Google releases its AI chatbot Bard to select users ahead of wider release
Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc has released details of its next Artificial Intelligence (AI) offering, Bard.
Bard seeks to combine the “breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models” according to a note from CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai.
The news comes soon after the release of ChatGPT, a Microsoft-backed AI chatbot that has become a global phenomenon after it was made available free of charge.
Alphabet is opening up Bard to “trusted testers” ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.
The news comes two years after Alphabet unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA).
An example of Bard
Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. It draws on information from the web to provide “fresh, high-quality responses”. Bard can be an “outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity,” according to Alphabet.
The statement said that Bard would be released initially with a lightweight model version of LaMDA, as this much smaller model requires significantly less computing power, enabling it to be accessible to more users, and therefore more feedback.
The statement said: “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. We’re excited for this phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard’s quality and speed.
“We have a long history of using AI to improve Search for billions of people. BERT, one of our first Transformer models, was revolutionary in understanding the intricacies of human language. Two years ago, we introduced MUM, which is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT and has next-level and multi-lingual understanding of information which can pick out key moments in videos and provide critical information, including crisis support, in more languages.
“Now, our newest AI technologies — like LaMDA, PaLM, Imagen and MusicLM — are building on this, creating entirely new ways to engage with information, from language and images to video and audio. We’re working to bring these latest AI advancements into our products, starting with search.
ChatGPT has been received by the media, marketing and PR industry with mixed reactions. For some, the platform provides new efficiency, by taking on tasks that were once manual and labor intensive. while for others it raises concerns about the authenticity of information sharing.
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Olivia Kruimel is the managing editor at Mumbrella. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, communications and marketing. Her journalism career began at Fairfax Media (now part of Nine) and includes various B2B publications such as B&T, Travel Today and ALB. As a marketer Olivia has worked for Standard Chartered and various global law firms.
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