After six years of peace, the two tech giants are on course to butt heads again over the future of artificial intelligence. Some tech media are even calling it an “arms race” … Which seems a little melodramatic. So naturally, we asked ChatGPT – which has been at the centre of a lot of the excitement – what all the fuss is about. (Disclaimer: Bard is not yet publicly available and therefore couldn’t be interviewed).
Both Google and Microsoft are chasing a new future for search engines: one where the results look more like short, simple answers generated by AI than a collection of links and boxes to click on. These more humanlike answers could be revolutionary for search. Consensus seems to be that Google has been caught napping a little, and that Microsoft and OpenAI (aka ChatGPT) are strong competitors due to their respective strengths in business applications and natural language processing (NLP).
Google, which has had a stranglehold on internet search for as long as most web users can remember, could be under threat if it can’t respond quickly enough. It still holds roughly 84% of the global search market. But, when its new artificial intelligence chatbot "Bard" shared inaccurate information in a promotional video at its formal debut in February, Google lost USD100 billion in market value.
It’s clear: The internet search wars are back! But why should you care? According to ChatGPT, there are four benefits of AI-powered search, namely:
Improved search results: AI-powered search engines can provide more accurate, relevant and personalised results by analysing a user's search query and understanding their intent and, therefore, their needs.
Increased efficiency: With AI-powered search, users can find the information they need more quickly and easily, as AI returns more precise and relevant answers to their queries in less time.
Better user experience: AI models can help create a more intuitive and user-friendly search experience. NLP, for example, can enable users to search using conversational language, making the search experience more natural and intuitive. (The author can vouch for this. “Interviewing” ChatGPT for this article was great fun!)
New opportunities for innovation: With advancements in AI, there are opportunities to innovate and create new search technologies, where examples such as voice search and image recognition are two areas where AI is making significant strides.
Of course, there are potential downsides, too. Data privacy concerns are chief among them, as AI-powered search engines rely on vast amounts of data to generate accurate and relevant search results. How this data is collected, stored, and used – particularly with regards to user privacy – is of the essence.
Biases in AI have been a hot topic in business for some time, and bias in search results is another concern. Because AI models learn from the data they are trained on, an AI model that is trained on a skewed dataset – perhaps towards a certain demographic or point of view – may produce similarly biased search results.
As AI-powered search engines become more prevalent, there is the potential for job displacement in certain industries, such as customer service or data entry. Misinformation and fake news are also a concern, as AI-powered search engines can enable its spread. Remember – AI can’t think critically. If search engines prioritise clicks and engagement over accuracy and truthfulness, a boom in inaccurate, misleading or simply factually incorrect information is possible. (It’s what got Bard into hot water at its launch).
And lastly, as people become increasingly reliant on AI-powered search engines, there is a risk that they may become overly dependent on technology and lose the ability to think critically or solve problems without the aid of a search engine. Since this ability to think critically and solve problems creatively is one of the most important skills keeping humans useful in the workplace, and in demand as progress in the 4IR, this last could be the most worrying of all. Beware “The Singularity”…
I asked ChatGPT if we should be worried about the singularity. It said: “While the concept of the singularity is a topic of much discussion and speculation in the field of artificial intelligence, it is difficult to say with certainty whether or not it is likely to happen.”
Good enough for me. For now, it seems share prices will remain the headline makers as Google and Microsoft duke it out in the Search Engine arena.
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