MOUNTAIN VIEW, California. – Google on Wednesday announced plans to equip its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial intelligence technology in response to one of the biggest threats to its longstanding position as the main gateway to the Internet.
The gradual change in how Google’s search engine works comes three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine began using technology similar to that of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, which sparked public interest. One of the biggest hypes in Silicon Valley since Apple launched the first iPhone 16 years ago.
Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., has already tested its own chatbot, called Bard. This product, based on a technology called Generative AI, which also powers ChatGPT, was only available to people on a waitlist. But Google announced on Wednesday that Bard will be available to all users in more than 180 countries and in languages other than English.
Bard’s multilingual expansion starts with Japanese and Korean before adding about 40 more languages.
Google is now poised to test AI with its search engine, which has been synonymous with web search for 20 years and is the backbone of a digital advertising empire that generated more than $220 billion in revenue last year.
“We are at an exciting tipping point,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a speech packed with AI references at a packed developer conference. We are rethinking all of our products, including research.”
More AI technologies are being built into Google’s Gmail email, with a “Help me write” option that creates long email replies in seconds, and a photo tool called “Magic Editor” that automatically retouches images .
The transition to AI will begin cautiously with the search engine, Google’s crown jewel.
This deliberate approach reflects the balancing act Google must strike to stay at the forefront of technology while maintaining its reputation for providing reliable search results – a reputation underpinned by its penchant for artificial intelligence in crafting information that appears to be is present, damage could be significant.
The tendency to provide falsely persuasive answers to questions – a phenomenon euphemistically described as “hallucinations” – was evident in early testing of Bard, which, like ChatGPT, is based on generative AI technology that is still in development . Decentralization.
Google will take its next steps in AI through a newly established research lab where Americans can wait-list to test how generative AI will be incorporated into research results. The tests also include more traditional links to external websites where users can read more detailed information about the requested topics. It may be several weeks before Google sends out invites to people on the waitlist to try out the AI-powered search engine.
AI results are clearly identified as an experimental form of the technology, and Google strives to make AI-generated summaries factual rather than conversational – in stark contrast to Bard and ChatGPT, which are programmed to present a more human image. Google has safeguards in place to prevent the search engine’s built-in AI from answering sensitive health questions — like “Should I give a 3-year-old Tylenol?” — and financial matters. In these cases, Google will continue to direct users to legitimate websites.
Google doesn’t anticipate how soon its search engine will provide generative AI results for all users. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has been under increasing pressure to show how its search engine will maintain its leadership position since Microsoft began integrating AI into Bing, which lags far behind Google.
The potential threat sent Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc.’s share price plummeting, but recently bounced back to where it was when Bing announced its AI plans to great fanfare. Recently, The New York Times reported that Samsung is considering dropping Google as the default search engine on its popular smartphones, raising concerns that Apple could use a similar tactic on the iPhone unless Google just shows that its search engine is up to par scaling may be an upcoming AI-driven revolution.
As Google begins to integrate AI into its search engine, Bard wants to make it smarter by plugging into the next generation of a large dataset called the Big Language Model (LLM) that feeds it. The LLM that Bard relies on is called the Pathways Language Model, or PaLM. Google’s search engine AI will be based on the next-generation PaLM2 and another technology called the Unified Multitasking Model (MUM).
While we’ll have to wait and see how Google’s search engine will use generative AI to find answers, a new tool will be available immediately. Google is adding a new filter called “Perspectives,” which focuses on what people are saying online about any topic they type into the search engine. This new feature will sit alongside existing search filters for news, images and videos.