Human-AI relationships are coming, and even Google boss Sundar Pichai is admitting that people are going to grow profound emotional connections to artificial intelligence software.
"Over time, you will have people get into deep relationships with these AI assistants," Pichai said on the sidelines of Google's I/O developer conference in mid-May, warning that society needs to prepare for this and mitigate the technology's possible negative consequences.
In recent years, the concept of chatbots designed to simulate a specific real person has also emerged as possible way to help the grieving process, although research has shown that these so-called deadbots can ultimately have devastating effects.
"There are people who will use it to preserve memories of loved ones," Pichai also noted
For some, talk of "deep relationships" with AI will recall the sci-fi romance film "Her" about a man who falls in love with a virtual assistant called Samantha, personified by the female voice of Scarlett Johansson.
A new voice mode in rival chatbot ChatGPT, released just a day before Google's announcement, prompted comparisons with Samantha, the software loved by protagonist Joaquin Phoenix in the 2013 film.
Pichai was unconcerned that the updates came shortly after ChatGPT maker OpenAI unveiled a new version of the chatbot that can have more human-like conversations and respond better to voice prompts, as well as camera inputs.
Making it even more eerily natural, ChatGPT's AI voice appears to be making brief pauses to take what sounds like a breath. The voice also echoes slightly to make it sound like it were speaking to you from a small room somewhere.
But Pichai was of course keen to focus instead on Google's own ground-breaking plans to overhaul its search technology.
Google is infusing its search engine with its Gemini AI technology to give users a summary of a search results before they click on links listed, in what it says "takes the legwork out of searching."
That means when people enter a search into Google, they will be able to see at a glance a summary of the contents of the websites listed.
Artificial intelligence is one of the most profound technologies humanity will ever work on, Pichai said, dismissing his rival's news the previous day, given the scale and importance of the pace of change in AI.
Google was announcing a whole series of tools powered by the Gemini AI model at the conference, including ways to use text, image and video to interact with the AI assistant across Google apps.
Google has been investing in artificial intelligence for a long time, developing leading models and making them accessible to billions of people, Pichai said. At the same time, he said, other companies' innovations are driving Google to perform better.
The latest innovation presented at the conference sees Google "do the searching for you." The feature, giving users an AI-generated summary with source references above the usual web links, is initially being rolled out in the US "and is coming to move countries soon," Pichai said.
"People are doing searches in entirely new ways and asking new types of questions," he said.
Such clear answers delivered by the AI overviews may be good news for users but many publishers fear in future, fewer people will click on their offerings. Google dismissed fears that this will rob some websites of traffic.
One of the company's experiences with the AI overviews is that they encourage users to carry out further search queries, with new types of questions and more questions, says Head of Google Search Liz Reid.
Often, people use Google to answer one specific question but the results inspire them to dig deeper. The AI-generated overviews receive more traffic than the traditional links provided as search results, Reid says.
The changes may impact Google's own business model too, as so far, advertisers buying space close to the search results have been a key source of revenue.
Reid played down the risk for the company, saying Google wants to place adverts that are helpful for users and will continue to interact with them even after the introduction of AI overviews.
Each time Google introduced new usage scenarios in search, the ad team found new ways to make money, Reid said.
