Google’s big Pixel event was sure giving OpenAI vibes
Senior Vice President of Platforms and Devices Rick Osterloh kicked off Google’s Pixel event, which was held on a stage featuring warm wood colors and lower lighting compared to past events.
It looks like Google might have seen Sam Altman’s tweet about the company’s event “aesthetic.”
The OpenAI CEO made the apparent dig about the vibe of Google’s I/O event back in May, and the tech giant seems to have switched up its event staging for its most recent Made By Google event, which took place Tuesday.
Bright lights and varied colors are common at Google’s events. They can be huge productions, after all. But Google seemed to have taken a page out of OpenAI’s book this time around.
The Made By Google keynote stage bore similarities to OpenAI’s Spring Update event, featuring warmer colors on the stage and light wood setup with a few plants. The lighting wasn’t harsh.
OpenAI’s Spring Update event (top) compared to Google’s Made By Google event (bottom)
The stage design could always be a coincidence — OpenAI is far from the first to embrace a mid-century modern vibe featuring wood or vertical slats (look no further than your favorite podcaster’s accent wall).
But the change comes three months after Altman posted on X that he “cannot stop thinking about the aesthetic difference” between the two companies. The OpenAI CEO posted a screenshot comparing the companies’ two May events, which occurred within days of each other.
Google I/O featured a brightly lit stage with fake windows, clouds, and broad stripes of rainbow colors matching those found in Google’s logo. It also featured a performance from electronic musician Marc Rebillet to warm up the crowd.
Of course, Google I/O is a huge tech conference that draws in a ton of Android developers and press. Made By Google is by no means a small event, but it’s not a multiple-day conference focused on developers.
Last year, the Made By Google event featured a stage with shades of blue and grey.
The Made By Google event 2023 (top) sharply contrasts with the Made By Google event 2024 (bottom).
This year, the highlights of Google’s Made By Google event included the Pixel 9 series, which offers four new models and a foldable phone. It also offers new AI-powered tools like Pixel Screenshot and Gemini to help with simple tasks. Google also showcased its Pixel Watch 3, which offers a new larger size and improved fitness tracking.
It’s not clear whether Google changed up its event aesthetic because of Altman’s tweet (we’ve reached out to Google and OpenAI to see if either will comment).
But Google’s new event vibe this time around was warmer and more inviting, and still managed to feature Google’s classic colors worked into the stage, just more subtly.
It looked good — regardless of whether a rival nudged them in that direction.
