AI Industry Updates, May 2024: Improving Internet Searches

• Google Levels Up Video Searches: At its May 2024 I/O developer conference, Google announced new AI tools that leverage video to make searching easier, whether online or in real life. To streamline internet searches, it upgraded its Lens tool to allow people to use video clips as a starting point. If a user wants to know why their computer screen is flickering, they could film the issue to find a solution – a process that Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, says may be more accurate than using keywords.
  
  Google also announced it’s working on a video-based AI agent, dubbed Project Astra, that can answer questions about its environment. A demo video shows the assistant (built into a smartphone) identifying objects, understanding text and even remembering the location of objects it previously saw.
  
  
• AI Searches for Social Media: In late April 2024, Meta introduced AI searches across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook. These run on Meta’s large language model (LLM) Llama 3. It can take on both open-ended queries – “help me plan a trip to Iceland” – as well as specific questions – “show me recipes for homemade salad dressings”. It can also function as an image generator – a feature Meta predicts will be especially popular in its chat apps.
  
  Similarly, TikTok is testing out AI-supported searches – which may be especially appealing to young people who treat the platform as a search engine. Alongside its typical video returns, TikTok will showcase an AI-generated overview related to the user’s query, which could be anything from a recipe to product recommendations.

For more, see AI Chatbots: The New Consumer Companion.