Google’s CEO wants Google to become more than a search engine for everyone – he wants it to be personalized.
Sundar Pichai opened up Google’s event Tuesday talking about the history of computing and how it’s gotten to where it is today. Specifically, how artificial intelligence is the future of Google and the future of computing in general.
“When I look ahead at where computing is headed, it’s clear to me that we’re moving from a mobile-first to an AI-first world,” Pichai said. “Our goal is build a personal Google for each and every user. Just as we built a Google for everyone, we want to build each user his or her own Google.”
Google plans to do that with its Assistant, an AI-powered personal assistant that can do everything from answer everyday questions like “What’s the weather?” to remembering your bike lock combination or your favorite sports team. Google uses machine learning and natural language processing to power the Assistant, which currently lives inside the company’s messaging app, Allo. According to Pichai, the Assistant is the future of using Google.
Pichai said the Google Assistant would one day be capable of speaking to users with different voices, multiple personalities “and one day even capture emotions when speaking to you.”
That's the "key to our vision for building an individual Google for speaking to you," Pichai said.
"Computing has always had big shifts every 10 years or so," Pichai said. "We're at a seminal moment for computing."