Google has announced that it will be incorporating conversational AI chat in its search engine, intensifying the race of AI among tech giants. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that the company’s search engine will be supercharged with recent advances made in conversational AI. Pichai’s comments come as tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and others are racing to incorporate AI technologies into their services and products. Pichai dismissed reports suggesting that the development of chatbots is threatening the existence of the search giant, saying that the ‘opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than before.’
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has been developing large language models (LLMs) which can process and respond to prompts in known language with human-like answers. However, the technology has not been integrated into its search, which accounts for more than half of the company’s revenue. Google hinted in March about its plan to integrate AI technology into its search engines with the launch of ‘Bard,’ its version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Microsoft recently integrated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine after pumping millions of dollars into AI powerhouse OpenAI, giving Bing an edge over Google, which is still following the conventional search approach. As Google faces heat from its rival tech giant, investors have also been pressuring it to cut costs. Recently, Google announced that it would be laying off 12,000 employees, comprising 6% of its workforce. Pichai stated that the company is focused on creating durable savings and pleased with the progress, but there is more work left to do.
The latest comments from Pichai provide a breather for Google, which is battling strong competition while grappling with recession and increasing inflation. However, it remains to be seen how LLMs will be integrated by Google into its search engine to distinguish itself from the competition.
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