Google’s biggest bet is AI for search, investment chief says

Alphabet, the Google parent that has pioneered self-driving cars and quantum computing, is making its biggest bet much closer to home: online search.

Applying artificial intelligence to the search business that made Google a household name remains the largest gambit for the company, Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s president and chief investment officer, said at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Tuesday.

“We’re meeting people where they want to be next,” said Porat, in an interview with Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.

Alphabet, which makes much of its over $300 billion in annual revenue from search-related advertising, has injected AI-generated overviews to queries with no obvious answer, in one example of its efforts.

The move followed competition from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and has required Google to navigate tricky terrain, in which AI sometimes makes up information in what are called “hallucinations.”

Search will keep evolving, said Porat, who previously was Google and Alphabet’s longest-serving chief financial officer. Google Cloud is another key investment, she said.

Twice diagnosed with breast cancer, Porat also pointed to myriad efforts by Alphabet to improve healthcare.

She cited its pioneering of “AlphaFold,” an AI system that predicts the folds of proteins that the company is applying toward drug discovery through its Isomorphic Labs division. She said AI can secure eyesight for people at risk of losing it and free up medical professionals from their screens so they can focus on care.

“It can restore humanity into the doctor-patient relationship,” she said, citing her own doctor’s hopes.

Asked if the cost of Alphabet’s investments in AI would follow sky-high industry trends, Porat said the technology represented a “generational opportunity.” The company is on track to spend $50 billion on chips, data centers and other capital expenses in 2024, it has told analysts. But Alphabet would ground its bets in results.

“We need to generate a return,” she said.