Google’s biggest gambit is AI for search, says Alphabet’s investment chief – report

Google’s biggest bet is AI for search, according to an executive from the tech giant’s parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL), Reuters reported.

Applying artificial intelligence to the search business remains the largest gambit for the company, said Alphabet’s President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Tuesday, as per the report.

Google has already brought AI Overviews to its Search tool. The company has also introduced advertisements to AI Overviews and is bringing shopping ads to Google Lens. The moves followed Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI adding a new set of search features to ChatGPT, heating up the tech competition with Google.

However, the technology still has issues such as AI hallucinations, which are incorrect or misleading results that AI models generate.

Porat said that Search will keep evolving, while separately noting Google Cloud is another key investment for the company.

On being asked if the cost of Alphabet’s investments in AI would follow skyrocketing industry trends, Porat noted that the technology represented a “generational opportunity.” Google is on track to spend $50 billion on chips, data centers and other capital expenses in 2024, it has told analysts. However, Alphabet would base its bets on results, the report added.

Porat — who has served the longest as Google and Alphabet’s CFO and personally having being diagnosed with breast cancer — also discussed several efforts by Alphabet to improve healthcare.

Porat pointed Google’s “AlphaFold,” an AI system which forecasts the folds of proteins that the company is applying for drug discovery through its Isomorphic Labs division. The executive noted that AI can secure eyesight for people at risk of losing it and free up medical professionals from their screens so they could focus on care, the report added.