On Tuesday (14 March), Google presented a comprehensive initiative that enables companies and organizations to build their own artificial intelligence (AI) applications with little effort. AI functions are also being added to the Google Workspace office system. The program includes the use of language models developed by Google. The internet company also offers 'MakerSuite', a development environment that allows users to build their own AI applications. Deutsche Bank is one of the "trusted partners" that can try out the new AI program.

With its AI initiative, Google is countering a move by Microsoft. The world's largest software company, which has been left behind by Google in key business areas such as online advertising and internet search, is attempting to replace traditional Google searches with queries to an AI system with the help of Californian start-up OpenAI. To this end, the AI technology GPT has been integrated into the Microsoft search engine Bing and the Bing web browser. Integration into Microsoft's Office products is also expected.

Launch of own initiative

With its current product initiative, Google is pre-empting a further announcement from Microsoft, which is expected this Thursday (March 16). Andreas Braun, Microsoft's Head of Technology in Germany, explained at an information event last week that his company would then present the new GPT-4 version. "We will have multimodal models that will offer completely different possibilities - videos, for example," said Braun. Support for different languages will also be improved.

The early Google counterpart is aimed at companies as well as private users. In a presentation, the head of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, used the example of the fictitious furniture company Cymbal to show how commercial users can benefit from Google AI. AI applications could be combined with the company's data, for example with the furniture store's product catalog and the new offers in the spring collection. This could not only automate the updating of the website. AI could also be used for applications such as a consultation chat for customers, for example to find a sensible combination of different pieces of furniture.

Kurian emphasized that data protection is strictly guaranteed when integrating sensitive data from companies. Customers could use encryption methods with their own key so that Google itself would not have access to the data. Customer data would also not be mixed with the data pool for public Google searches.

With 'Bart' against Chat GPT

The Google initiative also includes generative AI, i.e. the generation of content with the help of artificial intelligence. The most prominent example of generative AI is the text robot ChatGPT from OpenAI. Google's text robot is called 'Bart', but unlike ChatGPT, it is not yet available to the general public.

In future, Google will make corresponding functions available to its customers who use the 'Google Workplace' office suite. For example, longer email exchanges can be summarized at the touch of a button or the results can be transferred to a presentation. The scope and tonality can be changed.

Google has not yet announced prices for the AI interfaces and development kits on Tuesday. These are to be published at a later date.