Insight of the week from the Harvard Friday Five – 30 Oct 2015

Our top story of the week – as featured in the Harvard Friday Five newsletter – is Bloomberg’s report on Google using AI to tweak its search results:

More and more of your search queries on Google are being interpreted by artificial intelligence known as RankBrain, according to a Bloomberg report this week. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has been a big investor in AI and this is an example of how it’s being used in practice. As AI becomes smarter it becomes better at understanding what you’re really asking, and serving up tailored results. It’s another example of how the Google search algorithm never stands still, and it’s becoming more geared towards PR-friendly signals (original, high-quality content or editorial) rather than old-fashioned SEO techniques.

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