Google promises AI search features 'very soon' to counter ChatGPT

Google is finally dropping its cautious act around generative AI.

During Alphabet's fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that users will "very soon" be able to interact directly with the company's language models as a companion to Search. The features, powered by its conversation tech LaMDA, will roll out experimentally in the coming weeks and months.

Under pressure from Bing and Wall Street

The urgency is unmistakable. Alphabet just missed Wall Street expectations for both earnings and revenue for the fourth consecutive quarter. YouTube advertising dropped 8%, while Search and other revenue slipped 2%.

At the same time, OpenAI's ChatGPT is threatening the foundations of traditional web search, and reports indicate Microsoft is preparing to inject the technology into Bing. The pressure reportedly triggered a "code red" inside Google, bringing co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin back into hands-on strategy for the first time since 2019.

CNBC previously reported that Google has been testing an internal chatbot called Apprentice Bard alongside new desktop designs that display question-and-answer layouts. Pichai also promised upcoming tools and APIs for outside creators and developers, though he cautioned that large models remain in their "early days" and require slow, deliberate scaling.

That caution reflects deep internal hesitation. As Google's Jeff Dean previously told employees, Google faces far more reputational risk from inaccurate answers than an agile startup, leading to a much more conservative deployment strategy.

DeepMind gets called to the front line

Behind the scenes, Google is also rearranging its corporate plumbing to win the AI fight.

Starting in the first quarter, DeepMind will no longer sit under Alphabet's speculative Other Bets umbrella. Instead, its financials and strategic focus will roll directly into Google proper.

Alphabet acquired the London research powerhouse in 2014 for over $500 million, keeping it alongside speculative moonshots like self-driving cars. DeepMind turned its first profit in 2021. Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat noted that the company only absorbs an Other Bet into Google when it directly supports core products and services, citing the 2019 integration of cybersecurity firm Chronicle into Google Cloud.

Why it matters

Google has spent years claiming AI supremacy while sitting on its frontier research. Now, ChatGPT has forced its hand.

For everyday users and developers, search is about to look fundamentally different. Instead of clicking blue links and parsing SEO spam, users will soon get synthesized answers directly on Google's desktop. When the promised APIs drop, developers will also have a major alternative to OpenAI's ecosystem.

For the broader industry, this officially kicks off the Search Wars 2.0. Microsoft's aggressive bet on OpenAI has broken the decade-long stagnation of web search, forcing Google to risk cannibalizing its own high-margin ad business just to protect market share.

Folding DeepMind into Google proper is a smart, overdue structural shift. It closes the gap between pure academic research and commercial engineering. However, the biggest hurdle remains culture and reputation. If LaMDA hallucinates on billions of queries, the fallout will hit Google far harder than it hits a startup. Google has the brainpower, but it is now racing on unfamiliar, defensive terrain.