Google vs. ChatGPT: Will This Tech War Rejig the World Wide Web?

AI-powered ChatGPT has undoubtedly been the center of discussion for the past couple of weeks. Every person I interact with, every social media post I lay my eyes on, and every trending topic I scroll through is talking about this buzzword ChatGPT. (Not exaggerating, I promise.)

People are sharing different prompts for it, discussing its pros, criticizing it, and whatnot. 

With that being said, how can I not write about the talk of the town, the one and only ChatGPT, and how tech giants buckled up to fight a strong battle against it? Though I agree entirely with the fact that tech is evolving and will continue to evolve in the approaching years, it already seems poised to take on the elephant in the room: Google search. 

So without any further ado, let’s cut to the chase and dive in. 

ChatGPT Hit 100 Million Users

“Introduced back in November 2022, the famous AI-bot ChatGPT by OpenAI has reached 100 million users within two months.”
-The Guardian

Facebook took four years, Snapchat and Myspace took three years, Instagram took two years, and Google took approximately a year to cross 100 million users. The latest benchmark depicts the soaring popularity of the chatbot bringing tornadoes into cyberspace since its launch.  The latest development has made ChatGPT the fastest-growing consumer application in internet history. 

From solving complex coding problems to answering simple questions, this AI chatbot has been one of the biggest breakthroughs recently. Considering the widespread acquisition, Microsoft Teams are tipped to integrate ChatGPT into their interface. Furthermore, news organizations such as BuzzFeed have reportedly inked a $10 million deal with Meta to offer Instagram and Google AI-generated content that will leverage ChatGPT’s technology. 

Google’s Careful Approach to AI 

Google shared a blog post back on January 17, 2023, justifying the slower approach it takes when it boils down to rolling out new AI-based innovations. A plethora of people have called it the end of Google’s dominance on search, and reports have talked about alarm bells going off at the tech giant due to ChatGPT. The company has also been performing continuous adversarial and related forms of testing. It has taken a differentiated and careful approach to access and deploy novel systems, such as Waymo, PaLM, and LaMDA. 

A paper notes that Google is implementing a scientific method for artificial intelligence R&D with readiness reviews, research rigor, peer reviews, and responsible approaches to give access to externalization and utilization of innovations. 

The blog post reads, “We also believe that getting AI right must involve us and others, including researchers, developers, users, governments, regulators, and citizens. Earning public trust collectively is crucial so AI can play a pivotal role among people and society. We embrace the opportunity to work with others being a company to get AI right.”

The blog post is credited to Demis Hassabis (CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, which Alphabet owns), Jeff Dean (Lead of Google’s AI division), Marian Croak (VP of Engineering at Google), James Manyika (SVP at Google), and Sundar Pichai, Google and Alphabet’s CEO.

Will Google Unveil a ChatGPT Clone? 

Google is planning to hold an event on 8th February 2023, where it will showcase how it utilizes the power of artificial intelligence to explore and interact with data and reimagine how people search, making it more natural and intuitive than ever to find what you are looking for. 

Google’s staff is working on “Apprentice Bard” to compete with ChatGPT. The chatbot built on the LaMDA technology of the company is expected to be better than ChatGPT in several ways. As per CNBC, Apprentice Bard integrates responses from recent events, unlike ChatGPT, which has only limited information about events encountered after 2021.  

According to Bloomberg, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has invested $400 million in AI startup Anthropic, which is testing a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Anthropic and Google declined to comment on the investment but declared a partnership separately, in which Anthropic will utilize Google’s cloud computing services. 

At the heart of it all, I think that it’s fascinating how artificial intelligence technology is swirling at a wholly unexpected and swift pace, lending us a helping hand in expanding our skills and knowledge. 

Technological revolutions are making our lives easier, making me wonder if we all will become lethargic because of it. What are your views about it? Let me know.