Generative AI continues to infect every product at Microsoft and Google.
Google has been in a generative AI race with Microsoft ever since ChatGPT made its way onto the scene late last year. Since then, both Microsoft and Google have launched multiple projects focused on integrating the technology into their existing products — and even launching some new ones. From Bing Chat, ChatGPT, Bard, and Copilot, generative AI is getting into everything.
Now, Google seems keen on bringing generative AI into its Assistant. After seven years of Google Assistant powering the Pixel lineup, Chromebooks, and its Nest speakers, the company is looking to “supercharge” its AI assistant with…well, more AI. According to an internal memo obtained by Axios, the company wants to integrate the latest LLM technology into the Assistant.
The memo says that “we’ve also seen the profound potential of generative AI to transform people’s lives and see a huge opportunity to explore what a supercharged Assistant, powered by the latest LLM technology, would look like.” The company says that it has already started work on this and that it will focus first on bringing the technology to mobile.
It’ll be interesting to see how generative AI works within an AI assistant like Google Assistant. The technology hasn’t made it to Alexa or Siri yet, so Google seems to be ahead of the game on this one. Both Apple and Amazon likely aren’t far behind, though — both companies are no doubt at least experimenting with such technology.
You can read the full memo below:
Subject: Assistant vision and team changes
Hi team,
Since we launched Assistant seven years ago, we’ve built great experiences for the hundreds of millions of people who use it every month. And we’ve heard people’s strong desire for assistive, conversational technology that can improve their lives.
As a team, we need to focus on delivering high-quality, critical product experiences for our users. We’ve also seen the profound potential of generative AI to transform people’s lives and see a huge opportunity to explore what a supercharged Assistant, powered by the latest LLM technology, would look like. (A portion of the team has already started working on this, beginning with mobile.)
To do both of these things with speed and focus, we are making some changes in the organization:
We’re combining the Services and Surfaces teams, which will be led by Unni and Bryant.
The Mobile team will operate separately under Minni and Zaheed.
The NLP team will now be led by Xiaonan and Lisa. Sincere thank-you to Michelle, who — on top of her day job leading infrastructure — stewarded the NLP team over the past 4 months. Michelle will now lead infrastructure at 100% capacity.
Speech will continue supporting Assistant and other products, and Françoise will now report to Sissie.
As part of this update, we are also eliminating a small number of roles within the team. We have already let these teammates know and we will provide dedicated support to help them through this transition. Everyone impacted will have a minimum of 60 day internal search period, based on local requirements. These have been incredibly difficult decisions, so please support teammates who are processing this news.
Duke and I will host a town hall tomorrow to go through the org changes in more detail and take your questions. (We know tomorrow is a holiday in Zurich, so we’ll also host an EMEA-friendly option on Wednesday.) Some teams will host town halls next week — stay tuned for those calendar invitations. We remain deeply committed to Assistant and we are optimistic about its bright future ahead.
Thanks,
Peeyush and Duke
