Google CEO Reveals Plan for Conversational AI in Search Engine, Following Microsoft's Success With ChatGPT

Google's CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that the tech giant will soon introduce conversational artificial intelligence (AI) features to its flagship search engine, following the success of Microsoft with ChatGPT, a chatbot that can generate realistic and engaging text responses.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Pichai said that Google users will be able to ask questions and interact with large language models (LLMs) in the context of search, enhancing the speed and accuracy of information retrieval. He also said that he sees conversational AI as an opportunity rather than a threat to Google's core business, which relies heavily on search advertising revenue.

"The opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than before," Pichai said. "You'll have a whole diverse range of options. The technology will be more accessible than people expect."

Google has been working on its own conversational AI system called Bard, which was launched as a standalone website in January. However, Bard has been criticized for being inferior to ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, a research organization backed by Microsoft and other investors. ChatGPT uses a powerful AI model called GPT-4, which can generate coherent and fluent text on any topic, given some keywords or a prompt.

Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, giving it an edge over Google in terms of user engagement and satisfaction. According to Microsoft, ChatGPT has increased its search market share by one percentage point since its launch in February, which translates to $2 billion in annual revenue.

Google has acknowledged that ChatGPT poses a serious challenge to its search dominance, and has declared a "code red" situation to catch up with its rival. Pichai said that Google will soon switch to a more capable language model for Bard, and will also leverage its expertise in other AI domains such as computer vision and natural language understanding.

Pichai also hinted that Google will add conversational AI features to other products such as Gmail, YouTube, and Google Assistant, creating new use cases and revenue streams for the company. He said that Google will also enable smaller AI models to run on personal devices, giving users more privacy and control over their data.

While Google is ramping up its AI efforts, it is also facing pressure from investors and regulators to cut costs and comply with ethical standards. The company announced last week that it will lay off 12,000 employees, or 6% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan. It is also facing antitrust lawsuits from several states and countries over its alleged monopoly practices in online advertising and search.

Pichai said that he is confident that Google will overcome these challenges and continue to innovate and grow in the AI era. He said that he is optimistic about the future of conversational AI and its potential to transform human-computer interaction.

"Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs in the context of search? Absolutely," he said. "Expect a lot more, stronger collaboration, because some of these efforts will be more compute-intensive, so it makes sense to do it at a certain scale together."