Google is facing a potential threat to its search engine business from Microsoft’s Bing, which has recently added new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Industry insiders suggest that AI-powered competitors are rapidly becoming the most serious challenge to Google’s search business in 25 years. As a result, Google is racing to develop an all-new search engine, powered by AI. The project, named Magi, is being created by designers, engineers, and executives in sprint rooms, who are working to test and tweak the latest versions.
Google’s current search engine is one of the most widely used web pages in the world, and changes to it would have a significant impact on the lives of ordinary people. The company is worried about AI-powered competitors, particularly since OpenAI, a San Francisco-based start-up working with Microsoft, demonstrated a chatbot called ChatGPT in November 2022. Two weeks later, Google created a task force in its search division to start building AI products. The Magi project is a result of this initiative.
The new search engine will offer users a far more personalized experience than the current service, attempting to anticipate users’ needs. The system will learn what users want to know based on their search queries and offer lists of preselected options for objects to buy, information to research, and other information. The search engine will also be more conversational, a bit like chatting with a helpful person.
However, plans for the new search engine are still in the early stages, and there is no clear timetable for when it will be released. In the meantime, the Magi project will add features to the existing search engine. Google has more than 160 people working full-time on the project, with a focus on creating AI-powered search features.
Magi will keep ads in the mix of search results. Search queries that could lead to a financial transaction, such as buying shoes or booking a flight, for example, would still feature ads on their results pages. That’s important for Google since search ads are the primary way the company makes money.
Google has been doing AI research for years. Its DeepMind lab in London is considered one of the best AI research centers in the world, and the company has been a pioneer with AI projects, such as self-driving cars and large language models used in chatbots. In recent years, Google has used large language models to improve the quality of its search results but held off on fully adopting AI because it has been prone to generating false and biased statements.
Google’s search business was worth $162 billion last year, and an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue is at stake with the Samsung contract. An additional $20 billion is tied to a similar Apple contract that will be up for renewal this year. The Samsung threat represented the first potential crack in Google’s seemingly impregnable search business. Although it was not clear whether Microsoft’s work with AI was the main reason Samsung was considering a change, that was the assumption inside Google. The contract is currently under negotiation, and Samsung could still stick with Google.
In response to the Samsung threat, Google is upgrading its existing search engine with AI features. The company has also invited some employees to test Magi’s features and asked them to ask follow-up questions to judge its ability to hold a conversation. Google is expected to release the tools to the public next month and add more features over time.
Google is racing to build a new search engine powered by AI in response to the threat from Microsoft’s Bing. The Magi project is in its early stages and will add new features to the existing search engine. Google has been doing AI research for years and is now focused on winning control of the industry’s next big thing. The new search engine will offer users a far more personalized experience