Challenging Google – New AI-driven search can be disruptive

Contents

• 1
• 2 What is ChatGPT?
• 3 What is the potential of Generative AI?
• 4 How AI-driven search engines are different from Conventional engines?
• 5 What are the challenges with AI-driven search engines?
• 6 What do AI-driven search engines mean as a business activity?

Source: The post is based on the article “Challenging Google – New AI-driven search can be disruptive” published in the Business Standard on 13th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Science and Technology developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Relevance: About AI-driven search engines.

News: Artificial intelligence (AI) programs involving Natural Language Processing (NLP) have caused a shift in the way people use web searches. AI-driven search engines may lead to radical changes in the way search is monetised via advertising, and it could challenge Google’s dominant search engine.

What is ChatGPT?

What is the potential of Generative AI?

How AI-driven search engines are different from Conventional engines?

Conventional engines list only relevant links. But the AI-driven search engines such as ChatGPT and Bard are different from Conventional engines as a) They have behavioural sense and they offer more “human” filtering of search results, b) They present search results in an essay format rather than just displaying links, c) They have the ability to write essays or even poetry on demand. AI-assisted fiction is another possibility that may change the publishing industry.

They also have other applications such as one can use ChatGPT to write software code to perform various functions, or perhaps using NLP to build an autonomous driving application.

What are the challenges with AI-driven search engines?

The AI-driven search engines have the following concerns, a) Though their searches are plausible and comprehensive, they are not necessarily accurate, b) There is a possibility that they will over-reach assertions. Conspiracy theories and opinions can be presented as facts if they are stated by “authorities”. For instance, Bard asserted the James Webb Space Telescope was the first telescope to take pictures of an exoplanet, which is wrong, c) Their ability to write essays and poems might create a new kind of plagiarism.

What do AI-driven search engines mean as a business activity?

NLP-based searches could lead to an entirely new revenue model for one of the Web’s biggest market segments. Advertising revenue share might move to new players, or perhaps create some entirely different revenue model.

Google has been dominating search and it has built an empire around the cash cow of resulting advertising revenues. This is finally being challenged now with AI-driven search engines.