The race for AI dominance is on. Google is apparently feeling the heat from the sudden interest in AI-enabled chatbot systems, in particular – OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
According to a recent report from The New York Times, Google has earmarked plans to “demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year” alongside more than 20 AI-powered projects, all of which will help bolster its existing portfolio and take on the rising threat.
The latest updates comes just one month after Google’s top-tier management declared “code red” to battle the highly popular AI chatbot from OpenAI.
Adding to Google’s concerns, Microsoft recently announced its third round of partnership with ChatGPT creator Open-AI and supposedly has plans to integrate ChatGPT into its own search engine, Bing. But the tech giant will have some tough competition.
The wheels for developing a search engine with a chatbot at Google are turning, with the organisation recently seeking help from founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The New York Times notes that both Page and Brin were called on to offer “advice” to company executives and discuss different approaches to take on the rising competition.
The report even mentions that Google’s demo for the chatbot will focus on “getting facts right, ensuring safety and getting rid of misinformation.”
Based on the slide deck viewed by the Times, Google currently is hard at work developing a bunch of AI projects.
A few known in-development products include an image generation tool that “creates and edits images,” an app for testing product prototypes, and a TikTok-inspired green screen mode for YouTube.
However, Google is being fairly cautious with releasing new AI technology and is devising ways to ramp up product approval processes, including reviews to guarantee that AI-powered tech is fair and ethical.
The company plans to show off all of this and more at the upcoming I/O conference in May.
The move does appear to show that Google is cognizant of the rise of ChatGPT and wants to get on top of the trend as quickly as it can.
Google CEO, Sundar Pichai even went so far as to state that the company is gearing up to show off “some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses”, however, it hasn’t come without cost.
Google recently came under scrutiny for drastically cutting down its workforce, letting go of more than 12,000 employees.
“I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI,” CEO, Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo to staff. “To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices.”
Those tough choices have certainly proven to be unpopular with workers, but the future remans a mystery.
With Microsoft moving full-steam ahead with AI and Google scrambling to stay up to date, the battle for the internet is only heating up.
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