Google has officially announced that it would add a synthetic intelligence (AI) chatbot function to its search engine.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on the sixth (local time), “We plan so as to add conversational artificial intelligence capabilities to our flagship search engine to deal with the pressures of chatbots like ChatGPT and wider business problems.”

That is the primary time that Google has publicly announced that it would add an AI chatbot function to its search engine. While Google has released AI chatbot ‘Bard’, it has drawn a line, saying, “It’s a chatbot service unrelated to look.”

CEO Sundar Pichai’s announcement is a response to Microsoft’s integration of ChatGPT into its search engine ‘Bing’, expressing its will to vary the standard search method.

Specifically, on this interview, he showed strong confidence, saying, “AI chatbots should not a threat to Google’s search business. Quite, the chance is bigger than before.” It’s read as a touch that Google will launch a full-scale counterattack.

Google now controls greater than 90% of the worldwide search market. Within the midst of this, there have been many predictions that as MS grafted ‘ChatGPT’ into the brand new search engine ‘Bing’, Google’s search promoting sales could be hit hard. Google, which has kept away from responding to this, has officially dismissed its concerns this time around.

Google has been investing in technology that enables questions and answers to be asked in a conversational way by developing a conversational large-scale language model (LLM). Nonetheless, these technologies weren’t applied to Google’s flagship business, search.

“Google Search may also use LLM technology,” Pichai said, adding that he’s testing a new edition of the search product that may allow users to ask Google questions and ask follow-up questions through the answers.

Google announced last month that it will “be beginning to integrate LLMs deeper into the search engine,” but didn’t give specifics on how or when it will introduce chatbot capabilities to the search engine.

Pichai’s remarks are expected to bring about latest changes within the search market. Because of this Google will allow users to look while directly interacting with AI chatbots within the search engine in the longer term.

For the past 20 years, it has been common within the search market to enter a search term and display the search ends in the shape of a link.

Nonetheless, with the arrival of AI chatbots, this traditional search method is anticipated to face a significant change.

Meanwhile, when asked why Google didn’t launch a chatbot earlier, Pichai said, “Google remains to be trying to search out the best market.” It might probably change,” he explained.

Chan Park, cpark@aitimes.com