to invent something doesn’t mean you’ll be first to win with it.

Google is now in the awkward position of being the company that invented transformers but let someone else own the market.

What This Means for AI’s Future

The story of OpenAI and Google is a reminder that in AI — and in tech in general — it’s not just about who invents the breakthrough, but who’s bold enough to act on it.

OpenAI wasn’t afraid to scale, experiment, and take risks. Google, despite all their resources and talent, let fear and bureaucracy slow them down.

And now?

• OpenAI is the face of AI innovation, partnered with Microsoft, integrated into products like Bing and Microsoft Office.
• Google is trying to claw back relevance in a race they should have owned from the start.

Final Thought

At the end of the day, the rise of OpenAI and the missed opportunity at Google is a story of speed versus caution, action versus hesitation.

It shows that having the best tech isn’t enough — you have to be willing to bet on it.

OpenAI took that bet, scaled transformers beyond what anyone thought possible, and in doing so, they reshaped the entire AI landscape.

Sometimes, it’s not the inventor who changes the world — it’s the one who’s willing to take the leap.