Google employees have taken to their internal forum Memegen to slam the company and its CEO Sundar Pichai for the company’s widely criticized handling of the launch of Bard, its ChatGPT competitor, CNBC has reported(Opens in a new window).

According to CNBC, who viewed the internal messages, staffers described the Bard announcement as “rushed,” “botched and “un-Googley.” 

The accusations come after Google rushed forward its announcement of its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, in the same week that Microsoft showed how its Bing search engine will integrate ChatGPT technology. 

One meme that included a picture of Pichai read: “Dear Sundar, the Bard launch and the layoffs were rushed, botched, and myopic. Please return to taking a long-term outlook.” 

Another, which referenced the lowest category in Google’s employee performance system, read: “Sundar, and leadership, deserve a Perf NI. They are being comically short-sighted and un-Googlely in their pursuit of ‘sharpening focus.’”

As CNBC notes, “Googley” refers to being ambitious and hardworking, which are pushed onto staff as workplace traits the company encourages.

Meanwhile, another meme of a bird doing a facepalm reportedly read: “Rushing Bard to market in a panic validated the market’s fear about us.”

In widely publicized and embarrassing news for Google this week, a demo of Bard was shown to spout out incorrect information about what new discoveries the James Webb Space had made. 

After the announcement of Bard, shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company dropped more than 9%(Opens in a new window), as investors were concerned that ChatGPT threatens Google’s core search business. 

Microsoft and Google are currently locked in a race to dominate the AI chatbot market. 

As it works to beat Google in the AI chatbot race, Microsoft is reported to be “tentatively” gearing up to show how its integration of OpenAI’s language AI technology into its Prometheus Model works in core Microsoft 365 apps like Docs, PowerPoint, and Outlook at an announcement next month.