Sundar Pichai says Google will make LLMs like LaMDA available “in the coming weeks and months”, and users will be able to use them “as a companion to search”

Google parent Alphabet Inc. reported fourth-quarter results that narrowly missed analysts' expectations …

Bloomberg 2023-02-03 Davey Alba

Context & Ripple Effects

Google's pledge to put LaMDA-like models alongside Search marked an early move from research models toward consumer-facing search experiences. It was followed by Bard's PaLM-based upgrade for math and logic and, later, a Search Generative Experience rollout with conversational and shopping features.

The strategic tension was already visible in coverage of the cost of inserting LLMs into search: richer answers require substantial infrastructure spending while putting pressure on the economics of a high-volume product.

First-order effects

Google users are positioned to receive an LLM-based companion within Search, while Alphabet shifts model deployment from internal capability to a public product commitment.
Alphabet must support a more compute-intensive search experience as it pursues the promised rollout, against a backdrop of quarterly results that narrowly missed expectations.

Second-order effects

Microsoft and Google face a sharper competitive contest over who can make generative search useful without letting serving costs erode search profitability.
Shopping-oriented generative search features make merchants and product discovery a more immediate test case for how Google integrates LLM answers into its search surface.

Third-order effects

If LLM companions become a standard search interface, search competition shifts from ranking links alone toward the quality, cost, and commercial integration of generated answers.
The pattern points to Search becoming an assistant operating layer, with infrastructure efficiency increasingly shaping which companies can deploy generative features at scale.

The trend: Web search is evolving into a conversational assistant surface, constrained as much by inference economics as by model capability.

Discussion

@quinnypig @quinnypig on x
I can't wait for 2028 when @sundarpichai brings Search to Google Docs. https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
Microsoft is adding ChatGPT to Azure OpenAI and Bing very very soon, and now Google has announced an event about search and AI next week. Things are about to get 🍿 https://www.theverge.com/...
@webology @webology on x
👀 FFS, that is not a loss and only one quarter. Alphabet's *total revenue* in 2018 was $136.8 billion. They have potentially doubled their revenue in four years, but the market's reaction is absurd. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@pt Parker on x
This is progress. When they could've launched years ahead of competitors it was zero bolds and many please don't write mean news articles about us. https://twitter.com/...
@borrowed_ideas @borrowed_ideas on x
So about AI...Sundar basically painted a picture that intends to show how AI is underpinning almost all of their product portfolio. Let me just highlight bits and pieces from Sundar's prepared remarks: https://twitter.com/...
@borrowed_ideas @borrowed_ideas on x
A few questions on margin impact of AI, but while nothing specific was given, general message seems to be that AI is already incorporated in many of Google's products. It's not clear how much impact there will be incrementally.
@stockmktnewz @stockmktnewz on x
Google $GOOGL said the word “AI” 62 times on its earnings call
@kelseyhightower Kelsey Hightower on x
Once people understand what features AI enables it will become clear what's happening. People don't realize tools like Google Maps leverage AI to give you directions and reroute you on the fly. https://blog.google/... https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton@mastodon.social Casey Newton on mastodon
Google has once again made enough money to continue operating for another quarter
@alphabetworkers @alphabetworkers on x
Our response to Google's earnings call today below. It's clear that Google has debunked its own rationale for laying off 12,000 of our coworkers. Our colleagues did not need to lose their livelihoods. https://twitter.com/...
@nickstatt Nick Statt on x
Interesting. I wonder why all these giant tech companies laid off tens of thousands of people. 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Apple revenue down -5% year over year (iPhone -8%), Microsoft up only +2% (Windows & Devices -39%) and Google ads revenue down -4% (overall revenue +1%) shows that while big tech did have a hard year in 2022 there was little correlation between revenue woes and layoffs.
@altcap Brad Gerstner on x
$GOOG earnings. Making Lambda AI available next few weeks. Bringing LLM to Gmail, etc. Been awhile since we have seen GOOG trailing and chasing $MSFT. But youtube shorts @ 50 B daily views is 🚀.
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Alphabet had a number of misses on expectations. YouTube revenue was down -8% year over year, search revenue down -2% and a similar loss on investments like Amazon & Rivian of about $1.5B. Only bright spot was Google Cloud growing 32% (also a miss) https://www.cnbc.com/...
@susanlitv Susan Li on x
Spoke to #Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat on disappointing $goog earnings Interesting that despite laying off 12000 #Google parent still hired almost 3500 in the holiday period 👇 #googlelayoffs #technology #SiliconValley https://twitter.com/...
@martyswant Marty Swant on x
On Alphabet's Q4 earnings call right now, CEO Sundar Pichai said, “We are just at the beginning of our AI journey, and the best is yet to come.” • People will be able to interact w/ Google's most powerful models “very soon.” • Google plans to bring LLMs to Gmail & Google Docs
@borrowed_ideas @borrowed_ideas on x
$GOOG 4Q'22 Update “More than 6 years ago, I first spoke about Google being an AI-first company” Given the hype of AI and speculation of AI being potentially Achilles heel of Google Search and its economics, AI was predictably a huge focus on this call. Here's my highlights
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
6. Like $META, $GOOG is focused on Shorts monetization: “.viewership is growing rapidly $50B+ daily views up from $30B+ last spring. We're pleased with our continued progress in monetization: closing gap b2n short & long form is a big priority for us” https://twitter.com/...
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
Google Ad revenue down 3.6% - yes, DOWN while total revenue up only 1% https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mattrosoff Matt Rosoff on x
Ruth Porat tells @dee_bosa that Alphabet $GOOGL is “meaningfully slowing” the pace of hiring in an effort to deliver long-term profitable growth: https://www.cnbc.com/...
@jenn_elias Jennifer Elias on x
Google's Cloud business was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing fourth quarter. The unit brought in $7.32 billion — up 32% YoY. It also cut its losses significantly, from $890M to $480M. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@bruce_lambert Bruce Lambert on x
@Techmeme A company that makes more than $1 billion per *week* in profit sees the need to lay off thousands. Ahh, America.
@anthony Anthony DeRosa on x
Alphabet earnings: MISS on both top and bottom. The company's stock dropped as much as 6% after hours, erasing much of the 7.28% it gained in normal trading hours. $GOOGL https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
2/ I attribute YouTube's relatively weaker growth than Search since Q2 2021 (and sharper declines in the last two quarters) to the effects of ATT. https://mobiledevmemo.com/...
@kyurieff Kaya Yurieff on x
YouTube Shorts is averaging 50 billion daily views. That's up from 30 billion daily views in April 2022. More on YouTube's results in tonight's newsletter https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@dee_bosa Deirdre Bosa on x
Sundar Pichai feeling the pressure of chatGPT he has used the word “bold” 3x to describe their AI work on google earnings call he's used “responsible” 5x
@marketwatch @marketwatch on x
“The search giant underperformed our expectations across almost all business units,” one analyst says of Google parent Alphabet. https://www.marketwatch.com/ ...
@jordannovet Jordan Novet on x
'Executives said starting in the first quarter, artificial intelligence subsidiary DeepMind will no longer be reported in Other Bets, but will be reported as part of Alphabet's corporate costs.' https://www.cnbc.com/...

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