Google Takes On ChatGPT With Bard, Fuelled by LaMDA

Google announced "Bard," its "experimental conversational AI service," in a blog post yesterday. Bard is an AI chatbot powered by LaMDA- Language Model for Dialogue Applications.

With OpenAI's ChatGPT taking the world by storm, Google issued a red alert late last year and planned to reveal a rival to the popular AI chatbot. The search giant's answer has now arrived in the form of Bard, which can generate responses drawn from the web with no constraints on its training data.

Bard: Google's Answer to ChatGPT

Bard is Google's AI chatbot powered by LaMDA, the conversation technology first introduced at Google's annual I/O event two years ago. Unlike ChatGPT, which was trained on data available before 2021, Bard can provide "fresh, high-quality responses" by drawing from the web without a cap on its training data.

In a blog post, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai explained that Bard's ultimate goal is to combine the depth of human knowledge with the speed, accuracy, and creativity of their large language models. He went on to say that the AI service uses a lightweight version of LaMDA so that it can reach more users and give more detailed feedback.

While Pichai didn't go into detail about the technology that makes Bard work, he did provide an example of its potential application. He continued, "Bard can be a launchpad for curiosity, helping you 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."

Pichai also said that Bard might give back inaccurate or inappropriate information, which makes sense since the service is still in its early stages.

Google to Bring AI to Its Products

Google intends to incorporate its AI advancements, specifically LaMDA, PaLM, Imagen, and MusicLM, into its products, beginning with Search. Pichai showcased a use case where the AI-powered Google Search feature will "distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats," instead of showing a featured snippet that best matches the user's query.

Currently, only a small group of people are testing Bard. However, Google has promised to make its AI service more accessible to the general public in the upcoming weeks. While a specific launch date was not given, the company is planning to integrate the new AI features into its Search product soon.

Google Is Wary of Microsoft Too

Just minutes after Google unveiled Bard, Microsoft announced a special press event for February 7, 2023, at its Redmond headquarters. The event is expected to center on the company's OpenAI partnership and the integration of ChatGPT into Bing. The event comes just days after Microsoft extended its partnership with OpenAI in a $10 billion deal that cements Microsoft as OpenAI's exclusive cloud partner.

With the addition of ChatGPT to Bing, the Redmond giant's product will definitely be a threat to Google Search. Moreover, it appears that the company is leaving no stone unturned to protect its product and release its AI services to win the "AI wars."