Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has released its highly anticipated conversational AI service, Bard, to a select group of trusted testers. Bard aims to generate detailed answers to simple prompts and is designed to be a rival to OpenAI’s popular chatbot, ChatGPT. The company has chosen a diverse group of early testers who are outside of the company to help improve and understand how regular users will interact with Bard in real life.
The service is set to be released to the public in the coming weeks, and Google is relying on both external feedback and internal testing to ensure that Bard meets high standards for quality, safety, and reliability.
Bard will be powered by LaMDA, a large language model developed by Google that made headlines in May when a Google software engineer publicly claimed that the AI was “sentient.” However, this claim has since come under scrutiny, and Google has taken a cautious approach in releasing Bard to ensure its quality and safety.
“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,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in a blog post announcing the release of Bard. “We’re excited for this phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard’s quality and speed.”
In addition to the release of Bard, Google is also making its large language models available to developers and companies. The company’s Generative Language API will be opened up next month, allowing developers to create their own AI applications. Pichai emphasized the importance of making it easy, safe, and scalable for others to benefit from Google’s advances in AI. He mentioned that users will soon be able to use language models as a companion to search, highlighting the company’s efforts to integrate AI into various aspects of our daily lives.
Google’s entry into the conversational AI market with Bard highlights the company’s commitment to advancing its AI capabilities amid increased competition from companies like OpenAI. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been widely popular and has been used in various applications, from generating creative writing to answering questions in customer support. The release of Bard represents a significant step forward in Google’s pursuit of AI excellence and the company’s goal of becoming a leader in the field.
Google has also recently announced a partnership with the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, which is testing its own chatbot to rival ChatGPT. The company has invested close to $400 million in Anthropic, giving it a stake in the startup without requiring the latter to purchase cloud services from Google. This partnership is seen as a strategic move by Google to strengthen its presence in the AI market and to support startups that are working on cutting-edge AI technology.
The release of Bard and Google’s efforts to advance its AI capabilities and make its large language models available to developers and companies demonstrate the company’s commitment to AI excellence. The conversational AI market is growing rapidly, and the release of Bard is an exciting development in the field.
Google’s partnership with Anthropic and its investment in AI startups is also a positive sign of the company’s commitment to the future of AI and its role in shaping the technology landscape. With Bard and its other AI initiatives, Google is positioning itself as a leader in the field and is poised to make a significant impact in the development of AI in the coming years.
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