All the way to Google. The search giant is preparing an offensive to counter the phenomenon of the moment: ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is undoubtedly the phenomenon of the moment in the technology world. The artificial intelligence tool fascinates as much as it worries, especially on the side of Mountain View. The New York Times reports that the recent launch of OpenIA’s chatbot is causing serious concern at Google. The search giant even turned to its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who remain the majority shareholders of Alphabet, to find the best answer to give. Google, which has just cut 12,000 positions, has no intention of sitting still.
To counter ChatGPT, Google will be pulling out the heavy artillery
Also according to the NYT, the Californian company plans to “reveal more than 20 new products and demo a version of its search engine with chatbot functionality”. A reaction commensurate with the fear evoked by the OpenAI tool whose demonstrations shake our lives. However, Google does not have a specific date for the launch of its search engine demos and new products. It is certain that the company will present more projects at the next I/O.
The event, which also serves to showcase the Pixel smartphones, is one that Google cannot miss. DeepMind, the division responsible for artificial intelligence at Google, has also indicated that its Sparrow chatbot could be offered in the form of a private beta in 2023. It will be up to it to compete with ChatGPT.
Google has ideas… and recognized advisors
To position itself in this segment, the company can always count on its two founders. Larry Page and Sergey Brin may have handed over the CEO keys to Sundar Pichai, they are not far away and have “offer advice” to the company’s executives. These have helped to approve some projects which will soon see the light of day. Among the new products is an image generation tool comparable to Midjourney or Dall-E. The company is also working on PaLM-Coder 2, a tool designed to help developers generate code and the like for Copilot, which OpenAI is developing.
Other projects are emerging around image and video, such as the possibility to create backgrounds on YouTube, wallpapers on Pixels or Maya. This application allows you to visualize shoes in three dimensions. Finally, a tool capable of summarizing videos by generating a new video will be on the way. The Android system is not forgotten with the Colab+ Android Studio tool, which aims to facilitate the creation of applications.
These ideas should help the giant deal with what appears to be the biggest threat to its search business from Google. Moreover, the American company does not hesitate to issue a “red alert”. Meanwhile, some are already wondering if ChatGPT will replace Google. Last November, former Google Research Director D. Sivakumar indicated: “For the first time, I feel that Google’s supremacy is threatened by information/knowledge searches”.
Mind blown.
For the first time I feel that Google’s supremacy is threatened for information/knowledge searches… when will we see LaMDA generated answers with real interactivity on Google’s main results page? https://t.co/KlHBRJ2ehL
—D. Sivakumar (@dsivakumar) 30 November 2022
He evokes one “moment of great vulnerability” for the company. He notes, however, that it has the resources to overcome these challenges and remain competitive. If Google is to react quickly, there is no question of going too fast. In the past, Microsoft or Meta have had bad luck with AI tools. Even ChatGPT is not immune to controversy.