"It's not lost on me that we are facing scrutiny across the world," Pichai said. "It comes with our size and success. It's part of a broader trend where tech is now impacting society at scale. So more than ever, through this moment, we have to make sure we don't get distracted."

Google's search business still has dominant market share, but generative AI has served up all sorts of new ways for people to access online information, and has brought with it a host of new competitors.