Last year, a wave of AI boom was set off at home and abroad, and various giants, including Internet manufacturers and technology companies, actively participated in it, and launched their own AI large model products. The emergence of AI large models has also made all walks of life once again focus on the AI field, among which the application of AI technology has become the focus of attention of all parties.
As AI technology gradually integrates with all walks of life, some traditional industries are also empowered by AI and new possibilities have been explored, and the search field is one of them. In fact, search has long become one of the important ways for people to learn new knowledge, obtain external information, and find answers to questions. At present, AI and search are becoming more and more closely linked, and AI search has become a new battlefield, attracting giants from all walks of life to chase after it.
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AI + Search = New Opportunities?
The popularity of AI continues to rise, and AI search has become a battleground, and players have successively made efforts in this field, or launched related products, or explored corresponding functions. Specifically, in July 2023, Bilibili will begin to test the "Search AI Assistant" function, just search for a question in the search box or enter "? In December, Douyin began beta testing an AI-based search Q&A feature called AI Search on its main app. Behind the giants' competition to increase AI search, they see the possibility of combining AI technology and search.
First, the combination of AI technology and search can inject new impetus into the search industry and boost the development of the industry. With the development of mobile Internet, consumers have long been accustomed to retrieving the information they need through search engines. According to the 2023 Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Networks, as of June 2023, the number of search engine users in China reached 980 million, an increase of 4.3% year-on-year, accounting for 93.2% of the total number of Internet users. It can be seen that search has long become one of the more common behaviors in people's daily life. At present, AI technology is constantly developing, and the application of AI technology in the field of search has also brought new possibilities to the search industry, and the search results have gradually changed from "general" to "accurate".
Second, the combination of AI technology and search can help further improve search efficiency and optimize user experience. In fact, the biggest difference between AI search and traditional search is that it is more accurate. In the traditional search mode, massive information resources can be obtained by entering keywords, and users need to filter the information they need in the massive information. AI search is different, with the blessing of AI technology, AI search can not only more fully understand the needs of users, but also have the ability to integrate and refine information, and can provide users with more accurate search answers, which greatly saves users time to filter information and brings them a better search experience.
Third, the combination of AI and search can enhance the search experience of the platform, thereby enhancing the differentiation of the platform itself. Nowadays, homogenization is a common problem faced by enterprises in many industries, and shaping differentiation has become one of the important directions of various enterprises. With the upgrading and development of artificial intelligence technology, AI search can bring users a different search experience, and the major platforms test the water AI search function, which can not only optimize the user's search experience and bring freshness to the platform users, but also enhance their differences from other companies in the same field to a certain extent, shape differentiated advantages, and then enhance their competitiveness.
Kunlun Wanwei "takes the lead"
Nowadays, AI search has once again become the focus of competition, and new and old players are constantly deploying, among them, Kunlun Wanwei is at the forefront and takes the lead in launching AI search products. On August 23, 2023, Kunlun Wanwei announced the official launch of the first search engine "Tiangong AI Search" integrated into large language models in China, and opened the application for internal testing. It is understood that the product can provide users with fast and reliable interactive search services, and integrates common functions such as writing and presentation, which can help users improve work efficiency. Behind Kunlun Wanwei's first launch of AI search products, it also has its own confidence.
On the one hand, Kunlun Wanwei has experience in making search engines, which has laid the foundation for the launch of its AI search products. After years of development, Kunlun's business sector has expanded to many fields, and it has a news recommendation product called "Opera News", which is also the largest news client in Africa. It is understood that "Opera News" is similar to a news search engine, which needs to search about 20 million news websites every day and crawl the news. Because of this, Kunlun Wanwei has accumulated a lot of experience in search engines, which has also become an important reference for its research and development of AI search products, and finally launched AI search products that can meet user expectations.
On the other hand, Kunlun Wanwei has a deep accumulation of AI technology, which makes it possible to launch AI search products. AI search, as the name suggests, is based on AI, which puts forward higher requirements for the AI technical strength of enterprises. Kunlun Wanwei paid attention to the field of AIGC and large models very early, and set up a team for research and development. It is understood that Kunlun Wanwei has begun to lay out the AIGC field since 2020, and has invested tens of millions of yuan to set up a research and development team of more than 100 people.
