Google has announced plans to introduce more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to its search engine. This move is in response to the threat posed to its dominant position as the internet’s main gateway. The shift reflects a gradual change in the way Google’s search engine operates and comes three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine began using a similar technology to that which powers the ChatGPT chatbot. Google already has its own conversational chatbot called Bard, which uses generative AI technology.
Expanding Bard
Bard has only been available to people who were accepted from a waitlist. However, Google recently announced that it is expanding Bard to be available to all users in over 180 countries and more languages beyond English. The expansion will begin with Japanese and Korean before adding about 40 more languages.
The AI Transition
According to Sundar Pichai, Alphabet CEO, Google is at an “exciting inflection point,” and is reimagining all its products, including search. More AI technology will be incorporated into Google’s Gmail with a “Help Me Write” option to produce lengthy replies to emails in seconds, and a tool for photos called “Magic Editor” that will automatically doctor pictures. The AI transition will begin cautiously with the search engine, which remains Google’s crown jewel.
Guardrails in Place
Google is building in guardrails to prevent the AI built into the search engine from responding to sensitive questions about health and finance matters. In those instances, Google will continue to steer people to authoritative websites. The AI results will be clearly tagged as an experimental form of technology, and Google is pledging the AI-generated summaries will sound more factual than conversational.
Google’s stock price initially plunged due to the potential threat caused by Microsoft’s Bing search engine loading AI. The New York Times reported Samsung is considering dropping Google as the default search engine on its widely used smartphones. This raises the specter that Apple might adopt a similar tactic with the iPhone unless Google can show its search engine can evolve with what appears to be a forthcoming AI-driven revolution. Google is aiming to make Bard smarter by connecting with the next generation of a massive data set known as a “large language model.”
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