ChatGPT: The End of Google?
By Hardeep Gambhir
Two hours. It took me two hours to skim through a plethora of websites and watch YouTubers’ critique the AI War topic to complete the research for this article. Compare that to 30 years ago when it would have taken me over two days to browse newspapers and journals to obtain the same information. Search engines, particularly Google, have revolutionized the way we acquire information. However, we are now at a critical juncture in the information revolution and AI, particularly ChatGPT, is at the forefront of this battle.
No longer would I have to watch YouTube, read articles, and browse through Reddit and Quora to handpick relevant information when I can simply get a direct and relevant summary about the AI War. If ChatGPT’s database included information after 2021, I probably would have used it to write this article. This is a code red for search engines — specifically Google. Google is used for 91% of internet searches and Google Chrome is used for 61% of online browsing online. The company is worth $1.5 trillion and one of the wealthiest in the world. However, Google’s revenue stream is not the most diversified and 57% of revenue is earned through the search bar and user-targeting advertisements.
Google has made significant efforts to remain at the forefront of the tech industry by acquiring startups and investing in new technologies such as Google Brain and DeepMind. However, ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft, poses a serious threat to Google’s throne.
While Microsoft’s Bing does not have the same search engine dominance and trust as Google, Microsoft’s revenue stream is much more diversified. Unlike Microsoft, Google cannot afford to lose the search engine battle but unfortunately, ChatGPT’s exponential success and rapid growth are painting a bleak outlook in this war.
Instagram took 30 months to reach 500 million users while TikTok took only 9 months. ChatGPT achieved this in just 2 months. Google is rushing to release Google Bard, a ChatGPT competitor and, apparently, a more powerful AI. But Google seems to be fumbling in this race, which is unexpected from such a massive company. In the first tweet introducing Google Bard, the cherry-picked example provided incorrect information about the James Webb Telescope. As well, a keynote speaker introducing Bard in Paris did not have the expected testing device, causing another embarrassing situation for Google.
New AI technologies are continuously emerging, such as Notion AI and You.com, creating high tension in the tech industry. While Google has historically triumphed over competitors such as Yahoo, the question now is whether it will finally be overthrown. Google still holds the majority market share in search engines, but can it effectively leverage this advantage? Although Chrome extensions such as ChatGPT for Google and ChatGPT for YouTube Summaries are emerging, none of these are expected to be adopted on a massive scale. Microsoft also acquired GitHub in 2019 and adopted it into GitHub Co-Pilot, an AI tool that writes code for you. Microsoft ultimately hopes to integrate GitHub Co-Pilot with ChatGPT in Bing.
It’s an exciting time in the tech industry where every move is crucial in the race to win users and their data. Who will emerge as the winner? Can Google retain its market dominance with Google Bard? Or will Bing swoop in and capture the market with ChatGPT and GitHub Co-Pilot’s astounding success?
