Alphabet’s stock experienced a significant boost of up to 5% on Wednesday following the announcement of various artificial intelligence (AI) advancements during its I/O developer conference. Although the surge settled to a 4% increase by market close, it still added an impressive $56 billion to the company’s market value, sparking renewed enthusiasm for Alphabet’s AI initiatives.
This positive response was a stark contrast to Alphabet’s stock performance after introducing “Bard,” an AI competitor to ChatGPT, which resulted in a 9% decrease in a single day.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the company’s commitment to generative AI during the conference, stating, “With a bold and responsible approach, we are reimagining all our core products, including search.”
One of the key announcements was “AI Snapshot,” a feature that incorporates generative AI results directly on top of Google’s search results, similar to Microsoft’s Bing Search. This approach showcases AI-generated content alongside traditional search results on the same page.
Additionally, Alphabet unveiled a new large language model called PaLM 2, which is set to power 25 new products and features. PaLM 2 has the ability to write code, much like ChatGPT, and currently supports over 100 languages.
Other noteworthy product announcements from Alphabet included AI-powered image search capabilities to identify AI-generated images, AI-related updates to Google Maps, a foldable Pixel phone, and a new smartwatch operating system. These innovations demonstrate Alphabet’s dedication to integrating AI into its core product offerings, capturing the attention of investors and entrepreneurs alike.