Google Announces Historic Change to Its Search Engine

(RightWing.org) – For years, Google’s flagship search engine has been a core feature of the internet. Googling has even become a verb. But, recently, the company’s domination of web searches has started to slip as rivals introduce better technology. Google is now trying to catch up.

With new generative AI capabilities in Google Search, we’re now taking more of the work out of searching, so you’ll be able to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily. Learn more and how to sign-up for our Search Generative… pic.twitter.com/V3OK1KHYEn

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 10, 2023

Google has just unveiled its new-look search engine, the biggest change to the platform in 25 years. It’s due to be released in the US over the next few weeks, but initially, it will only be available to people who sign up as an “experiment.” If all goes well it’ll be rolled out to all users.

The reason Google has decided to update its search engine is simple — Microsoft’s Bing and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have suddenly leaped ahead of it by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) in their rival engines. Google is one of the biggest players in AI research, but its last attempt — Google Bard — was rolled out in a hurry and attracted ridicule when it very publicly gave the wrong answer to a question. Now Google is trying again.

The new version of Google has caused some excitement; instead of just showing links to other websites, it also gives a machine-written text answer, similar to what ChatGPT produces. Google is calling this “Search Generative Experience.”

There are also some worries about the upgrade, though. Firstly, has Google rushed it out too quickly? The company used to keep its AI products in-house until it was sure they were ready, but the popularity of ChatGPT and Bing AI has them spooked; last December, according to the New York Times, the company issued a “code red” warning to its techies, ordering them to catch up fast.

There’s also the question of whether we want AI-powered search. After all, existing AI tools have shown a pro-liberal bias. We probably have enough left-wing fake news already without building computers to give us more.