The
Assistant project leads have reportedly seen prospects for a
"supercharged" Google Assistant powered by AI, according to an
internal email obtained by Axios.
The email
doesn't go into specifics about the goals of the new Google Assistant team, but
based on what we already understand about generative AI, the possibilities are
quite broad.
Like ChatGPT
or their own Bard, the Assistant will be able to use data from throughout the
internet to inform its responses. Although services like Alexa, Siri, and the
Assistant have long been able to respond to simple inquiries, the addition of
AI will make the responses far more insightful. The interaction will be far
more human-like if they can draw on context, experience, and black-and-white
information in addition to their capacity to follow a conversational thread
rather than just respond to a single question.
According to
the email, Duke Dukellis, the company's product director, and Peeyush Ranjan,
vice president of Google Assistant, "we remain deeply committed to
Assistant and we are optimistic about its bright future ahead."
The best
course of action, at least for the time being, seems to be to leave generative
AI out of Google's smart home products until a later date. There are probably
still a few wrinkles for the tech giant to work out on that front, given public
distrust over privacy concerns and claims of bogus adverts.
When
generative AI will be included into Google's smart home devices is still a
mystery, and for the time being, it's probably best that way. There are
probably still a few kinks for the internet giant to work out on that front,
given public distrust about privacy concerns and claims of bogus adverts.
Axios
reported that according to the email, Google plans to reorganize the Google
Assistant team and make a "small number of layoffs" in order to
refocus on generative AI.
More Google Layoffs?
The precise number of layoffs is unknown, but according to the Axios article, the Google email references "dozens" of layoffs in the team's Google Assistant, which has thousands of employees right now. The Google parent company, Alphabet, already reported earlier this year that it had 12,000 employees, representing a reduction of 6% of the workforce overall.
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