Google is deploying two new artificial intelligence-powered features for advertisers to automatically find the best ad placements for brands across the tech company’s services. The move demonstrates that artificial intelligence has become an essential part of Google’s advertising strategy as the company continues to push for automation in the workplace. NPR’s Scott Pelley reports.
In recent months, AI has dominated the tech industry as Google and other companies have developed novel chatbots that can respond to users in open-ended conversations. These bots allow people to talk to a computer and ask it questions about the world around them. The bots can understand what’s being said and adjust their responses. It’s a significant development in the field of machine learning, which is an essential element of artificial intelligence.
However, these bots can only be used for simple tasks, like making a restaurant reservation or answering basic questions about products and services. For AI to be helpful in more complicated situations, it must have many skills. AI developers aim to create “artificial general intelligence,” which can perform various tasks as well as humans do, including writing up a grocery list or planning a vacation. Despite this ambitious goal, most AI systems have narrow skill sets specialized for a single task. This has limited their utility, which has led to criticisms of the technology in the media and among some employees at Google, whose parent company is investing more than $3 billion in AI research over the next three years.
One of the new AI-powered features being rolled out by Google is called Demand Gen, which uses AI to determine the best placements for brands across Google’s different platforms. According to Google, the tool will prioritize placing ads in visually stunning and immersive locations, which says it has seen early testing of the feature show a 40 percent increase in brand video views.
Another new feature will use AI to synthesize information on a topic. Google Search will look for insights from multiple sources to answer complex questions that can’t be answered with a single answer. For example, it will look for blog posts from people who play both piano and guitar to compile a list of tips that could be helpful for beginners. This feature will start rolling out this week, and Google says it will expand to other Google products soon.
These AI-powered tools are designed to free up time for marketers, who can devote more attention to their marketing strategies and storytelling. The AI-powered tools will help them automate routine tasks and focus on enhancing user engagement with their brand, which is critical for their business. This is just the latest effort by Google and its competitors to leverage the power of AI in their advertising offerings, which is a significant revenue driver for many of these companies. But critics say that as AI becomes more ubiquitous, it will erode consumer trust and decrease job security for human workers.
