Google Shows Up Late in Crowded AI-Based Digital-Assistant Field - Bloomberg

Also see Allo’s Tryout: 5 Days With Google’s Annoying Office Intern (NYT) and Google has rejoined the messaging wars with its artificially intelligent app, Allo (Recode)

"Google is adjusting to a new world in which people interact more often with smartphones and other devices and appliances linked to the internet than with personal computers, and are increasingly speaking to these smaller gadgets instead of typing in commands. There are hundreds of Googlers working on the Assistant, according to one person familiar with the team, and it represents one of the biggest bets by Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai since he took the helm of Google from co-founder Larry Page last year.
Google thrived in the PC era by creating a search engine that became the main access point for information on the web. Relevant ads and billions of dollars in profit followed. The mobile revolution has offered opportunities for rivals to challenge that role. Amazon.com Inc.’s digital assistant, Alexa, was rolled out in 2014 and is already handling verbal orders and other requests from millions of users of its Echo in-home device. Apple Inc.’s Siri, introduced in 2011, interacts billions of times a year with people speaking into their iPhones. Microsoft Corp. has added its Cortana digital assistant to Windows, and Facebook Inc.’s Messenger mobile app is building a digital nest for AI-powered assistants."

Google Shows Up Late in Crowded AI-Based Digital-Assistant Field - Bloomberg