Google CEO Sundar Pichai says search to feature Chat AI

Google plans to add conversational artificial-intelligence features to its flagship search engine, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said, as he steers the tech company's response to competition from chatbots such as ChatGPT and to wider business pressures.

- Miles Kruppa

Advances in AI would supercharge Google's ability to answer an array of search queries, Mr. Pichai said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He dismissed the notion that chatbots posed a threat to Google's search business, which accounts for more than half of revenue at parent Alphabet Inc."The opportunity space, if anything, is bigger than before," Mr. Pichai, who also heads Alphabet, said in the interview Tuesday.

Google has long been a leader in developing computer programs called large language models, or LLMs, which can process and respond to natural language prompts with humanlike prose.

But it hasn't yet used the technology to influence the way people use search-something Mr. Pichai said would change.

"Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs in the context of search? Absolutely," Mr. Pichai said.

With Microsoft Corp already deploying the technology behind the ChatGPT system in its Bing search engine, Mr. Pichai is dealing with one of the biggest threats to Google's core business in years as he also faces investor pressure to cut costs. In January, Alphabet said it would eliminate about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of staff, its largest layoffs to date. Inflation and recession concerns have spurred other tech companies to cut back.

Mr. Pichai said Google hasn't yet achieved a goal of becoming 20% more productive, a target he set in September. He said the company was comfortable with its pace of change, though he wouldn't directly address the prospects of another round of layoffs.

Last week Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat told employees to expect more spending cuts in areas ranging from dining facilities to the company's computing infrastructure, which is critical for developing and running powerful AI algorithms.