Google founder Sergey Brin found out using Gemini, company’s own AI model, on the internal list of tools engineers are banned from using; to kill that one rule ‘upset Brin’ passed over the ‘fight’ to company’s CEO

Sergey Brin says Gemini was on Google’s internal ‘no list’

Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed that he once found Gemini, Google’s own AI model, on an internal list of coding tools that engineers were not allowed to use. Speaking on the All-In podcast last year, Brin said he was surprised to see Gemini on the company’s internal “no list” and spent weeks trying to get the rule removed. After failing to resolve the issue himself, he said he turned to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who supported him and helped get the restriction lifted. Brin said the episode highlights how internal rules can sometimes lag behind a company’s AI strategy.

Sergey Brin says Gemini was on Google’s internal ‘no list’

Recalling the incident, Sergey Brin said he had returned to writing code at Google when he noticed that Gemini was listed among tools engineers were not supposed to use for coding.“Recently I just had a big tiff inside the company. We had this list of what you’re allowed to use to code and what you’re not allowed to use to code, and Gemini was on the no list,” Brin said.

He added that while nobody actively enforced the rule, it still existed on an internal webpage.“Nobody would enforce this rule, but there was this actual internal webpage. For whatever historical reason somebody had put this, and I had a big fight with them. I cleared it up after a shocking period of time.”

Why Google CEO Sundar Pichai stepped in

During the conversation, the podcast hosts pointed out that Sergey Brin’s super-voting shares give him significant influence at Google. Brin, however, said he eventually asked CEO Sundar Pichai to handle the issue.“I definitely told Sundar. He was very supportive. I was more like, I talked to him, I was like, I can’t deal with these people, you need to deal with this.”One of the hosts remarked that it was remarkable that a junior employee could say no to the company’s founder.Brin responded, “No, but I’m serious. That’s a sign of a healthy culture actually. I guess so. Anyway, it did get fixed and people are using it.”