Cyber Godfather Tibo Reveals: Google Had ChatGPT a Year Earlier but Dared Not Release It

marsbitPublished on 2026-08-03Last updated on 2026-08-03

Abstract

In a recent revelation, Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, the Codex lead at OpenAI, confirmed that Google developed a ChatGPT-like chatbot called "LMChat" a full year before OpenAI's launch. According to Tibo, who was part of the Google team at the time, the company was too cautious to release it, fearing it might disrupt its core search and advertising business. DeepMind, where the project was housed, was also restricted from launching products that could compete with Google's existing services. This account aligns with past statements from former Google Brain head Jeff Dean, who mentioned an internal chatbot that was deemed inferior to Google Search at the time. The article highlights this as a classic case of "innovator's dilemma," comparing Google's hesitation to Xerox's failure to commercialize groundbreaking technologies like the graphical user interface in the 1970s. The piece further notes a recent wave of high-profile departures from Google's AI teams to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, including key figures such as Transformer co-author Noam Shazeer and AlphaFold lead John Jumper. It concludes that Google's excessive caution and internal constraints, driven by the need to protect its lucrative search business, ultimately cost it a pioneering position in the generative AI revolution, allowing OpenAI to seize the initiative with ChatGPT's public release in November 2022.

What, Google really made ChatGPT a year earlier than OpenAI?

This isn't Google making excuses after the fact. This time, it's confirmed by an OpenAI insider, Codex lead Tibo:

That was basically ChatGPT a year early. It was initially called LMChat, and later had another codename.

Google was too nervous to release it, and DeepMind was prohibited from launching products that could impact Google's business.

But why does Tibo know such an old story so well?

The answer: He was on that Google team at the time.

I was a member of that team back then.

Yes, the Tibo who is now building "Infinite Tokens" for OpenAI was a firsthand participant in that Google project.

Netizens were shocked that Tibo had such a history:

No way, I thought you were just a reset button for Codex (just kidding).

Jeff Dean: I'm Not Convinced!!

Here's how it happened. A Midjourney engineer recently dug up an old interview with former Google Brain head Jeff Dean on X:

I sometimes think about that Jeff Dean interview where he said they had an internal Chatbot before ChatGPT, but felt using it was worse than just using Google Search.

Unexpectedly, Tibo personally responded, engaging in a cross-air dialogue with Jeff Dean:

The project Jeff mentioned did exist. It was initially called LMChat and was almost exactly ChatGPT a year earlier.

As for why it wasn't released, Tibo helplessly stated that DeepMind didn't have the authority. LLMs would impact Google Search, and the bosses were too nervous to greenlight it.

After recounting this past event, Tibo left only a sigh:

Sigh, I often think about this.

Netizens were speechless upon hearing it...

Your former boss at Google absolutely should not touch anything business-related ever again.

Coincidentally, Google's AI lead Demis Hassabis also said in a biography that OpenAI didn't do anything revolutionary. Many people at the time realized the power of LLMs, but Sam Altman had the guts to release it without considering safety at all.

But you can't really blame Google. "Google Search" set a very high bar as a benchmark. If it was just for search, Google Search was already very mature.

And what about the 2023 large models? They got almost everything wrong, full of hallucinations whenever it involved timely content.

But now, Scaling has solved everything.

"Better than Google Search" – this acceptance criteria Google set for itself ultimately cost it an unprecedented price.

The Unfinished Google Journey

Tibo, real name Thibault Sottiaux, Codex lead, possessor of Infinite Token capability, aka "Cyber Godfather".

(ps: Reset reset o(╥_╥)o, I accidentally used them all up over the weekend!!!)

In 2015, Tibo joined Google, initially working on Google Maps-related projects, then transferred to DeepMind.

At the time, DeepMind was still a fairly pure research lab, with AlphaGo, reinforcement learning, and AGI research at its peak of attention.

At DeepMind, Tibo was mainly responsible for building the AI and machine learning infrastructure used by researchers.

According to Tibo's recollection, DeepMind internally developed a chat product called LMChat, which later had another codename. Its experience was already very similar to ChatGPT.

But Google was extremely cautious, given the direct impact on existing business, and DeepMind didn't have enough authority. Ultimately, the product never truly reached the public.

November 2022, ChatGPT exploded onto the scene.

Tibo saw it and was floored.

In 2024, he ended his nearly nine-year Google career and officially joined OpenAI.

As it turned out, Tibo's choice was correct.

This kind of abortion of projects like LMChat wasn't a one-off; like Vibe Coding, it's either zero times or countless times (just kidding).

This small story ultimately became a microcosm of Google's situation throughout the AI era.

Now, falling behind in the coding battlefield is triggering an even more brutal talent exodus within Google.

June 18th, Noam Shazeer announced joining OpenAI.

This name needs no introduction. One of the core authors of the 2017 Transformer paper "Attention Is All You Need" that ignited the entire AI era. He left Google in 2021 to found Character.AI. In 2024, Google spent $2.7 billion to buy back him and his company, having him co-lead Gemini.

Result: The person bought back for $2.7 billion, didn't even stay two years.

June 19th, John Jumper announced moving to Anthropic.

DeepMind VP, a core general handpicked by Hassabis himself – tasked with leading the AlphaFold team just six months after earning his PhD.

In 2024, he and Hassabis jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work on AlphaFold in protein structure prediction.

But now, the Nobel laureate has chosen a competitor.

After these two heavy blows, Google continues to bleed talent.

June 24th, two new names appeared on Google's talent "wanted list": Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel.

Both are core contributors to Gemini. Adler leads Google's AI coding direction, Pritzel works on pre-training. Both were involved in AlphaFold research, colleagues of John Jumper.

Destination: also Anthropic.

One More Thing

In the comments of the post, someone asked a very interesting question:

If Google had released GPT first, how would things be different now?

Unfortunately, hardly anyone replied.

But I know this one!!

Isn't this just the tech world's most classic old story.

In the 1970s, Xerox PARC developed the graphical user interface, mouse, and Ethernet. These guys basically held all the cards for the PC era, a pure royal flush.

And the result? Xerox didn't take it seriously at all.

Because Xerox sales did the math: Can this fancy interface help me sell two more toner cartridges, two more packs of A4 paper? No. Then why bother?

...

And so, Xerox watched as Steve Jobs visited, went back, created the Macintosh, and ascended to the throne.

Ever since, Xerox became Silicon Valley's "scapegoat." Every time the industry undergoes a paradigm shift, big shots drag Xerox out for a whipping:

See, this is big company disease! (piapiapia, whip sounds)

But seriously, anyone sitting in that position, looking at billions in annual printer profits, who would be willing to disrupt themselves...

Replace "toner and A4 paper" with "search and ads," replace "graphical interface" with "ChatGPT" –

That Google, which wrote Transformer in 2017 and held a full set of god-tier gear, ultimately in the AGI marathon...

Earned the title of "America's Doubao."

Reference link:[1]https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2083596911060324570

This article is from the WeChat public account "QbitAI" (ID: QbitAI), author: Jay

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Cyber Godfather Tibo Reveals: Google Had ChatGPT a Year Earlier but Dared Not Release It

Abstract

Jeff Dean: I'm Not Convinced!!

The Unfinished Google Journey

One More Thing

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