An Broad AI future as Google Turns 25
Where to Google?
Google turns 25 and we reuqire here a retrospective glance into the tech giant's journey since its inception in 1998. Once merely a search engine, the brainchild of Larry Page and Sergei Brin, and fostered in Susan Wojcicki's garage, Google has metamorphosed into a global technology colossus. Now under the aegis of Alphabet Inc., Google has extended its reach into nearly every facet of the tech industry, commanding certain sectors and stirring apprehensions among antitrust regulators.
Despite the company's marked growth, Google's expansion hasn't been without its missteps. Consider its 288 now defunct ventures, including the gaming platform, Stadia, and Google Cardboard. However, even these falterings have not hindered Google's burgeoning portfolio of products and services in marketing, hardware, software, and digital assistant sectors.
Yet, as one navigates the vast world of Google's exploits, an area of noticeable struggle stands out - artificial intelligence (AI). Discretionary murmurs from inside and outside sources indicate a possible slack in Google's advancements in AI technology. The tech titan's stumble manifests in the leakage of a controversial memo from an unnamed Google engineer. This internal document hints at the lack of a proprietary AI "secret sauce", thus exacerbating concerns about Google's ability to rise to AI's challenges.
Furthermore, difficulties pertaining to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, dubbed the "Google Killer" due to its potent question answering ability, and Google's less successful counterpart, Bard, perpetuate these doubts. An odd incident involving Lamda, an early model of Google's AI accused of showing signs of sentient behavior, serves to deepen the uncertainty surrounding the tech giant's AI future.
Despite these considerations, ruling out Google's participation in the AI arena may prove premature. The tech leviathan continues to make strides, as evidenced by the introduction of 25 AI-driven solutions at its IO developers conference, and the impressive predictive protein model, AlphaFold, under its UK-based AI subsidiary, DeepMind. Backing this stance are the supportive statements from industry experts such as Gartner's Chirag Dekate, Analyst Carolina Milanesi, and Susannah Streeter from Hargreaves Lansdown.
These testimonies point to Google's remaining prowess in the AI sphere, encouraging continued observation of its progress.