Google Search Chief to Depart
04 February 2016 - 6:10AM
Dow Jones News
Alphabet Inc.'s Google is putting the leader of its
artificial-intelligence research in charge of its online search
engine, showing how important AI technology is to the future of the
company's main profit engine.
AI chief John Giannandrea will take over from search leader Amit
Singhal, who said on Wednesday he is leaving in late February after
15 years at Google.
Google sees AI as an emerging technology frontier that will
power new products and services to give it an edge over rivals in
the next decade and beyond. Artificial intelligence has already
begun to influence how Google's search engine answers questions,
and the company has amassed some of the world's leading experts in
the field.
Last year, Google introduced RankBrain, a system to handle
complex or rare queries, including the 15% of searches that it has
not previously seen. Google engineers built RankBrain using an AI
technique called deep learning, feeding it previous questions and
answers, and looking for patterns in what made the best results.
The results are considered good enough that RankBrain is the
third-most-important signal, of more than 200, that Google's search
engine uses.
"Search is stronger than ever, and will only get better in the
hands of an outstanding set of senior leaders who are already
running the show day-to-day," Mr. Singhal said in a Google+
post.
Write to Alistair Barr at alistair.barr@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 03, 2016 13:55 ET (18:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024