Google Bard chatbot

Google unveiled its ChatGPT competitor Bard in early February. At the time, the company said that its AI chatbot would go public in the coming weeks.

Now, Google is opening up limited access to Bard in the U.S. and the U.K., as shared by CEO Sundar Pichai on Twitter, and you can join the waitlist here. According to Google, the rollout for Bard will be slow, and the company did not provide a date for a wider rollout.

‘Bard’ will be able to answer user inquiries and participate in conversations in a human-like manner, similar to how ChatGPT functions. The service is powered by LaMDA, with which the chatbot would be able to interact with users to explore complex topics, collaborate in real-time and provide new and creative ideas.

We're expanding access to Bard in US + UK with more countries ahead, it's an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. Hope Bard sparks more creativity and curiosity, and will get better with feedback. Sign up: https://t.co/C1ibWrqTDr https://t.co/N8Dzx1m0fc

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 21, 2023

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models,” wrote Google in its initial press release. “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.”

However, the company also warns that Bard is an early experiment that is intended to help people boost their productivity, but it is not a tool that is meant to replace its search engine, considering that similar to ChatGPT, Bard might also display inaccurate or offensive information.

It’s worth noting that in an early demo of Bard, the chatbot already shared inaccurate information. In a blog post by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, an example of the chatbot’s capabilities was shown off. When asked, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?” the chatbot shared three simple-to-understand points, one of them being that “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.” JWST did not take the very first picture of an exoplanet. The first image of an exoplanet was taken back in 2004, by the VLT (Very Large Telescope), stationed in Cerro Paranal, Antofagasta, Chile, while the JWST only became operational in 2022.

In a statement given to The Verge about Bard’s inaccuracy, a Google spokesperson said, “This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program. We’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information.” Hopefully, Google has fixed the issues with Bard, and going forward, it won’t make such blatant mistakes.

Source: @sundarpichai

Last week, news came out that Google is reportedly testing its own ChatGPT-like chatbot called ‘Apprentice Bard.’

Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed the existence of the project, describing it as an “experimental conversational AI service” powered by LaMDA.

‘Bard’ will be able to answer user inquiries and participate in conversations in a human-like manner and is being released now to “trusted testers” before it goes public “in the coming weeks.”

Bard is similar to ChatGPT in the sense that it is all-knowing. According to Google, “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models.” The AI service gathers information from the internet to provide fresh and 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,” wrote Google.

Unlike ChatGPT, Google says that Bard uses less computing power, and thus, can be scaled to more users. It is also using external feedback alongside its own internal testing to make sure “Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information.”

It is evident that OpenAI’s decision to make ChatGPT freely available to the public is what triggered Google to go all hands on deck with Bard and make it functional as soon as possible. Another industry giant, Microsoft, is reportedly integrating ChatGPT to its Bing browser, as screenshots of the leaked browser leaked last week.

According to Pichai, AI is an exciting opportunity that can help people deepen their understanding of information and get to the heart of what they’re looking for. He adds that people head to Google for quick factual answers, like “how many keys does a piano have?”

Now, however, more and more people are turning to Google for deeper insights, with questions like “is the piano or guitar easier to learn, and how much practice does each need?” This indicates that people are looking for a diverse range of opinions and not just factual answers. Pichai says that AI can be helpful in such moments, “synthesizing insights for questions where there’s no one right answer.”

He also adds that users would soon see AI-powered features in Search, something which was hinted at in last week’s CNBC leak.

Another aspect pointed out by CNBC is that Bard will have up-to-date information, unlike ChatGPT, which is stuck in the year 2021. Pichai’s blog post doesn’t allude to that. Google was also reported to be testing alternate versions of its homepage. One of the versions reportedly gets rid of the “I’m feeling lucky’ button, and replaces it with prompts for potential questions users might wanna ask. This wasn’t hinted at, either.

The company is holding an AI-focused event about Search on Wednesday, February 8th, where we’ll likely learn more about the AI developments over at Google.

Image credit: Google

Source: Google