In addition, I don't know why anyone would think Google is going to make all the AI, just because today's most notable, state-of-the-art AI systems are made by a few big companies with the resources to fund large teams of experts for years. Fifty years ago this article could have been called "Untapped opportunities in software" (or operating systems) and talked about IBM -- is there software IBM can't or won't write for us?
I think the key difference between Google and IBM is that Google has shown a clear interest in AI, and practice of it is pretty pervasive throughout the company. There's a world of difference between "The largest tech company that can fund a team of experts" and "The largest tech company that is funding multiple teams of experts to actively work on the problem."
In addition, I don't know why anyone would think Google is going to make all the AI, just because today's most notable, state-of-the-art AI systems are made by a few big companies with the resources to fund large teams of experts for years. Fifty years ago this article could have been called "Untapped opportunities in software" (or operating systems) and talked about IBM -- is there software IBM can't or won't write for us?