Right when we thought “Just Google it” will remain the best thing to ever happen in the search business, a free-to-use text-based artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT, has been summoned into the ring to explore its ability to take on Google’s Search.
Where Google Search utilizes complex algorithms to index, and rank websites based on their relevance while providing users with highly accurate and relevant search results for a wide range of queries, ChatGPT, an OpenAI chatbot, is primarily focused on generating human-like responses to specific text prompts.
Although the newly introduced technology has attracted billions of dollars in funding from tech investors, with Google processing over 8.5 billion searches per day, the possibility of ChatGPT giving Google a run for their money seems nearly impossible.
“ChatGPT cannot compete with Google,” points Tobi Adekunle, Head, Growth and Product Marketing at Sterling.
“Maybe the right word is not compete but complement marketers effort in content development, research and insight, Google search is also powered by AI that inspired different algorithms that refine our searches to deliver the best result, while that’s more encompassing, ChatGPT precision in delivering relatable human-like intelligent content is nothing strange to what Google search also delivers but maybe in a different way. The point is Google has been investing heavily on AI and machine learning, maybe while it lasts, ChatGPT will enjoy some traffic that should go into Google Search, but not compete. With Over 8 billion searches daily on Google, ChatGPT has a lot of work to do.”
Meanwhile, in Princewill Ejirika’s opinion, ChatGPT inevitably will be competing with Google, as people will be able to ask the AI to explain, describe or summarise certain concepts in a few paragraphs, as opposed to searching on Google and probably having to read a number of articles to assimilate the topic.
According to the martech professional, ChatGPT will probably provide an easier user experience for most users who need more personalized answers.
“There will be cases where both Google and ChatGPT will outdo each other because they are made for different purposes.”
More importantly, some professionals say they can already smell a buyout.
The technology’s ability to become a big disruption to web search, and a powerful tool for improving customer engagement and conversion rates, has been ranked top tier by businesses that leverage natural language processing.
Ernest Nnagbo believes there will be many use cases for ChatGPT mostly in business strategies and predictive analytics, pointing out that the chatbot should also be able to tweak business models and support predictive forecasts for the best path of action businesses should follow.
“It’s a game changer,” said Product expert, Chimaobi Maduka in a LinkedIn submission.
“I see a buyout and integration to an already existing service.”
Business developer Samuel Ngadi is certain that the “most unsurprising news” he’ll hear is that one of the ‘Big Tech’ companies/investors have already tabled a buyout offer.
“I had this conversation a few weeks back, and my response was that Google will simply acquire ChatGPT to fix the gap in their Search engine product. The scary part is how ChatGPT is able to write codes in different languages and even port your code in one language to another language. It can read your lines of code and tell you where the bug is and even tell you how to fix it. It’s a disruptive development,” IT consultant and business analyst, Abdulbaqi Badru revealed.
But Stanislaus Martins is almost certain that Google already has something as powerful as ChatGPT.
“What we are seeing now is still early days of ChatGPT, because the developers are being careful, learning; the chatbot will plug directly to the internet at some point and power physical devices – let’s call them companion devices in the near future (Think Siri, Alexa but on steroids). Just imagine this AI inside one of those realistic looking humanoids – think irobot,” the Adtech expert opined.
“CHATGPT for me goes beyond being the next evolution of search, it is so much more. It doesn’t search pages to find your answers, it gives you answers in a conversational way and in an authoritative tone too (it is wrong at times).
Legal technologist and research consultant, Feranmi Adeoye isnt swayed by the hype either.
As each platform serve different purposes, “ChatGPT does not threaten google search as Google’s work is broader,” he explained.
“The pre-trained factor is one of its foremost limitations as Google’s web crawler isn’t limited that way. Even if you send some prompts to ChatGPT, it will say that it does not know it since it does not have access to the internet.”
