AI, conversational interfaces, and VR: Google goes on the offensive

This week, a lot of attention was given during the kick-off of the annual Google I/O conference to three of this year's key technologies: artificial intelligence, conversational interfaces and virtual reality. The attractive force of Google's technologies was in full display with the opening viewed by more than 1 million users in China alone. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, kicked it off by demonstrating that Google had not missed out on the shift to mobile and that 50% of all search engine queries were already today made from phones, including 20% through voice recognition in the United States. Already, the results of a mobile study that were unveiled extend beyond a simple list of links to include "cards" used to preview related content (photos, results, artists) without having to exit the search engine. The head of Google went on to highlight his company's progress with respect to artificial intelligence and concrete applications for search engines.