Google is currently working on updating its search engine with new artificial intelligence (AI) technology to keep up with the competition. Google’s search engine has been the go-to for billions of people worldwide for years, but with new AI-powered competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing, Google is feeling the pressure to innovate. The South Korean electronics giant, Samsung, is considering replacing Google with Bing as its default search engine on its devices, which would be a significant loss for Google as an estimated $3 billion in revenue is at stake. Furthermore, Google’s $20 billion contract with Apple is also up for renewal this year.
Google's response to the Samsung threat was one of “panic,” according to internal messages reviewed by The New York Times. In response to the threat, Google is racing to build an entirely new search engine powered by AI technology, which would offer users a more personalized experience than the company’s current service. The project is called Magi, and designers, engineers, and executives are currently working on it in sprint rooms. The new search engine would attempt to anticipate users’ needs and provide preselected options for objects to buy, information to research, and other data. Additionally, it would be more conversational, similar to chatting with a helpful person.
Google has been worried about AI-powered competitors since OpenAI, a San Francisco startup working with Microsoft, demonstrated a chatbot called ChatGPT in November. Shortly after, Google created a task force in its search division to begin building AI products. Google has been doing AI research for years, and its DeepMind lab in London is considered one of the best AI research centers globally. The company has used large language models to improve the quality of its search results, but held off on fully adopting AI because it has been prone to generating false and biased statements.
Google’s search engine is worth $162 billion last year, and modernizing it has become an obsession for the company. The new search engine with AI technology could potentially put new AI technology in phones and homes worldwide. The new features under the Magi project are still in the early stages of development, and there is no clear timeline for when it will be released. Google plans to keep ads in the mix of search results, and search queries that could lead to a financial transaction would still feature ads on their results pages.
Google is expected to release the tools to the public next month and add more features in the fall. The company plans to initially release the features to a maximum of one million people, with that number progressively increasing to 30 million by the end of the year. The new features will be available exclusively in the United States. Google has also explored other product ideas using AI technology, such as GIFI, a tool that uses AI to generate images in Google Image results, and Tivoli Tutor, which would teach users a new language through open-ended AI text conversations.
Jim Lecinski, a former Google vice president of sales and service, stated that Google had been goaded into action and now had to convince users that it was as “powerful, competent, and contemporary” as its competitors. With the competition growing more fierce, Google must continue to innovate and develop AI technology to stay ahead of the game.