The Briefing: search vs chatgpt

If you pay attention to one thing in AI this week, it should be Google’s I/O presentation on Tuesday. The tech giant unveiled a bunch of AI tools, most significantly the addition of new AI features such as agents to Google Search. Any distinction that existed between Google’s Gemini AI chatbot and its search bar is disappearing.

No longer should we compare OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Gemini—it’s ChatGPT versus Google Search. That’s a big deal, given that Search is much more widely used than Gemini—Google CEO Sundar Pichai intimated today that Search has 3 billion monthly users, while the Gemini chatbot had 900 million. (ChatGPT is bigger than Gemini, at least: Its user number has been hovering at a little over 900 million weekly active users for a while now.) 

Turning Google Search into an AI chatbot means average people who might never click on Gemini are more likely to get exposed to a broader range of AI tools than has been the case so far. It’s hard to argue with Google Search chief Liz Reid’s statement on stage at I/O that the overhaul is Google’s biggest search box upgrade in 25 years. 

One of the more striking new AI tools was the introduction of agents, such as an information agent that will let consumers ask Search to monitor and provide regular updates for things like stock prices, along very specific criteria. Another agent can monitor apartments you might want to rent. Those are the sort of things we all associate with agents already, to be sure. But having these features available in Google Search likely will increase their usage.

The business impact is sure to be significant. Search is, of course, Google’s cash cow, so the overhaul holds out the possibility that boosting its usage will also increase Google’s revenue. But there’s a cost to that: Just imagine how much more Google will have to spend to handle the increasingly complex AI-related searches that are likely to flood its servers. And exactly how Google will fit ads into more elaborate AI responses without turning people off is unclear.

What about the impact on competition? OpenAI may have a hard time growing ChatGPT once people realize Google search can do whatever ChatGPT can do. The same is even more true of others that have much to prove in AI, such as Meta Platforms. The array of new AI tools and features Google unveiled on Tuesday demonstrates how the tech giant may be hard to beat once it has overhauled all its products and services with its AI