Google adopted BERT and MUM early to build AI search capabilities
Nick Fox · Inside Google's Generative AI Reinvention — With Nick Fox and Liz Reid · Aug 27, 2025 · at 2:33
Google SVP Nick Fox discusses Google's history of adopting AI technology in response to questions about how Google plans its product roadmap during rapid AI transitions.
0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.2s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Generative AI is an example we were doing, you know, we had Bert, we had mum as ranking improvements way back in the early days, really as the technology was new, that enables us to get our feet wet with it.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Nick Fox
Fox claims overall Google Search referral traffic to the web remains stable
“If you look holistically ah, traffic to the web from search has been stable over time. There's lots of reports of large decreases. There may, you know, at any given point in time, there are sites that do well. There are sites that, that, that struggle. But if …”
Fox: Google Search's future is unlikely to be an emotional AI companion
“I think it's unlikely that, that that the future of search is, Is sort of a companion that you're sort of building maybe emotion, you know, sort of an emotional relationship with.”
Fox: Users do 10% more queries for topics triggering AI overviews
“We announced we shared it at Google I.O. The people are doing 10% more queries for the types of queries that trigger AIO reviews.”
Fox: Google bets the traditional indexing-for-traffic web exchange remains intact
“The bet we're making is that the value exchange that Search has existed on for years is largely intact, and it still makes sense. Websites make their content available for indexing, and as a result of that, Google sends traffic to those sites.”
Fox: Generative AI fuels Google growth by expanding what users ask
“Generative AI has been in a lot of ways, a fuel for growth as users realize they can ask more questions they can bring more questions to search.”
Fox predicts agentic search capabilities are the future of Google
“So if you look at something like agentic, right, this is a it's clear that users want to get things done in search, right? They, if you're looking for a hotel, you ultimately want to go book that hotel. If you're looking for a product, you ultimately want to g…”