According to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, the tech giant is planning to incorporate conversational artificial intelligence capabilities into its widely popular search engine.
This move is aimed at improving Google’s capacity to handle diverse search queries with the help of AI advancements, as reported in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Despite the presence of chatbots like ChatGPT and other business-related challenges, Pichai disregarded the possibility of chatbots posing a threat to Google’s search business, which contributes over 50% of the parent company’s revenue.
During an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Pichai stated that the potential for growth is even greater than it was before.
Google has been at the forefront of creating large language models (LLMs), which are computer programs capable of interpreting and responding to natural language queries in a human-like manner. However, the company has not yet leveraged this technology to impact how people interact with search engines. Mr. Pichai confirmed that this is about to change.
He added that individuals will have the ability to ask Google questions and interact with LLMs while conducting searches. This functionality will be integrated into Google’s search engine.
As Microsoft has already implemented the technology underlying the ChatGPT system into its Bing search engine, Pichai is grappling with one of the most significant challenges to Google’s primary business in recent years, along with pressure from investors to reduce costs.
In January, Alphabet announced its largest workforce reduction to date, eliminating roughly 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its staff. Other tech firms have also scaled back in response to concerns over inflation and recession.
Mr. Pichai’s recent statements suggest that Google intends to enable users to engage directly with the company’s large language models via its search engine. This could fundamentally alter the traditional link-based experience that has been prevalent for over twenty years.
According to Mr. Pichai, Google is experimenting with various new search products, including versions that enable users to ask follow-up questions based on their initial inquiries.
Last month, the company announced plans to incorporate LLMs into search in a more significant manner, but until now, it had not disclosed its intentions to provide conversational features.
