Málaga (Spain): Google’s position as king of the search engines is under threat like never before, but the firm’s global policy chief told the Media this week it still had the edge over its AI competitors.

Kent Walker played down the idea that viral AI chatbots like ChatGPT could challenge Google’s crown, stressing that his firm had spent the past decade integrating artificial intelligence into its products.

“It’s important to realise that AI is far more than just a chatbot,” he said in an interview on Wednesday in Malaga, southern Spain, where Google is opening its biggest European cybersecurity centre.

He said AI would transform the way we conduct science and stressed that anyone who had used Google Maps, Translate, Gmail or search recently had been benefiting from AI.

“We’ve been using AI to power search for a dozen years,” he said.

“We’re finding new ways to use generative AI tools to expand the different ways people can search.”

– Enter Microsoft –

A year ago, the launch of ChatGPT by the California firm OpenAI lodged in the public’s imagination the idea of generative AI – computer programmes that can generate content with just a few instructions.

Microsoft, already a backer of OpenAI, ramped up its support to the tune of billions of dollars and began sprinkling AI stardust over its search engine Bing.

The early reviews were good and suddenly, for the first time this century, Google seemed to have a genuine competitor.

Google quickly unveiled its own chatbot – named Bard in honour of William Shakespeare – and Walker conceded that rapid advances with chatbots had influenced his company.

“I would say the rise of AI chatbots accelerated our work and expanded popular acceptance of AI in a more visible way, and we have doubled down on our work,” he said.

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