Google is about to get a lot better at understanding your search queries

This is a bit of a Halloween-spooky announcement.

Google has announced its rolling out a major upgrade to its search engine, which should mean it gets better at understanding your queries in context – rather than just matching keywords, it'll actually figure out what you're trying to say.

Thanks to a new machine learning process, Google says, you won't have to try and stuff your searches with keywords to try and get the right results up first. Instead, you can be more natural and conversational.

"Particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like 'for' and 'to' matter a lot to the meaning, Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query," says Google's Pandu Nayak.

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"No matter what you’re looking for, or what language you speak, we hope you’re able to let go of some of your keyword-ese and search in a way that feels natural for you," adds Nayak.

Seek and you will find

Let's give you some of Google's examples to show how the changes work. Previously, in a "2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa" search, Google would ignore the "to" because it's so common, and return results for US citizens going to Brazil. Now it recognizes the "to" and that the query is about travelers going from Brazil to the US.

On a search like "do estheticians stand a lot at work", Google previously wouldn't understand the context "stand" was used in (i.e. relating to the physical demands of the job). With the new update, it'll realize what you're trying to say.

These improvements are substantial enough that Google is calling this its most important search upgrade in five years. To begin with the new technology is only being applied to searches in US English, but it will expand to more languages over time.

For a more detailed look at the neural network innovations underpinning this improvement – specifically a training model called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers or BERT – head over to Google's blog post on the changes.

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A call to action: We need the right incentives to guide ethical innovation in neurotech and healthcare

Indeed we do

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Ana Maiques, CEO and founder of neurotech company Neuroelectrics, writes up a compelling case in her recent article, summarized thus:

“I strongly believe that Neurotech entrepreneurs can not afford not to be involved in neuroethics. It is simply not an option anymore.”

I share that belief and would like to take it one step further:

“I strongly believe that healthcare practitioners, researchers, executives and regulators can not afford not to be involved in neuroethics. It is simply not an option anymore.”

Having spent 10+ years tracking and analyzing the growing industry of digital brain/ mental health and non-invasive neurotechnologies, let me share why I believe so, and why we will need to set incentives right.

Timely conversation to have

Only ten years ago, neurotech largely remained the domain of research centers and high-end medical centers. Today, the industry is touching millions of practitioners, patients and consumers worldwide, thanks to an explosion of low-cost, non-invasive and eminently scalable technologies that can be used to assess and/ or to improve brain and mental health.

At the recent 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit, which I helped produce from May 7th to the 9th, Dr. Tom Insel –former Director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) turned Google executive turned entrepreneur– surveyed the ongoing revolution in digital biomarkers and therapeutics and why it matters: While brain/ mental healthcare has failed so far behind other areas of health, probably due to the old axiom “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”, emerging neurological monitoring technologies can allow us to remedy that and help us identify problems early and intervene early.

Multiple other speakers during the Summit built upon Insel’s remarks sharing research, tech and examples. Start-up Sana Health won the 2019 Brainnovations Pitch Contest by presenting a novel combination of audio-visual stimulation and neurofeedback training to help alleviate chronic pain, while entrepreneurs, investors and researchers described the growing opportunities and risks brought forward by digital therapeutics and neuromodulation – the latter technology class, as described by Maiques in her piece, deserves significant attention as it could mean a non-invasive, non-pharmacologic treatment for a variety of conditions.

Anticipating risks, researchers Dr. Anna Wexler and Dr. Karen Rommelfanger joined industry insider Jacqueline Studer on a fascinating session about privacy and ethics, helping identify ethical problems and potential solutions. »Keep reading commentary To Be Involved in Neuroethics: A Must for Entrepreneurs and for Healthcare as a Whole (requires subscription to AJOB Neuroscience)

News in Context:

• Full special issue of AJOB Neuroscience on neurotech and ethics: Here
• New report: Empowering 8 Billion Minds via Ethical Development and Adoption of Neurotechnologies
• The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK considers adding a 5‑minute cognitive test to its annual health check-up
• CVS Health: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) apps may help you more than sleeping pills
• First, do no harm? Common anticholinergic meds seen to increase dementia risk
• The FDA creates new Digital Health unit to reimagine regulatory paths in the age of scalable, AI-enhanced innovation
• Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright

Rethinking and Retooling Brain Health and Mental Health from SharpBrains

Journalist's Toolbox retweeted: The 7 types of mis- and disinformation help us to understand the complexity of information disorder. Read more: https://t.co/Gn7sJF46RJ

First Draft @firstdraftnews

Journalist's Toolbox retweeted:

The 7 types of mis- and disinformation help us to understand the complexity of information disorder. Read more: https://t.co/Gn7sJF46RJ

This Butterscotch Pudding Has a Secret Ingredient That’s 10/10 Fall

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A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. Psst—we don't count water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (specifically, 1/2 cup or less of olive oil, vegetable oil, and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. Today, we’re making a new-classic butterscotch pudding without any sugar.

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Photo by Bobbi Lin

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