Google’s Next Move: Incorporating AI Chat into its Search product

Google intends to incorporate conversational AI into its flagship Search product, according to CEO Sundar Pichai in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The tech giant has previously mentioned integrating large language models (LLMs) into search, but this is the first announcement of plans to add conversational features.

This development follows Microsoft’s release of a Bing search engine version powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI engine.

Google’s implementation could potentially have a more significant impact given its 93.4% global share of the search market.

Pichai views AI chat as an opportunity to expand the search business rather than a threat. Although the CEO hasn’t provided a timeline for chat AI search integration, it’s evident that Google trails behind Microsoft.

Innovation village reported Google declared a “code red” after OpenAI released ChatGPT, recognising it as a threat to its core business. This concern was justified when Microsoft launched a Bing Search version powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model with impressive capabilities.

Google launched its own conversational AI, Bard, as a chat tool on a separate site, not within Search. Bard falls short compared to ChatGPT, as it displayed wrong answers in a Twitter ad. Pichai mentioned that Google aims to adopt a better language model to bridge this gap.

Despite cutting jobs to increase productivity by 20%, Google is accelerating work on new AI products. The company aims to improve efficiency by fostering greater collaboration between Google Brain and DeepMind, its two main AI divisions.

Pichai anticipates more robust collaboration, as some projects will require intensive computing power and benefit from working together at scale.
As Google focuses on enhancing Bard and integrating it into Search, it is crucial to strike a balance between providing accurate information and maintaining user privacy.

The increased collaboration between Google Brain and DeepMind is a positive step towards achieving this goal, as it will bring together expertise and resources from both divisions.