Google CEO shares insights on AI search, Internet’s future

Google recently added artificial intelligence (AI) to its online search, radically changing the Internet forever. As expected, these shifts will benefit some and risk others. 

However, what does Google CEO Sundar Pichai think of these innovations? What would be the impact of his new AI products and services on our digitalized future?

The Verge correspondent Nilay Patel interviewed Pichai to discuss these developments. Here are some of the more interesting insights from their exchange.

‘Disruptive moment’

Patel started the interview by asking Pichai if language is the same as intelligence. He cited the recent Google I/O conference and the OpenAI Spring Update that featured multimodal AI tools.

READ: Google CEO warns about AI deepfake videos

In response, the Google CEO said how we consume information is more than language alone. That is why the company focused on artificial intelligence that can process and release music, images, and videos.

Later, Patel asked about Google’s AI Overviews in the United States. The head of Google responded, “These are disruptive moments,” referring to the new feature. 

“AI is a big platform shift. People are projecting out, and people are putting a lot into creating content. It’s their businesses.”

“So I understand the perspective [and] I’m not surprised. We are engaging with a lot of players, both directly and indirectly, but I remain optimistic about how it’ll actually play out,” he added. 

However, some US businesses have expressed dismay over the new AI feature. Patel referenced companies HouseFresh and Retro Dodo, which complained they lost 90 percent of their Google traffic. 

AI Overviews compiled information from top search results to provide what users needed immediately. However, one problem is they removed the need to enter websites.

READ: How to avoid Google AI Overviews

These websites earn advertising revenue and potential customers from online visitors, so AI Overviews may have cut that income stream.

The Google CEO dismissed it as an individual case. “It’s not clear to me if that’s a uniform trend. I have to look at data on an aggregate [basis],” Pichai said. 

AI search will improve the Internet

The interview continued with PIchai explaining Google helps generate AI content that people could use to rank high on online search results.  

Yet, the Google CEO said, “Using AI to produce content en masse without adding any value is not what users are looking for.”

“Our entire search quality team has been spending the last year gearing up our ranking systems, etc., to better get at what high-quality content is.”

He also insisted that AI Overviews are encouraging more people to use Google Search. The tech leader likewise called it “one of the most positive changes I’ve seen in Search based on metrics.” 

Later, The Verge correspondent Nilay Patel asked Pichai what the web will look like in five years.

“The way people use AI to actually solve new things, new use cases, etc. is yet to come. When that happens, I think the web will be much, much richer, too,” the Google CEO envisioned.