The popularity of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot made by OpenAI, has been successful in making Google go crazy. Even Gmail creator Paul Buchheit predicted that ChatGPT could overtake Google in the near future.
In his Twitter post, Buchheit estimated that Google only has a year or two left before its search engine business is undermined by ChatGPT. But he emphasized that AI is currently not smart enough to beat search engines.
"AI will eliminate Search Engine Result Pages, where they spend most of their money," Buchheit said in a tweet, as quoted by Interesting Engineering, Thursday (2/2/2023).
"Even if they catch up to AI, they can't fully implement it without destroying the most valuable parts of their business."
Buccheit then compared Google to the Yellow Pages. Back in the old days when the internet was not as sophisticated as it is today, the Yellow Pages were big business because many people needed a telephone number database.
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Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption. AI will eliminate the Search Engine Result Page, which is where they make most of their money.
Even if they catch up on AI, they can't fully deploy it without destroying the most valuable part of their business! https://t.co/jtq25LXdkj
— Paul Buchheit (@paultoo) December 1, 2022
However, Google came along and all internet users could look up phone numbers instantly, rendering the Yellow Pages useless. "AI will do the same with web search," said Buccheit.
Since its public launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has become the favorite destination for internet users to find solutions to their questions. ChatGPT can answer simple questions, write poetry, and write lines of code.
In contrast to search results on Google which are displayed in a link arrangement for many pages, the answers provided by ChatGPT are more conversational in nature, so that it is easier for users to ask other questions.
So how can ChatGPT threaten Google's search engine business? As Buchheit says, most of Google's revenue comes from the search engine. They charge a fee for advertisers who want to get their products or services at the top of search results.
However, after the presence of ChatGPT, search engines like Google may lose their relevance because users prefer to get straightforward answers rather than dozens of links on one page. Even so, ChatGPT knowledge is also not perfect because the training data is limited only until 2021.
Google also does not remain silent in the face of the popularity of ChatGPT. Google CEO Sundar Pichai even went so far as to declare 'code red' and ordered the acceleration of the development of 20 AI products so they could be launched this year.