How Google is starting to win the AI race
Just two years ago, Google looked like it was in trouble. Desperate to catch up with the OpenAI chatbot that rocked the tech industry, the search giant has released an unmodified version of its AI on Google.com. The AI spewed out poor quality information, including advice for people to eat rocks and stick to pizza.
It seemed that Google’s reign on the Internet was in jeopardy.
But today, a consensus is forming in Silicon Valley not only that Google has recovered and caught up, but that it might actually win the AI race, a testament to how much can change in such a short time.
Google announced Tuesday at Google I/O, its conference for software developers, that in just one year the number of people regularly using its Gemini chatbot has more than doubled to 900 million, on par with OpenAI. self-reported number of active users for ChatGPT and nearly 30 times the estimated web traffic of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, which is more focused on business customers.
And unlike Anthropic and OpenAI, which are still losing money running expensive AI data centers, Google is rapidly developing ways to use AI to increase profits with online advertising, its bread and butter. Google reported that its advertising revenue rose 16 percent to $77 billion in the latest quarter, thanks to AI technology that helped marketers gather deeper information about users’ interests.
Pretty soon, the Gemini will become a staple on a competing platform: Apple’s iPhone. Google and Apple said in January that Gemini would become the core AI technology for a future version of Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. Gemini is already part of Android devices, so the partnership with Apple effectively bakes Gemini into virtually every phone in the world.
At its I/O conference this week, Google shared its vision for using artificial intelligence to boost sales for online retailers, including through a new type of shopping cart that automatically shows customers promotions.
The company also said it continues to add its AI to tools people use every day — for example, by allowing a person using Google Docs to ask Gemini to suggest a speech that includes personal anecdotes and jokes.
“If I had to bet on the biggest winner in artificial intelligence, I’d say it’s Google,” said Gary Rivlin, a former New York Times reporter who wrote a book about the tech industry’s race to cash in on artificial intelligence.
“If you had asked me the same question a year and a half ago, the answer would not have been Google,” he added.
Google’s success with Gemini is a case study in how even a giant platform can seemingly transform overnight to remain dominant. But past holders who faced similar existential threats didn’t have the same story.
About 15 years ago, Microsoft, whose leadership in personal computing was challenged by the rise of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android ecosystems, failed to stay relevant in the mobile phone era even after it released its Windows Phone devices and acquired mobile phone maker Nokia for $7.2 billion. Microsoft remains extremely profitable with enterprise customers and has a big video game business, but it no longer leads among consumers.
(The Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. Both companies have denied the suit’s claims.)
Instead of isolating Gemini, Google reinvented itself by incorporating artificial intelligence into all of its most important products. To name a few: There is a team working on Gemini for Gmail, another working on Gemini in Google Maps, and another focusing on the Gemini chatbot app.
Google is also able to use artificial intelligence to exploit tourism. Gemini is the only chatbot with native access to Google Flights and Google Hotels for flight and accommodation searches, making it an excellent travel agent.
Put another way: What Google has that other AI companies lack is a cultural advantage. And with Gemini integrated into so many popular services that people rely on every day for work and play, Google is much more likely to have people interact with its AI, said Carolina Milanesi, president of Creative Strategies, a consumer technology research firm.
“It’s not just how good the model is, it’s where it is and how easy it is for people to discover Gemini and then use it and get value,” Ms Milanesi said.
Google has clearly leaned on its advantages to improve its technology. This made AI-generated answers a permanent feature on Google.com – still the most visited website in the world – without users being able to opt out of seeing them.
Despite glaring errors about the nutritional value of rocks, among other things, in its early days, Google quickly honed the model. But there is still work to be done. A recent analysis by The Times concluded that answers generated by Google’s artificial intelligence were correct 90 percent of the time. Google disputed the study, claiming its answers were more accurate.
“They just have a reach that few, if any, companies on Earth have,” Mr. Rivlin said. “Looking for another Google? It’s probably Google.”