Google brings ads to AI search in ChatGPT battle

Google said on Wednesday it is beginning to weave advertisements into its new AI Mode for online search, a strategic move to counter the challenge posed by ChatGPT as the primary source for online answers.

The integration of advertising has been a key question surrounding the immense popularity of generative artificial intelligence chatbots, which have largely avoided interrupting the user experience with ads.

However, advertising remains Google’s financial bedrock, accounting for over two-thirds of its revenue. The rising popularity of chatbots has sparked concern on Wall Street regarding Google’s future earnings.

Google’s AI Mode, unveiled on Tuesday, is perceived as the company’s direct response to the escalating threat of ChatGPT siphoning off search queries and undermining Google’s established business model.

The new mode will facilitate a more conversational interaction with Google during search queries, providing answers in diverse formats, such as video, audio or graphs.

The internet giant said it is testing ad integration within AI Mode responses, building on insights gained from AI-generated summaries, or “Overviews”, introduced to search results a year ago.

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These Overviews already display comprehensive AI-generated responses above traditional website links and ads.

“The future of advertising fueled by AI isn’t coming - it’s already here,” stated Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s vice-president of Ads & Commerce.

“We’re reimagining the future of ads and shopping: Ads that don’t interrupt, but help customers discover a product or service.”

Since their debut at Google’s developers conference a year ago, AI Overviews have reached over 1.5 billion users across various countries, according to the company.

Google also said on Wednesday that it is extending ads in AI Overviews to desktop in the US, following successful mobile implementations.

Google’s aggressive push into generative AI intensifies its competition with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has also incorporated search engine functionalities into its popular chatbot.

Additionally, Google announced it is making AI tools available to advertisers to streamline the creation of online marketing content, mirroring similar initiatives by Facebook-owner Meta, Google’s primary rival in online advertising.

New features, available in the United States, will enable merchants to leverage AI for effective marketing campaigns and to “power an algorithm capable of targeting new searches and generating additional conversions,” Google said. AFP