Great is the confusion under the sky. The incredible boom of ChatGPT, a speed record in the history of the internet, forces Google to take action: next week Big G will host an extraordinary event on the use of artificial intelligence in its apps to respond to the creation of OpenAI.
The event, which I cannot help but call somehow "emergency", will last 40 minutes and will be broadcast live on YouTube Wednesday 8 February.
What should we expect?
The CEO's announcement Sundar Pichai was eloquent: “users will soon be able to interact with our most advanced and powerful language models as search assistants in creative and experimental ways.”
This is the biggest confirmation that ChatGPT is the biggest “threat of sorts” to Google, as we wrote here. The agitation of the Californian company, which even "recalled" the co-founders from the retreat Larry Page e Sergey Brinsays it all.
Indeed, Google is full of artificial intelligence. The impression is that he underestimated his competitors, thinking he had an advantage that he chose to exploit for himself. Opposite strategy for OpenAI, which spreads technologies such as GIVE HER and ChatGPT produced panic. And now? Some think that Google will integrate its language model into its products TheMDA (remember him? The one that cost the engineer his job who defined it as “sentient”) to Image, its AI for image generation.
Are they ready to challenge those of OpenAI?
The history of Google's "disorderly reactions" to competitors' exploits is known to everyone. When Facebook was seen as an adversary to be eliminated at all costs, Page and Brin decided to oppose Google Plus. Do you all remember how it ended?
This is why, while it is necessary to take precautionary measures against a “tsunami” like ChatGPT, Google must consider the potential long-term implications before making hasty decisions, or it could hurt itself.
OpenAI can mislead: “better” is the enemy of “good”
It's not clear to me how a competitor to ChatGPT would change Google's core problem, which is monetization. The current model works by indexing answers, taking money from those who want to appear at the top of search results, but now? How do you monetize the "chat" responses of an artificial intelligence? This is the dilemma for Google: changing the interface and risking current profits? Create a "half chat" that convinces no one? I smell Alexa.
Anyway, Alphabet has some things in mind. And some of these will be announced on February 8th. Could it be that Apprentice Bard that everyone is talking about? A chatbot that uses LaMDA and allows you to ask questions and receive detailed answers like OpenAI technology.
Will it be an alternative search page? A “questions and answers” bar under the search bar?
We just have to wait (little: OpenAI looms)
One thing is certain: At the moment, OpenAI's only real threat to Google is its stock price. Google has several annual touch points with the public: it could announce anything as early as May at its annual Google I/O event.
However, May falls in the next quarter, and if OpenAI launches paid subscriptions for ChatGPT this quarter, Google could get hurt by seeing its investors' confidence plummet.
That's why, in a hurry, we go to battle on Wednesday. Let's see the cards! We will keep you posted.
