Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Search to Feature Chat AI

Author: Editors Desk Source: WSJ:

April 6, 2023 at 06:35

‘The opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than before,’ Google CEO Sandar Pichai says. HELYNN OSPINA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Google plans to add conversational artificial-intelligence features to its flagship search engine, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said, as he steers the tech company’s response to competition from chatbots such as ChatGPT and to wider business pressures.

Advances in AI would supercharge Google’s ability to answer an array of search queries, Mr. Pichai said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He dismissed the notion that chatbots posed a threat to Google’s search business, which accounts for more than half of revenue at parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG -0.16%decrease; red down pointing triangle

“The opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than before,” Mr. Pichai, who also heads Alphabet, said in the interview Tuesday.

Google has long been a leader in developing computer programs called large language models, or LLMs, which can process and respond to natural-language prompts with humanlike prose. But it hasn’t yet used the technology to influence the way people use search—something Mr. Pichai said would change.

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