Google internally reorganizes the Google Assistant department, focusing on “Bard”

CNBC reports that Google is internally restructuring its Google Assistant division, with future developments focusing on the autogenerative AI chatbot “Bard.”

The news stems from an internal memo by Sissie Hsiao, Vice President of Google Assistant, revealing that Jianchang Mao, VP of Engineering for the division, will depart, with his role assumed by Peeyush Ranjan, VP of Google Pay in the fintech department.

Amar Subramanya, formerly responsible for Google Assistant engineering and R&D, will now oversee “Bard” development, while the previous “Bard” supervisor will transition to domain technology projects.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

This restructuring suggests that “Bard” will integrate with Google Assistant, and Hsiao further clarifies that the emphasis this year will be on more impactful services for users.

Google has not commented on the report.

Historically, the company has prioritized Google Assistant, from enhancing natural voice interaction in Google Now to utilizing the LaMDa natural language model in recent years, enabling the search engine to better understand natural language content and assist users in finding suitable answers online. Last year, Google introduced the second-generation natural language model, LaMDa 2.

Although Google Assistant has been widely integrated into products like Google Search, Android phones, Chrome, Google Maps, and Android Auto, and serves as the interface for Pixel and Nest devices, it has yet to generate significant profits.

However, with OpenAI’s recent collaboration with numerous industries through ChatGPT, securing substantial funding from Microsoft, and integrating its technology into Bing Search and Microsoft Edge, followed by Microsoft 365, Google has doubled its resource allocation to “Bard” development and applied autogenerative AI technology in its commercial Workspace services.