Also, if we're going backwards, who invented neural networks, does that mean that person also then "had LLMs before OpenAI existed"?
Google?
> who invented neural networks
People like Geoffrey Hinton, who was notably at Google Brain from 2013 to 2023?
The people who say Google was ahead were paying attention long before you were.
Google did, as they already said.
OpenAI was better at marketing and a lot more willing to cannibalize the search market as a newcomer. So Google blew their lead in research by not recognizing the product value quickly enough, or failing to win an internal political war on it anyway