Google has announced the launch of Bard, its latest artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, which will be tested by a group of users before being made available to the public in the near future. The chatbot is based on Google’s existing large language model Lamda and is said to have human-like responses that one engineer believes to be sentient. Along with Bard, Google also revealed new AI tools for its search engine.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which is the most well-known, are designed to answer questions and provide information by using the internet as a vast database of knowledge. However, there are concerns about the presence of offensive content and false information. Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post that Bard aims to merge the vast knowledge of the world with the capabilities of Google’s large language models. He emphasized the importance of being “bold and responsible” with AI services but did not provide details on how to prevent the sharing of harmful or abusive content through Bard.
Pichai stated that the platform will initially run on a more efficient version of Lamda, which will require less power and enable more users to access it simultaneously. Google’s announcement of Bard comes amidst rumors that Microsoft is planning to integrate the AI chatbot ChatGPT into its search engine Bing after making a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is capable of answering questions and performing tasks in text format based on information from the internet as of 2021. It can generate a variety of content, including speeches, songs, marketing copy, news articles, and student essays. Currently, ChatGPT is available for free, though it incurs a small cost for OpenAI each time it is used, according to BBC News. OpenAI recently introduced a subscription model to supplement free access. However, experts predict that the ultimate goal of chatbots is to revolutionize internet search by providing a single, definitive answer instead of a list of web links.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted that people are asking more nuanced questions in their searches and that AI can be useful in providing synthesized insights for questions where there is no straightforward answer. Pichai said that in the near future, users will see AI-powered features in Google Search that present complex information and various perspectives in an easily understandable format, allowing them to quickly grasp the overall picture and gain deeper understanding from the web.
