Testing Opens for ChatGPT Competitor Bard by Google

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, announced Monday that the new experimental product, called Bard, will provide textual responses to user questions.

‍

According to Trade Algo, Google plans to launch a broader public launch of a conversational artificial intelligence service in the coming weeks. To catch up with competitors such as OpenAI, the creator of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, the company has implemented this strategy.

‍

Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet and Google's parent company Alphabet, said in a blog post on Monday that the service, called Bard, generates textual responses to questions posed by users based on the web information. Also in the post, Pichai revealed new features on Google's search engine that will use artificial intelligence to answer user queries and announced it would open some of its AI programs to outside developers, according to the Trade Algo.

‍

With its new products, Google joins Microsoft in using AI technologies developed by OpenAI as part of its new products. Last month, Microsoft announced an investment in the San Francisco AI startup worth multibillion dollars over multiple years. In a move that raises the specter of a new challenge to Google Search's market power, Microsoft said it would begin opening up its tools to developers. It is widely expected that Microsoft will announce progress on a chatbot-infused version of Bing at an event on Tuesday, reports Trade Algo. The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, tweeted a picture of himself next to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday, saying he's looking forward to tomorrow's event.

‍

Investors have complained about Google's slow release of its in-house AI tools, despite Microsoft's announcements that it had pioneered some of the technologies used in ChatGPT. A number of its own researchers have voiced similar complaints, according to Trade Algo. It has recently been reported that Google executives have accelerated their efforts to review and release artificial intelligence programs to the public and that they have also assigned teams of engineers to develop new ways of integrating new developments into search experience areas such as the core search experience, according to Trade Algo.

‍

Also, Google executives have claimed they haven't been slow as cautious with their tools, drawing an implicit contrast to competitors' tools, such as ChatGPT, which can spout made-up information. Trade Algo reported that Google executives are adamant that new tools be tested to ensure they don't show bias, and that they are protected from misuse. Several academics have expressed similar concerns. On Monday, Pichai wrote, "It's essential that we make these experiences available to the world in a bold and responsible manner." "That is why we are dedicated to developing AI responsibly." During the new external testing period, he added that internal research will also be conducted to ensure Bard's responses are of high quality, safe, and grounded in real-world information and meet Google's "high standard."

‍

As part of a "company-wide dogfood," or tech-industry slang for testing one's own products, Google's staff will have access to Bard next week, Pichai said in another internal email seen by Trade Algo. A number of regulators across the globe are watching Google, including those in the European Union, the US, and other countries. A new EU law on artificial intelligence is being considered that would require companies to conduct risk assessments before launching new tools

‍

Its Bard service uses a language model for dialog applications called LaMDA, which Google calls an experimental artificial intelligence program, according to the Trade Algo. A Google engineer was suspended last year after he claimed LaMDA had become sentient, a claim that was widely rejected by scientists. The ChatGPT application released by OpenAI late last year became a viral hit.