The tech giant could also bring together its DeepMind and Google Brain divisions to increase their processing power.
Google plans to add a natural language artificial intelligence chatbot to its search engine to track rivals such as ChatGPTCEO of Google and Alphabet Sundar Pichai said Thursday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
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Pichai: “We were iterating to ship something”
Pichai told the WSJ he’s optimistic about Google’s ability to hold its own in the frenetic field of AI; however, he did not specify when Google Search users might see a difference.
“We were iterating to ship something, and maybe the timelines have changed, given the timing in the industry,” Pichai said in the interview.
This “industry moment” is likely a reference to Microsoft’s Bing announcement and interest in conversational AI among investors and the public. Microsoft took the lead in the AI race in February by announcing that it would integrate ChatGPT and GPT-4 into its Bing and Edge search browser. It would have triggered a “code red” at Googlewhich has its own AI divisions and products, but has not integrated results from those divisions into its household name search engine.
Judging by its AI competitors, Google’s possible upcoming search chatbot would likely open with a waiting list.
SEE: Artificial Intelligence Ethics Policy (TechRepublic Premium)
Google has several new search products on the shop floor, Pichai said. Some of these products and features could improve the search engine’s current operation, such as a version that “remembers” search queries within the same session to allow users to ask follow-up questions.
“Will people be able to ask Google questions and interact with LLMs (large language models) in the context of search? Absolutely,” Pichai told The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s been amazing to see the user enthusiasm around adopting these technologies, and that’s a pleasant surprise as well,” he said.
But putting natural-language AI in the iconic search engine could be a double-edged sword if it drives people away from search ads, which account for $162 billion in Google revenue.
Google can rely on Bard
Google has its own internal chatbot, Bard, and extensive experience in the LLM field. Bard is open to the public – with a waiting list – and has a button that redirects to Google Search for more information. Like other AIs of his ilk, Bard can recognize and interpret language, code, or images and generate more content based on prompts. Google will likely leverage its experience with Bard to add natural language chat to its search engine.
SEE: Want to help build Bard? Users who pass through the waiting list can leave feedback.
The tech giant also used one of its great language models to create Pathways language modela large-scale AI system currently available to developers on Google cloud computing service.
These large language models, which are the backbone of AI capable of holding a natural conversation with a person, consume huge amounts of processing power. In order to reduce costs and use processing resources more efficiently, Pichai expects Google’s two AI-focused units, Google Brain and DeepMind, to work more closely together and pool their resources in a near future.
AI competition intensifies despite layoffs
One of the challenges for Google while trying to keep up with Microsoft’s AI developments is the number of employees. Alphabet has cut its workforce by around 6% since the layoffs were first announced in January 2023. Microsoft has also made headline-grabbing layoffs in this belt-tightening year, including a AI Ethics Team.
