Google Announces the Limited Launch of Its Bard Chatbot

Google Launches Its Chatbot

Google has announced the limited launch of its new chatbot, Bard, which is designed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot. While users will be able to ask Bard questions about any topic, Google has stressed that the chatbot is not designed to replace its search engine, but instead will act as a complement to it. Users will be able to use Bard to generate writing drafts, collaborate with generative AI, or simply chat about everyday life. While Bard will initially only be available to select users in the US and UK, others can join a waitlist at bard.google.com.

Bard Is An 'Early Experiment'

In a blog post, two of the project leads, Sissie Hsiao and Eli Collins, described Bard as “an early experiment” that is intended to “help people boost their productivity, accelerate their ideas, and fuel their curiosity.” While Bard is connected to Google’s search results, the AI can display inaccurate or offensive information that does not represent Google’s views. Bard will generate three responses to each user query, although the content variation is minimal. The chatbot interface includes disclaimers that encourage users to treat the replies with caution.

Faster Than ChatGPT

While Bard is faster than its main rivals, ChatGPT and Bing, it seems more constrained in its answers. Bing’s chaotic replies received a lot of criticism but also endeared the chatbot to many users. Google will need to stress-test Bard to better understand its capabilities and liabilities, such as jailbreaking – where users input queries that override a bot’s safeguards and allow it to generate harmful or dangerous responses.

Bard Appears to Be Very Powerful

In a demo, Bard answered a variety of queries, but its inability to answer some questions accurately and its limited content variation are likely to be areas where Google will need to improve the chatbot. Bard is based on Google’s AI language model LaMDA, which is much more capable than the interface suggests. Google will need to find a balance between exposing the chatbot’s full potential to the public and avoiding harmful or offensive content. Ultimately, time will tell whether Bard can compete with its rivals and establish itself as a useful complement to Google’s search engine.

Source:  The Verge - Google opens early access to its ChatGPT rival Bard — here are our first impressions

Source:  Google Bard Website 

Image:  Brett Jordan from Pexels