Ina Fried, Axios:

Google plans to overhaul its Assistant to focus on using generative AI technologies similar to those that power ChatGPT and its own Bard chatbot, according to an internal e-mail sent to employees Monday […]

As part of the move, Google is reorganizing the teams that work on Assistant… The move will involve eliminating dozens of jobs, Axios is told, out of the thousands of employees who work on the Assistant

Google Assistant isn’t as embarrassing as some of its competitors. Still, it was shocking to read that “thousands of employees” work on Assistant.

I’ve long bemoaned the fact that Google, Apple, and Amazon haven’t incorporated generative AI into their legacy “AI assistants.” Microsoft replaced Cortana with Bing AI a couple of months ago but I am not sure anyone ever used Cortana to begin with.

This is clearly a step in the right direction from Google. Apple and Amazon appear to be on a similar path themselves. It will be interesting to look back at the state of the assistants this time next year.