New AI Google feature threat to publishers
The generative AI is structured to access every content on the web and use it to generate answers on a topic in a conversational tone.
At its annual developer conference on May 10 in Mountain View, California, Google introduced a host of new features and products.
Highlights include new artificial intelligence (AI) tools for Gmail, bringing generative AI to Search, adding new features to Bard chatbot to remove the wait list and a new PaLM2 large language model for AI.
Google says the chatbot, Duet AI for Google Cloud, will help developers and non-developers to use its cloud computing services. Users can type questions about available services and receive answers on the spot, within the site.
The generative AI is structured to access every content on the web and use it to generate answers on a topic in a conversational tone. Google says it will provide a link to Wikipedia sources at the bottom of each online encyclopedia entry.
This is where the threat arises. Publishers and content creators rely on accompanying their content with advertisements on their websites to get commercial profits.
Online searchers are bound to be satisfied with the information that will be provided with the feature, limiting their chances of clicking other sites as the feature will collect all content in a single available page.
Information consumption
Google seeks to ensure it remains stable against competitors like ChatGPT by introducing changes in the consumption of information by internet users. It said the feature will be launched on a trial basis in the coming weeks.
Google is the largest search engine with 15 products serving more than two billion users. Its chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said: “This gives us so many opportunities to deliver on our mission—to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” He added that making AI helpful for everyone is the most profound way to advance the mission.
This is a remarkable change—except that online publishing industries and content creators should prepare for the blow as the number of clicks is bound to reduce.
Ms Owaga is a communication and media practitioner. [email protected].
