Between debates about how bots like ChatGPT will impact everything from academics to journalism, folks have suggested ChatGPT may end Google’s reign in search.
This week, as Google announced layoffs, CEO Sundar Pichai told employees the company will sharpen its focus on AI. The NYT also reported Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are now involved in efforts to streamline development of AI products.
Google’s no slouch at AI. The technology here-a flavor of deep learning model called a transformer-was developed at Google in 2017.
In 2021, Google researchers published a paper pondering how large language models might radically upend search in the future.
Is the technology ready to go from splashy demo tested by millions to a crucial tool trusted by billions? In their 2021 paper, the Google researchers suggested an ideal chatbot search assistant would be authoritative, transparent, unbiased, accessible, and contain diverse perspectives.
Still, the competitive landscape, it seems, is compelling Google, Microsoft-who has invested big in OpenAI and is already incorporating its algorithms into products-and others to go full steam ahead in an effort to minimize the risk of being left behind.
“I think whenever someone talks about a technology being the end of some other giant company, it’s usually wrong,” Altman said in response to a question about the likelihood ChatGPT dethrones Google.