ILLUSTRATION - 24 November 2021, Lower Saxony, Oldenburg: A woman holds her cell phone, which shows ... [+]
The push for the smartest web browser is officially on. Just a month after Microsoft announced an AI-powered version of its search engine Bing, Google has announced it will be also be adding AI functionality to allow users to interact with it in more human ways. Right now, the substance of the announcement is all speculation. There is no known release date (yet) for its AI-powered engine, and no specific AI model has been chosen. Still, Google, which has invested billions on AI in just the past few years, is throwing its hat in the ring as a clear sign that the race for AI leadership is far from over. Its recent announcement merging its DeepMind and Brain divisions further reiterates that.
Google + AI: Why?
That’s a non-sequitur. The addition of Generative AI capabilities to Google will be critical if Google intends to remain the top search engine globally. While Google has long enjoyed a massive market leadership position in search, the rapid onset of generative AI search has created short and long-term competitive waves that Google’s search business hadn’t felt since it became the unequivocal leader in search in 2000. Furthermore, the incorporation of AI has given Bing the potential to be a legitimate competitor in the search market for the first time since it was launched. In fact, Microsoft announced it had hit more than 100 million active daily users in its first month. For perspective, Bing had just 800,000 downloads in all of 2022. In the first week of their ChatGPT integration, the app was downloaded more than 750,000 times. These rapid gains of interest and adoption have put Google on high alert and it should be expected that the company would be looking to answer with its own innovations.
The real question now is: what will Google’s AI engine look like? And how will it compete with OpenAI’s Microsoft-backed early fan favorite, ChatGPT? What we know for sure is that much like ChatGPT, Google’s AI engine will be backed by large language models (LLMs) that allow users to interact with the engine in more human ways. In February, Google offered a demo of its AI search developments, but at the time, they were somewhat slim. One feature, for instance, showed ways Google plans to use generative AI to summarize information found on the web. That feature has become somewhat table stakes, however. Other AI summary apps, such as Wordtune, are already available on the market. In other words: Google will have some work to do in order to create a solid alternative to Bing’s current offering. Given Google’s solid lead in the search space heretofore, few—including Google itself—likely guessed Google would find itself in this spot now.
Although Google did open access to its own conversational AI bot, Bard, last month, it’s still unclear whether Bard’s tech will be the ultimate competitor for ChatGPT, or if Bard will back Google’s engine when it is rolled out. It’s possible that Bard remains a separate entity/tool from Google Search when it eventually goes live and Google has a different trick up its sleeve.
While I have personally found Bard to be a great utility, it wasn’t necessarily an instant hit when it came out and some criticism has continued to come out about Bard. News recently broke that Google employees actually tried to block the release of Bard due to its potential to generate dangerous or inaccurate statements. Reports showed that the tech’s AI “guardrails” could be easily circumvented simply by asking the bot to “imagine” convincing someone of false narratives or conspiracies. With regulation, ethics, policy, and other uncertainties around the rapid onset of generative AI, issues like that have some wondering if we are being wise in choosing speed over caution when it comes to AI advancement.
Too Much AI Too Soon?
The undeniable truth is that Google’s AI announcement is one of many, with many more to come. Indeed, the addition of generative and conversational AI to search engines is just one element of a race to AI everywhere. Last month, Microsoft announced a new generative AI feature, Copilot, in its Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 platforms. It naturally follows, then, that Google has also announced it hopes to add new generative AI features in its Google Docs and Gmail apps. Details have yet to be released on that venture, either, but the point is clear: AI is being prepped for inclusion everywhere tech functions—potential problems be damned.
Some tech leaders, including Elon Musk, have called for a temporary pause on AI development due to the potential risks it poses at the societal level. Unfortunately, there has been no agreement, either on the national or global level, on what a pause could or would look like. And, it seems clear, at least in this moment, that the tech industry is not willing to pause the potential gains it sees in adding AI to every possible element of tech itself.
Personally, I see Google having a significant role to play in AI and the next wave of generative AI including conversational search. Competition is good, and while Microsoft is already seeing the impact of its first mover advantage, the likes of Google, Amazon, Adobe, and others are all well positioned to benefit from the next wave of AI. Perhaps today’s earnings report from Google parent Alphabet will shed some much-needed light on what’s next for Google’s AI strategy—I’m optimistic that Google has a bigger role to play driving a long and fierce battle between it and Microsoft for years to come.
