Google’s I/O keynote last week was a pretty predictable affair in some ways. Everyone expected Google to stick with artificial intelligence (AI) as the key theme, and that’s what unfolded. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai made it clear that Google is in its ‘Gemini era’ – I guess nobody wants to miss an opportunity to draw references to Taylor Swift’s successful Eras tour. But while Pichai and co were quick to take us all to the Gemini era, it also seemed like another era was ending: the Google Search one.
Bye old-school Search, Gemini is Here
So, are we all ready for this new era, where GenAI defines everything from our search queries to how we search for emails? The uncomfortable truth is that this era has already begun in many ways, and Google is also sharply aware. If you look at the Google app on iOS, you can switch to Gemini instead of the boring old search. On Android, Gemini is getting deeper integration to replace Google Assistant.
If one were to compare the 2024 keynote to the one in 2023, the vast difference is hard to miss. Forget the random count of how many times Google used the word AI. Just notice the difference in presentation.
Gemini was front and centre. Every other product was mentioned to showcase how Gemini and its models would enhance it.
In contrast, last year, Google executives spoke about the company’s range of products, from Photos to Maps to Search to Android. This year, the keynote focused on Gemini, Project Astra and how these will power products soon. However, what I found most telling was how Google showcased AI overviews in Search. First, Google wasn’t showing something new. But it was telling because it was clear that the era of traditional web-links-based search was over. GenAI results would soon dominate search queries.
One can debate the pros and cons of how it will work out, but it is almost as if Google knows this is where the world is headed. Interestingly, Google also announced that it would allow users to continue seeing only ‘web-link’ based search results via an option.
Thus, users will have the option of effectively turning off the GenAI results. Of course, which path users will pick can only be seen with time. However, given the success of ChatGPT and OpenAI, it is clear that many future users will be more comfortable interacting with chatbots than scouring the internet for links.
Remember that many of these GenAI features have yet to be rolled out to all users and are only accessible when you sign up via Google Labs. Still, Google is sure that these features will be front and centre in its products going forward. Of course, there’s also the uncomfortable perception that Google and everyone else is currently playing catch-up with OpenAI and its GPT models.
The Threat of OpenAI
What didn’t help further was that OpenAI hosted its event a day before and showcased GPT-4o with advanced conversation abilities, multi-modal capabilities, etc. And Google’s launches with AI haven’t exactly been smooth. Remember, Bard was the initial name for its ambitious AI chatbot before Gemini usurped it all. Name change aside, Gemini has faced a lot of criticism already.
No wonder Google executives quickly emphasised how Gemini 1.5 Pro can run more than one million tokens, aka the primary data units that LLMs process. In private preview, Google is extending this to 2 million tokens for developers. According to Google, this makes Gemini 1.5 Pro’s token processing more extensive than any other large-scale foundation model.
The higher the number of tokens, the more robust and powerful an LLM is in theory. Numbers and capabilities aside, Google knows it will continue to face increased scrutiny as it rolls out more AI features. And yes, given the previous controversies with Gemini, Google is on the back foot. This isn’t to say that Gemini won’t improve with time; it’s just that Google’s mistakes will be closely watched.
A New Internet Era?
So where does all this leave us, the internet users who grew up on Google Search? It is undoubtedly an uncertain new world – I wouldn’t call it a ‘Brave New World’ just yet. Sure, it is nice to know that Google Photos will soon be able to find photos based on complex queries. But will GenAI always give the right results? GenAI’s results are still experimental; these models often give incorrect or wrong answers.
But as AI gets smarter and sharper at planning and understanding our queries, it poses a question of what the internet of the future will look like even in five years. Will we all be regurgitating essays written by a chatbot? Will anyone even bother with websites at all? Is everything going to be reduced to simply training data? That’s the clarity we don’t quite have yet.
The post Google Prepares For Gemini Era: Are You Ready For it? appeared first on MySmartPrice.