Will ChatGPT Dethrone Google?

In the realm of technology, a novel artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, known as ChatGPT, has emerged.

Expert insights compiled over the past month reveal that ChatGPT employs advanced machine-learning algorithms to generate text that closely resembles human language. It can answer questions, create essays, and even generate scientific papers based on a brief prompt, all influenced by the input it receives. This technology exhibits disruptive potential across various industries, spanning customer service, e-commerce, content creation, and more.

Kristian Hammond, a computer science professor at Northwestern University and the director of the Center for Advancing Safety in Machine Intelligence, characterizes ChatGPT as a "large language model."

He explains, "It's a system that was built by training a computer on not just hundreds, not just thousands, but millions upon millions of documents. What it ends up learning is the relationship between words, so when you ask it a question, it will find the words that make sense to it from a statistical point of view as an answer to that question."

ChatGPT's ability to rapidly and accurately generate natural language text holds the potential to enhance the efficiency and user-friendliness of search engines. This enables users to interact with search engines in a more natural manner. As this technology continues to evolve and improve, it is poised to transform the way we access information online via search engines.

While the functionality of ChatGPT has prompted expert reviews suggesting it could pose a threat to Google, a dominant global company, Mark Ritson contends that ChatGPT is not a direct competitor to Google. He clarifies, "ChatGPT is not a product or service. It is a tool that can be used by other companies and organizations to enhance their own products and services. It is not something that consumers will directly interact with or use on a daily basis. Think of it as a component rather than a competitor."

Ritson further argues that Google offers a comprehensive suite of services, extending beyond search results, to include email, calendars, maps, and an advertising platform, among other offerings. ChatGPT, on the other hand, does not rival Google's breadth and depth of services.

Interestingly, DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, is gearing up to introduce a ChatGPT competitor in the near future. According to reports, DeepMind's chatbot aims to be a safer type of AI assistant.

As reported by industry publication Wired, DeepMind, renowned for its AI research, plans to initiate a "private beta" of its chatbot, Sparrow, in 2023. Sparrow, introduced as a proof-of-concept last year, is described as a "dialogue agent that's useful and reduces the risk of unsafe and inappropriate answers."