Bard

Google has introduced a new experimental AI chatbot named ‘Bard’, a conversational service apparently aimed at countering the popularity of the ChatGPT tool backed by Microsoft.

Bard comes in less than two weeks after Microsoft disclosed it's pouring billions of dollars into OpenAI, the San Francisco-based maker of ChatGPT and other tools that can write readable text and generate new images.

According to the report, Google has invested close to $400 million in Anthropic. Anthropic is an AI safety and research company, which is reportedly working on a chatbot, which is very much like ChatGPT

Google hasn’t officially commented on the deal but Anthropic did post in its offficial blog about its partnership with Google

Explaining about Bard, Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a blogpost wrote, “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models."

Google's announcement came on the eve of an AI-related launch event by Microsoft in yet a further sign that the two tech giants will do battle over the technology, also known as generative AI.

Independent tech analyst Rob Enderle told AFP that, “Generative AI is a game changer and much like the rise of the internet sank the networking giants that came before (AOL, CompuServe etc.) it has the potential to change the competitive dynamic for search and information."

What is Bard?

Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models.

CNBC reported that Google is testing its beta version against ChatGPT. While they both have a similar interface, Bard can give answers on recent events, something that ChatGPT cannot do yet since it is only current until 2021.

Another comparison tested the two products with “Three women are in a room. Two of them are mothers and have just given birth. Now, the children’s fathers come in. What is the total number of people in the room?”

LaMDA correctly answered the question stating that there were seven people; ChatGPT answered that there would be five people.

Google's Bard is based on LaMDA, the firm's Language Model for Dialogue Applications system, and has been in development for several years.

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

he added, hinting that the app would give up-to-the date responses, something ChatGPT is unable to do.

Google's chatbot is supposed to be able to explain complex subjects such as outer space discoveries in terms simple enough for a child to understand.

“Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity," Pichai wrote

He also wrote, “we will make Bard more widely available in coming weeks. It's early, we will launch, iterate and make it better."

Pichai further said that Bard initially will be available exclusively to a group of “trusted testers" before being widely released later this year.

Before the emergence of ChatGPT, which was released in late November, Google had been reluctant to launch its own language-based AI fearing the reputational risk of releasing technology that wasn't ready.

ChatGPT rivals on the rise

Meanwhile, Google is not the only firm building a ChatGPT rival. MetaNews recently reported that Chinese search engine giant Baidu is building a similar product that would be integrated into its website.

Besides these tech giants, other firms like Microsoft and others have also made investments in several other artificial intelligence (AI) products.