The Future of Search: Machine Learning

Google hosted a forum for journalists dubbed: ‘Magic in the Machine’ that focused on Machine Learning and its application in improving the products we use.

Google revealed its latest technology advancement – that will simplify human lives through artificial intelligence hence making its making its Search engine simpler.

The forum further revealed how research on the human brain has advanced neuroscience in computer technology for example in the areas of image recognition, language translation, speech recognition, natural language understanding and voice search engine.

According to Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Principal Scientist who leads a team at Google focusing on Machine Intelligence for mobile devices, Machine Learning improves the (often free!) products Google offers everyone, and makes possible what was impossible just a few years ago.

“The Google Assistant uses a variety of machine learning technologies to provide a better experience, from speech recognition to better ranking the information that comes back to answer questions.  The Google app on every smartphone — speech recognition turns the sounds into words (we used deep learning to improve speech recognition ~25%), and natural language processing helps understand what you mean. In the Google app (on Android, in US), 20% of searches are now by voice, and the Google app understands speech in 55 languages,” said Mr. Aguera.

Mr. Aguera also stated that by 2020 there will be five billion mobile users all over the world and half a billion of them will be from Africa, showing that mobile usage was the way to go and Google was ensuring through artificial intelligence and machine learning that they were at par with the growth.

“Google for years has been a Search company and we still are. We’ve been all about finding answers and information to the questions that you have. Over the last few years that has evolved to more of an Assistant and that is really where we are focused today, using the power of tools like machine learning to help understand voice, natural language, speech recognition so that we can provide even better or relevant answers wherever and whenever you are,” added Laura Scott, Google’s Reputation Communications and Public Affairs Lead in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.