Google says search enters new era of conversational AI features

News on May 11th, Google launched the conversation function of its search engine on Wednesday, local time in the United States, and made the English-speaking chat robot Bard widely used. This is a collaboration between Google and Microsoft And another show of power as a growing number of startups compete to win over consumers with artificial intelligence products.

Google is calling this moment a new era for search, rolling out a series of features it calls search-generated experiences that use artificial intelligence programs to deliver longer snippets in response to a range of queries. These features invite users to ask follow-up questions and open new interfaces that allow users to have more conversations with the search engine.

Google did not immediately launch the product, but established a waiting list for applications under a new experimental project called Search Labs.

At Google’s I/O developer conference, the company’s largest new product showcase of the year, the company released a series of announcements focusing on artificial intelligence capabilities. There are concerns that services such as ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, could erode Google's dominance in search and online advertising.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company, said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the conference on Wednesday: "Looking forward to the future, making artificial intelligence help everyone is our goal. The best way to advance our mission."

Google said that Bard is currently available in English for free in more than 180 countries and regions, and will soon support 40 languages, including Japanese and Korean. Previously, users could only access the chatbot by applying.

PaLM 2, Google’s flagship artificial intelligence program, will be used in 25 of the company’s products, including Bard and search functions. Google will also start selling a foldable phone, which the company says is its thinnest yet.

Google is always improving its search engine to combat threats ranging from artificial intelligence bots like ChatGPT to short-video app TikTok. Microsoft last week removed applications for its Bing search engine, which uses ChatGPT's underlying technology to power conversations.

On Wednesday, Google also launched a search feature that displays forum posts and videos from sites like TikTok in a tab labeled "Perspective." It is reported that the company plans to highlight this content in the future as part of its efforts to make the search engine more "visual, simplified, personal and humane".

These changes will push Google's search results further away from the traditional list of URLs, a format nicknamed "10 blue links." Liz Reid, vice president of Google’s search team, said: “The future of search is about merging the best of search with the best of artificial intelligence. It’s not an either/or choice.”

Google said the new AI-powered search feature will include clearly labeled ads in dedicated locations. Advertisements on the search engine and other Google sites brought in $162 billion last year, accounting for the vast majority of Alphabet's sales.

Google employees are testing a new artificial intelligence search feature codenamed "Magi" before releasing it to users in the coming weeks. They will initially be available only in Google's Chrome desktop browser and the company's mobile apps.

According to the demo, Google’s new artificial intelligence feature appeared at the top of search results for a range of search queries. Some queries automatically provide longer responses, while others require clicking a "Generate" button to produce the same results. A button at the bottom of a reply invites users to ask follow-up questions, triggering what Google calls search engine conversational mode.

In demos, new features typically include up to three links to external websites, displayed to the right of an AI-generated paragraph. This approach differs from other conversational AI search engines, such as the new version of Bing, which only displays quotes for a single sentence.

Google designed the technology to display links that generally corroborate the information in the article, Reed said. She added that if the program couldn't verify the answer, it wouldn't display the passage. Google will also monitor the impact of the new features on website owners and work with online publishers throughout the process.

"If we do it right and do everything we can to make search more natural, people will ask more questions," Reed said, adding that Google sends more traffic to other sites every year. increase.

Like Bard, Google calls the new AI search feature an experiment and says it will listen to user feedback. The company said it restricted the search engine's ability to engage in free conversation after finding that such output showed a higher likelihood of inaccuracy.

Google said it will also limit replies to certain dangerous and inappropriate topics and include additional disclaimers around health-related queries, although content that violates company policies may still appear.

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