Google is working on Bard, its own AI chatbot powered by its Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a blog post on Monday. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT last November, it has been adopted by many, and it was only a matter of time before the big guns came up with a similar product.
“We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard,” Pichai said. “And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.”
“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.”
Since Bard is still being tested, Google is releasing it on the lightweight version of LaAMDa for now, which requires less computing power so it can gather more feedback before making it available to the public. Unlike Bard, ChatGPT was made available to the public at once, and it now has a premium version that costs $20 monthly. Microsoft is reportedly working on integrating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and other products. In January, the company announced its third partnership phase with OpenAI, which involves a multibillion dollar investment.
Google is not stopping with Bard in its AI advancement; the company is working on introducing AI-powered features in Search. According to Pichai, the features will be able to “distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that’s seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner.” Pichai added that the AI-powered features would be coming “soon” to Search.
Google is holding a “Google Presents” event live from Paris on Wednesday, February 8th at 2:30pm CET where more details will be shared about AI, Search and many more.
