Google — Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw its stock fall in early trade on Monday.
Following studies that raised worries about Google’s key search engine’s popularity, the company’s shares sank by more than 3%.
The drop may be linked to AI-powered competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing as the product’s significance develops in today’s market.
What happened?
The New York Times was the first to report on the internet companies’ internal turmoil, using internal files and unanalyzed letters.
In March, Google staffers learnt that Samsung was considering changing its system to make Bing the default search engine for its mobile devices, with Google listed as a secondary choice in the app store.
Following Microsoft’s AI additions to Bing, competition had already increased, causing a rush to build Bard, Google’s reaction to the ChatGPT-infused Bing.
According to the Times, Google has prioritized the creation of another AI-powered search engine, Project “Magi,” in reaction to the current competition.
Project Magi
According to insiders, Google has around 160 staff working on the new project.
Project Magi is a work in progress that aims to alter the appearance of Google search results.
It contains an AI chat function that is ready to answer inquiries from the user.
The initiative will be made available to the broader public next month, according to the journal.
The AI development
According to Google spokesperson Lara Levin, Google has been using AI for years to do the following:
- To improve the quality of the results
- To offer new and unique ways to search
According to Levin, Google previously launched an AI feature in 2022 that allowed users to search using a mix of visuals and text.
“We’ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information,” said Levin.
“Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search, and will share more details soon.”
Read also: How the big firms in the UK have responded
A heated race
For the past two decades, the Google search engine has dominated the industry, becoming the tool of choice for the great majority of users.
However, the overwhelming popularity of ChatGPT constituted a danger, putting the tech titans on the defensive for the first time since the internet’s inception.
The success of ChatGPT may be attributed to its one-of-a-kind mechanism, which allows the AI tool to generate interesting textual answers depending on the user’s requests.
Google released Bard, the company’s AI chatbot tool and reaction to ChatGPT, to users in March.
According to the company, Bard will assist users with a variety of tasks, such as brainstorming and producing essay drafts, planning baby showers, and brainstorming lunch ideas based on the contents of a refrigerator.
During a February event, a Google official said that the business will include the magic of generative AI into its main search engine, paving the way for the next wave of the company’s information services.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has invested in and partnered with OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT.
The agreement allows Bing and other productivity programs to employ comparable technology.
Meanwhile, a number of well-known organizations and companies, such as: are developing and deploying AI-powered technologies.
- Baidu
- IBM
- Meta
The risks of AI
Despite their eagerness to use AI, IT firms are aware of the risks it entails, as AI has been known to make errors and “hallucinate” solutions.
This is especially true for search engines, on which the majority of people rely for trustworthy information.
Google was punished after the Bard experiment, which gave an incorrect answer to a telescope inquiry.
Alphabet’s stock dropped 7.7%, wiping off $100 billion from the company’s market worth.
Despite taking some time, Microsoft’s Bing AI demo was slammed for a number of shortcomings.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, told 60 Minutes that companies must exercise prudence while developing and deploying AI capabilities.
Pichai stated that Google must allow time for user feedback before designing and deploying more powerful models in order to build more strong safety layers.
AI technology, according to Pichai, will have a huge influence on businesses, professions, and society.
“This is going to impact every product across every company and so that’s– that’s why I think it’s a very, very profound technology,” he said.
‘And so, we are just in early days.”
