AI integration may soon fundamentally alter how we search on the internet

AI has found its way into a number of industries, from transportation to health. Now it is being integrated with search engines

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the stuff of science fiction. It is increasingly being used in various industries ranging from finance to transportation. Now, with the emergence of OpenAI's ChatGPT and the glee and excitement around it, big tech firms have accelerated their plans to integrate their search engines with AI-powered chatbots.

In a blog post earlier this month, Google and Alphabet Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai said, "Today, the scale of the largest AI computations is doubling every six months, far outpacing Moore's Law". As predicted by Gordon Moore in 1965, Moore's Law states that the number of transistors per silicon chip doubles yearly. It points towards the rapid advancement in semiconductor technology.

Pichai's statement signals that AI might be developing at a much faster pace.

Earlier in January, Microsoft Chairman Satya Nadella said that a golden age of AI is underway and will redefine work "as we know it, " which seems very clear about the company's faith in AI.

Some companies have already developed new search-based products centred around chatbots and AI.

Google

Days after the launch of ChatGPT, Google raised a code red, and Pichai asked the employees to "refocus" on addressing the threat it may pose to Google's dominance in the search engine space. In January, the tech giant's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were brought back to approve the plans to add chatbot features to the search option.

On February 6, Pichai announced that the company would launch a lightweight model version of Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), and it will be a conversational AI service called Bard.

"Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills," Pichai said.

Bard was launched on Wednesday but showed inaccurate information in a promotional video. As a result, Alphabet lost $100 billion in market cap. However, it is unlikely that this will stop Google from finding other ways to integrate search and AI.

Microsoft

On January 23, Microsoft announced an investment of $10 billion in OpenAI. In less than a month, on February 7, it announced its plans to integrate its Bing search with more features from OpenAI. The capabilities of the new Bing search were showcased at an event at the company's Redmond campus.

The search engine will show more essay-like and conversational answers in its new avatar. It will still contain links to other pages but mainly at the end of the answers. Moreover, it will be capable of writing poems and stories. According to the company's claims, it will also be able to provide tips on topics like what to do in a city.

It was a limited release, and the users will have to sign up on the wishlist to get access to the new Bing.

Apart from these two companies, startups like You.com and Neeva have already launched chatbots similar to ChatGPT.

But it is not only in the West that these developments are taking place. Some Chinese companies are also taking long strides in developing AI-powered chatbots.

Baidu

On Friday 7, the Chinese search engine giant announced that it would launch a ChatGPT-style service called "Wenxin Yiyan" in Chinese or "Ernie Bot" in English by March. Ernie stands for "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration". It is based on a language model that Baidu first developed in 2019.

Since its launch, Ernie has evolved, and according to reports, it now allows users to write poems and papers. It can also use text prompts to generate images.

Alibaba

On Wednesday, the Chinese e-commerce giant issued a statement saying it is also developing a ChatGPT-style tool. The employees are currently testing it. However, it is not known when the company plans to launch the tool.  

So, it seems inevitable that the search and AI-powered chatbots will function in tandem. But how it will unfold and what new promises it will hold, we will find out soon.