On Monday, Google unveiled Bard, an artificial intelligence chatbot platform that will be made available over the next several weeks. The declaration supports earlier CNBC reporting. Bard will face off against rival ChatGPT, an OpenAI-developed AI service.
LaMDA, the company’s extensive language model for dialogue applications, powers Bard. Prior to making the chat technology more broadly accessible to the general public, Google will make it available to “trusted testers,” the company announced in a blog post on Monday.
Last week, CNBC reported that Google is testing some of these features with employees as part of a “code red” plan to respond to ChatGPT, the popular chatbot backed in part by Microsoft. Features included a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard,” as well as new search desktop designs that could be used in a question-and-answer format.
“Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that 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,” wrote CEO Sundar Pichai.
The company gave an example of using Bard to simplify complex topics, like explaining new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old.
The product tests come after a recent all-hands meeting where employees raised concerns about the company’s competitive edge in AI, given the sudden popularity of ChatGPT.
Google’s prime business is web search, and the company has long touted itself as a pioneer in AI. Leaders have been asking more employees for feedback on their efforts in recent weeks.
The company emphasized Monday that it will need rigorous testing, saying “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.”
