The search does seem able to understand simple sentences but there's much less utility in that than one might imagine. Just consider that even an intelligent human who somehow had all of the web in their brain couldn't unambiguously answer X simple sentence from Y person whose location, background and desires were unknown to them. Serious search, like computer programming, actually benefits from a tool that does what you say, not what it thinks you mean. Which altogether means they're a bit behind what Alta Vista could give in the Nineties but are easier to use, maybe.

Part of the situation is the web itself has become more spam and SEO ridden and Google needs their AI just to keep up with the arms race here. So "Two cheers" or something, for AI.