Google’s New Search: One Step Closer to AI

What’s the Latest Development?

Over the next few months, Google will begin using semantic search technology as a part of its ubiquitous search engine. The new technology will have a deeper understanding of website content, allowing it to distinguish between ambiguous meanings, such as the animal jaguar and the automobile brand of the same name. Search engines today are like ‘librarians that don’t know how to read the language in the books,’ said Danny Hillis, an artificial intelligence expert and semantic web designer whose company was acquired by Google. 

What’s the Big Idea?

By having a deeper understanding of human language, Google’s new semantic search technology carries us a step closer toward artificial intelligence. Though a host of qualities are missing for it to be true AI, such as planning, having goals, making inferences and experiencing emotion, the semantic technology will better understand the meaning of words and what associations they have within the web of natural language. Google’s ultimate dream is to build Star Trek’s computer which assisted the crew in diagnosing the ship’s problems, finding people and much more. But what of Hal 9000?

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