Alphabet, the Google parent that pioneered self-driving cars and quantum computing, is making its biggest bet much closer to home: online search.
Applying artificial intelligence to the search business that has made Google a household name has been the biggest gambit for the company, Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s president and chief investment officer, said at the Reuters Next conference in New York on Tuesday.
“We’re meeting people where they want to be next,” Porat said in an interview with Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni.
Alphabet, which makes more than $300 billion in annual revenue from search-related advertising, has injected AI-generated observations into questions with no clear answers, in one example of its efforts.
The move follows competition from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and requires Google to navigate difficult terrain, in which AI sometimes creates information called “hallucinations.”
Search will continue to evolve, said Porat, formerly Google and Alphabet’s longest-serving chief financial officer. Google Cloud is another major investment, she said.
Porat, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, also pointed to Alphabet’s numerous efforts to improve healthcare.
He cited his pioneering of “AlphaFold,” an AI system that predicts protein folds that the company is applying to drug discovery through its Isomorphic Labs division. She said AI could save vision for people at risk of losing it and free medical professionals from their screens so they can focus on care.
“It can restore humanity to the doctor-patient relationship,” she said, citing her own doctor’s hopes.
Asked whether the cost of Alphabet’s investment in AI will follow sky-high industry trends, Porat said the technology represents a “generational opportunity.” The company is on track to spend $50 billion on chips, data centers and other capital expenditures in 2024, it told analysts. But Alphabet will ground its bets on the outcome.
“We need to generate returns,” she said.