Responding to the rise of ChatGPT and similar systems that provide full-sentence responses to queries is make or break for the tech giant, an executive told The New York Times. Google’s leadership declared a “code red” after ChatGPT’s release and employees reportedly raised concerns about the tool at an all-hands meeting last week. (The New York Times, CNBC)

Talking point: San Francisco-based OpenAI’s text generator has been the internet’s main character ever since it launched three weeks ago. While it’s not omniscient, ChatGPT’s conversational manner of fielding interlocutor’s inquiries makes it a competitor to Google’s omnipresent search bar, which generates relevant links. And if the Alphabet subsidiary does itself get chatty, it’ll need to figure out how to run ads within the conversations, or think up a whole new business model. Plus, delivering AI-written answers as quickly and at the scale of the search volume Google processes would likely cost a lot.