‘Google’ Thinks Their Smart Assistant AI Is Better Than The Rest

During the Recode's Code conference held in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California, “Google” CEO Sundar Pichai insisted that the race for smart assistant supremacy is more of a friendly match than a fight to the death. With that said, he also stressed that the search engine giant is the clear leader when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) if for no other reason than they have been at it longer.

Just to provide context regarding “Google’s” ability to create AIs, TechCrunch covers a project called “Magenta” which is being done at “Google Research.” The project involves the creation of an AI that can contribute to art and music. Based on the audio that the article features, it would seem that the AI can create tunes to rival that of a child playing with a toy keyboard.

Pichai spent a lot of time during the conference covering the topic of AIs and what the future of the industry is as it pertains to it. His remark that “Google” is better at the technology is partly a reference to the current smart assistant competition where “Amazon” is currently dominating thanks to its “Echo” device.

However, the tech giant is confident that their “Google Home” product surpasses what the “Echo” can offer. In terms of the price, an article by the TechBuffalo places the product by the search engine company on the cheaper end as compared to what the merchant site offers its smart assistant.

When it comes to performance, Pichai points to their history of dealing with information and search queries as the defining advantage they have when it comes to developing deep-learning AIs. Users ask questions that normal computers can answer all the time, but when they follow that up with something that is marginally off-topic, the computer gets confused.

"Building true conversational understanding and having a dialogue is where we plan to differentiate," he said.