Larry Page And Sergey Brinthe co-founders of alphabet inc‘S GOOG GOOGL Googleare on the rise, their combined fortunes up $18 billion thanks to the search engine The madness of artificial intelligence this week, which boosted the company’s stock.

What happened: While Google I/OAt the annual developer conference this week, the company unveiled a revamped search engine that integrates an AI chatbot’s responses into search results, and made its chatbot more widely available.

Page and Brin were the beneficiaries of the AI ​​frenzy, and their fortunes soared this week. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires IndexPage’s net worth increased $9.4 billion to $106.9 billion, while Brin’s increased $8.9 billion to $102.1 billion. This is their biggest weekly gain since February 2021.

Page and Brin, who helped the AI ​​push and are more actively involved in the business than they have been in years, are among the biggest winners of 2023, each with more than $22 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, they are currently the eighth or ninth richest people in the world.

See also: Google’s dig at Apple over SMS standards draws laughs and applause at I/O 2023

Eric SchmidtThe former CEO of Google has also benefited from AI research. This week, Schmidt’s net worth increased by $1.8 billion. Schmidt, who has invested in a number of companies in the AI ​​space, advocates continuing rapid research and development in the field.

Why it matters: The increased use of AI in Google’s search engine and chatbot services is significant as it underscores the company’s ongoing efforts to be a leader in this space.

palm tree 2, Google’s latest major language model, was one of the key announcements at the Google I/O conference. It will serve as the backbone for all of the company’s AI services, including the bard chat function.

Price promotion: As a result of these announcements…