Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks onstage during the annual Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.
Stephen Lamb | Portal
Google is rearranging the reporting structure of its virtual assistant unit — dubbed the Assistant — to focus more on Bard, the company’s new artificial intelligence chat technology.
In a memo to employees Wednesday titled “Changes to Assistant and Bard teams,” Sissie Hsiao, vice president and head of the Google Assistant business unit, announced changes to the organization that show the unit is prioritizing Bard heavily.
Jianchang “JC” Mao, who reported directly to Hsiao, will leave the company for personal reasons, the memo seen by CNBC said. Mao held the position of vice president of engineering for Google Assistant and “helped design the assistant we have today,” Hsiao wrote.
Mao’s place will be 16-year Google veteran Peeyush Ranjan, who most recently held the title of vice president in Google’s trade organization and oversaw payments.
“As the Bard teams continue this work, we want to ensure that we continue to support and implement the opportunities ahead,” Hsiao said in the email. “This year, more than ever, we’ve focused on delivering with impact for our users.”
Google Assistant is an AI-powered virtual assistant software application and speech processing software similar to Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. Often in the form of speech recognition, Assistant is used on mobile and home devices, including its Pixel smartphone and in Nest smart speakers and devices. It is also used in smart watches, smart displays, TVs and in vehicles via the Android Auto platform.
The new leadership changes suggest that the Assistant organization may have plans to integrate Bard technology into similar products in the future.
Last week, Google unveiled its ChatGPT competitor Bard, calling it “an experiment,” beginning testing in the US and UK after CNBC reported the product testing in January. CNBC previously reported that the company pulled team members from various parts of the company to focus on Bard as part of a “Code Red” effort.
As part of Wednesday’s change, Google Assistant engineering vice president Amar Subramanya will now lead engineering for the Bard team, the email said. Trevor Strohman, who previously led technical efforts for Bard, will continue to serve as Bard’s Area Tech Lead, reporting to Hsiao.
However, a big question still remains as to how the technology can be used to generate revenue.
Executives have hinted at using it as a search product, but Bard executives recently tried to downplay that use case to employees even as the company struggled to respond to Microsoft’s Bing Chat GPT integration.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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