This story is part of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2022. Explore the full list of innovators who broke through this year—and had an impact on the world around us.
When Google first arrived on the scene in 1998, it offered searchers the option of clicking a button insouciantly titled “I’m Feeling Lucky,” which would transport a user directly to the first result. Not only does that button still exist, but that spirit of helping people get the best possible information with the least amount of effort lives on. Liz Reid, a 19-year Google veteran, is charged with turning the company’s latest advances in computer science into improvements in the company’s core search product. Last year, Google unveiled a new machine-learning technology called Multitask Unified Model (MUM) that Reid says is 1,000 times better at comprehending language than its already-potent predecessor BERT. For example, it understands more than 350 concepts relating to the term “acrylic painting,” helping Google guide searchers to everything from tips on painting techniques to clean-up advice.
Reid adds that these research breakthroughs are enabling new features that wouldn’t have occurred to Google’s search team in the past. One recent example: “multisearch,” which lets users combine images and words to convey search needs, such as by tapping on a photo of a tasty-looking sizzling sisig, for example, then typing “near me” to find local eateries that serve it. “When you can be like, ‘I am going to give you a new superpower,'” Reid says, “that’s really exciting.”
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