Google shuffles the search deck
With a new Knowledge and Information chief and a new home for Gemini, can the company hit the reset button?
This week, a Hard Fork listener pointed me to a curious search result. Ask for the “difference between a sauce and a dressing,” he found, and Google would present you with one of its AI overviews. “The main difference between a sauce and a dressing is their purpose,” it stated. “Sauces add flavor and texture to dishes, while dressings are used to protect wounds.”
After I dug around a bit, I saw that people had been sharing this query on social media for a month, and that it had gone viral on X last week. It is not the most embarrassing AI overview I’ve seen — “dressing” is a perfectly acceptable word to call a bandage that protects a wound. What sent the AI overview viral, I suspect, is the way Google’s large language model collapsed the various meanings of “dressing” into one.
A photograph of “dressing” in the AI overview was clearly a salad dressing, and the description conflated the two. “A dressing should be large enough to completely cover the wound, with a safety margin of about 2.5 cm on all sides,” the AI overview stated. “A standard serving size for salad dressing is two tablespoons.”
Fixing the Issue
By this afternoon, the issue had been fixed — all references to wounds had been removed from the search. It’s a minor mistake — no one was harmed in the making of this sauce — and yet it speaks to the issues that have dogged Google’s search and AI product teams all year.
In May, the company told us that in the future Googling would do the Googling for us. But Google’s erratic output this year has left many of us reluctant to hand it the keys.
Challenges Faced by Google
The company pulled image generation from Gemini for months after it was found to be creating racially diverse Nazis (while refusing to depict the Founding Fathers as white). The launch of AI overviews included now-famous suggestions for putting non-toxic glue on pizza to get it to stick to the dough, and eating one to three rocks per day.
Google’s ad revenue has been soaring, reaching $64.62 billion in the previous quarter. However, concerns have been raised about the monopoly that the company has illegally maintained, leading to predictions that its share of search ad revenue will drop below 50 percent next year.
Corporate Reshuffling
For all these reasons, there has been speculation about Google seeking to shake things up. Recent reports indicate that changes are indeed underway.
According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, the Gemini chatbot will be moved to Google DeepMind, while the Google Assistant will be transferred to the platform and devices team.
Implications of the Reshuffle
Moving Gemini to DeepMind aligns with Google's objective of bringing its research and product divisions closer together for faster iteration. While corporate reshufflings are common at Google, this move signifies a strategic realignment within the company.
With the changes in leadership and team structure, there is hope that Google can address the decline in the quality of search results and bring renewed focus to its core tasks. Despite the challenges, Google has demonstrated its capability to excel in AI with projects like NotebookLM, which has garnered widespread acclaim for its utility and innovation.
As Google navigates through its current challenges, the company's ability to leverage AI effectively will be crucial in maintaining its position in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