After a long period of R&D and investment, Kunlun Wanwei officially released the self-developed double 100 billion Tiangong large language model "Tiangong 1.0" in April 2023, and in August of the same year, Kunlun Wanwei released the first domestic AI search product "Tiangong AI Search". The "Tiangong AI Search", which integrates the capabilities of the Tiangong large model, can not only provide users with a more intelligent and efficient search experience, but also carry out multiple rounds of dialogue with users according to the context semantics, so as to more accurately understand the needs of users and give accurate answers.
360 "Stride Meteor"
The popularity of AI search has risen sharply, and players in the search field will naturally not miss this outlet, and 360, the leader in the field of search engines, is no exception. At the end of January 2024, the "360 AI Search" mobile APP, an intelligent search product developed by 360 Group based on its large-scale model product "360 Intelligent Brain", was officially launched on multiple Android app stores. The reason why 360 will launch an AI search product is self-evident.
First, the competition in the search field is increasing day by day, and the launch of AI search products by 360 will help solve the search pain points of users, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of the brand and strengthening its own advantages in the search field. With the development of the Internet, network information has become more and more complicated, and there are some false information, which is easy to disturb the judgment of users. Today, users can get a lot of information with just one search, but they still need to spend a lot of time sifting through and screening to filter out false information and find the information they need. As a result, the search experience of many users is often unsatisfactory.
AI search, on the other hand, can automatically integrate, refine, and reorganize information, and present the final answer to the user, which greatly reduces the time it takes for the user and improves the search experience. The launch of AI search products by 360 can solve the problems of miscellaneous information and long page turning encountered by users in the search process to a certain extent, improve the user's search experience, and strengthen its influence in the search field. It is understood that in the face of a lack of key information, 360AI search can understand the problem through rhetorical questions and several rounds of interaction, and finally give an accurate answer.
Second, 360 has a deep influence in the search field, and its AI search products are favored by users. There is no doubt that 360, which has been deeply involved in the search field for many years, has established a strong influence in the industry, and 360 search has also won the favor of many users and is in the forefront of the industry. Nowadays, the major giants are making efforts to AI search, launching related products, 360, which has search genes and technology accumulation, has a considerable user base in the search field, and the AI search products it launches are easier to open the market and accepted by users.
AI search is still on the way
As it stands, players are still getting into AI searches. For example, at the recent "2024 Zhihu Discovery Conference", Zhihu disclosed the latest progress in the large model and launched a new community AI function "Discovery· AI Search". With the entry of players from all walks of life, the development of the search industry has also ushered in new changes, and AI search has become a new direction. While AI search can bring new changes to the user's search experience, AI search also faces many challenges.
First, users have already developed the habit of using traditional search engines, and the acceptance of AI search still needs to be cultivated. Although traditional search engines take a certain amount of time to sift through information, users have long been in the habit of using traditional search engines. When encountering a situation where information needs to be searched, users' first reaction is mostly to use traditional search platforms rather than AI search software. Therefore, although the current AI search is hot, most users have a wait-and-see attitude, and users will choose to participate in the experiment mostly out of curiosity. Habit cultivation doesn't happen overnight, and it takes time to develop users' acceptance of AI search.
Second, AI search is still insufficient, and the user experience will also be affected. The biggest feature of AI search is that it can integrate search results and improve search efficiency, but the search is not only fast, but also the accuracy of the results. Due to various factors such as technology and training data, it is difficult to guarantee 100% accuracy in the answers given by AI search, and incorrect answers will also cause users to waste time. If such phenomena occur frequently, it will inevitably affect their impression of AI search, and it will be difficult to cultivate trust.
In general, the combination of AI technology and search has become an inevitable trend, and the exploration of AI search functions by various industry giants has accelerated the evolution of this trend. I believe that with the upgrading of technology and the continuous cultivation of players from all walks of life, AI search will also enter a higher level, and users may be able to experience more accurate and reliable AI search products.