In Alphabet's recent earning calls, Sundar Pichai said that Google relies on Artificial Intelligence to generate a quarter of its new code. The tech giant, highlighting its strong financials last quarter, attached significant importance to how Google is continuously redefining user experience - while depending on AI internally at the same time. Likewise, on the financial end, the company is seeing an applaudable turnaround - with a 34% increase in net income year over year.
Using AI to write code is nothing new. Let's be honest; we've all used AI at least once to wrap up that one specific assignment or grasp a new concept. However, the fact that an industry leader like Google writes 25% of its new code is both intriguing and unsettling at the same time. Sundar Pichai says, "Today, more than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by engineers." Of course, AI is not self-aware, at least not yet, and every line of code has to be monitored by senior developers. But this poses a real threat to up-and-coming programmers.
Google is also revamping how we search things on the internet through AI. Meet AI Overviews, which accumulate results online and offer a summarized overview. “In Search, our new AI features are expanding what people can search for and how they search for it." While, in theory, this is a step in the right direction, the model tends to slip up occasionally. We should also highlight that Google could be forced to split up in light of an anti-trust lawsuit by the Department of Justice pinning Google's monopoly in the Search Engine market.
