Sundar Pichai responds to Satya Nadella's 'dance' comment with a clever twist

Sundar Pichai playfully responded to Satya Nadella's 2023 ‘dance’ comment during a podcast, showing Google’s cool confidence in the AI race while keeping things light. The AI rivalry between tech giants is heating up.

Image Credit: X

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has responded, lightly but clearly, to a remark Microsoft’s Satya Nadella made over a year ago. The comment came during Pichai’s appearance on the All-In Podcast, where he was asked about his top competitors in the fast-growing AI space.

David Friedberg, one of the hosts, asked Pichai to comment on four tech leaders: Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of xAI, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Satya Nadella of Microsoft. He noted how each company has a highly active founder or CEO leading the charge in artificial intelligence.

Pichai praised all four, calling them “some of the best entrepreneurs,” and said that their presence signals the level of innovation expected in AI in the years ahead. But he ended with a witty line that turned heads.

“I think maybe only one of them has invited me to a dance, not the others,” Pichai said with a smile.

While Friedberg appeared confused, many listeners caught the hidden meaning immediately. Pichai was referring to a 2023 comment from Satya Nadella, who had described Google as the "800-pound gorilla" in search and challenged its dominance after Microsoft launched its AI-powered Bing.

In that interview with The Verge, Nadella said,

“At the end of the day, [Google is] the 800-pound gorilla in this. I hope that, with our innovation, they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. And I want people to know that we made them dance.”

Pichai’s comment on the podcast was clearly a reference to Nadella’s challenge. By saying only one competitor had invited him to dance, he was cleverly acknowledging the competition while keeping the tone light-hearted.

The moment shows how even top tech CEOs use humour and subtle jabs in a field where rivalry is fierce. Despite the dig, Pichai remained respectful and stressed the shared goal of building AI responsibly and for the benefit of all.

Google is currently pushing ahead with its own generative AI model, Gemini (formerly Bard), as it races against others like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s CoPilot. Every move, and now every word, from tech leaders like Pichai and Nadella is being closely watched as the AI space rapidly evolves.