Google’s leadership is betting on sophisticated conversational AI as the next big technological leap, suggest comments from the company’s head of search, Ben Gomes, on Google’s 20th anniversary.
Speaking to The Guardian, Gomes placed a strong emphasis on the evolution of speech recognition technology, highlighting Google’s efforts over time including its initial experiments in the year 2000 with spelling correction. It’s been a long road to where we are now, with conversational AI assistants embedded in our smartphones; but Gomes suggests that much work is still to be done, asserting that in the future, “You’ll be able to ask much more sophisticated queries and in more sophisticated ways,” and adding, “You’ll actually be able to carry on a conversation with Google.”
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That points to Google’s strong focus on AI-powered virtual assistant technology, which the company has used to differentiate its products from the broader market as it has delved into smartphones and smart home hardware over the last couple of years. Many others have followed suit, with huge investments now going into a wide range of AI programs, but Gomes’s comments suggest that this will remain a priority on Google’s part for some time to come.
And for good reason – while sophisticated AI assistant technology is increasingly demanded by consumers in the West, Gomes points out that voice interaction is almost “like a basic thing you need in countries like India,” where a lack of traditional keyboard interfaces has made voice interaction much more desirable as an interface than typing. In marking its 20th anniversary, Google clearly has voice-based AI on its mind, and global ambitions for it at that.
Source: The Guardian
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