Google’s Head of Artificial Intelligence to Lead Search

Google is putting the leader of its artificial-intelligence (AI) research in charge of its online search engine, showing how important AI technology is to the future of the company’s main profit engine.

AI chief John Giannandrea will take over from search leader Amit Singhal, who said he is leaving in late February after 15 years at Google. Google sees AI as an emerging technology frontier that will power new products and services to give it an edge over rivals in the next decade and beyond. Artificial intelligence has already begun to influence how Google’s search engine answers questions, and the company has amassed some of the world’s leading experts in the field.