Ok Google, is it your doomsday?
Google has been ubiquitous in our lives since early 2000s when it took the world with storm by means of its sophisticated search engine. It rose the business ranks by such proportions that it has become the most sought-after place to work, and every engineer aspires to become a googler. With every product and service, it experiences a cycle from development to maturity to saturation and decline in its lifecycle. In case of Google, the saturation and decline phase were never coming and it seemed that the famous product lifecycle was bound to be proved wrong. Google has remained at the forefront in any technological advancement, be it AI, ML or blockchain.
Google has faced multiple legal battles, but there has never been a question on its utility since the latter half of 2022. This can be attributed to the new AI/ML engine developed by Open AI called ChatGPT. In front of the giant as big as Google, how does ChatGPT suddenly start raising questions on Google’s existence?
Firstly, let’s understand what ChatGPT is. ChatGPT is a conversational AI engine that interacts with humans to give them answers to their questions and even interacts with them just like you would interact with a friend of yours. Now, this is something which has existed for a long time with the ever-present chatbots serving a lot of human purpose. ChatGPT differentiates itself from any other AI engine in the following manner which ultimately could prove a threat to Google’s existence.
1. Conversational AI at its best: ChatGPT does not give traditional answers with standard responses to a query. It understands the context of the question and generates answers which will help humans straight away or even allow them to converse more to get the necessary and accurate information. The accuracy of this conversational AI tool is helping it differentiate from any AI/ML based engine that humans use for interaction.
Threat to Google: No
2. Straightforward answers: Unlike Google, where every query or search throws a large set of results and links, ChatGPT gives straightforward answers which are relevant for humans for immediate usage. This feature makes people realize the obscurity of Google as a search engine which rely heavily on these links as it makes 80% of its revenues from advertisements.
Threat to Google: Yes
3. A coder’s lifesaver: Coders often face issues in their codes and end up searching on google and then navigate through Stack Overflow to find the solution. ChatGPT eliminates all these processes and identifies the bug and gives the probable solution in one simple hit. This is a lifesaver for coders who are always on a time crunch to complete their code.
Threat to Google: Yes
4. Human Simplification tool: ChatGPT’ s unique conversational AI engine is so effective that it can help one write college essays or even prepare presentations on relevant topics. This is simplifying human tasks and even eliminating the need for humans on such fronts
Threat to Google: Partially Yes
ChatGPT seems to be a solution for the future and one to potentially end Google’s dominance, but it has an uphill battle before it becomes relevant to the world. It is still very new to the world and is basically run as a non-profit venture. There is no exposure of the engine to internet and monetisation. For it to become sustainable for the future and really challenge Google, it must have an effective business model with a clearly defined monetisation strategy like how Google monetises advertisements. The response to Ok Google may be a bit shaky on its doomsday, but Open AI has a long way to go in non-technical aspects before seriously causing an upheaval in the world of Google.
