During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that the tech giant plans to incorporate conversational artificial intelligence (AI) into its search engine, as competition from its leading opponent, Microsoft, has already ensued.
According to Pichai, users would have the opportunity to ask Google questions and interact with LLMs, or “large language models,” seamlessly within the search context. “Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs [large language models] in the context of search? Absolutely,” he said
The decision by Google to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI engine in its search engine comes as no surprise, given that Microsoft has already done the same with its Bing search engine. However, Google’s adoption of this technology could have a more significant impact, given its dominant 93.4 percent market share in the search industry worldwide. CEO Sundar Pichai expressed confidence in AI chat as an opportunity to expand the company’s search business rather than a threat to its existing operations. He noted that the potential for growth in this space is even more enormous, indicating a positive outlook for the future.
While Pichai did not provide a specific timetable for the implementation of chat AI search, it is evident that Google is trailing Microsoft in this area. Recently, OpenAI’s ChatGPT release prompted Google to acknowledge AI technology as a significant threat to its core business. The fear proved true, as Microsoft used its substantial ownership stake in OpenAI to develop a Bing Search version that utilized the latest GPT 4 model to demonstrate remarkable capabilities. In response, Google launched its conversational AI, Bard, exclusively as a chat product on a separate website, rather than incorporating it directly into Search.
Via WSJ
