In the last few months we have all heard about the ChatGPT. No matter how connected you are, you cannot miss the tool that knows how to answer almost any question. Another question also revolved around the tool, what will Google do? Microsoft’s declaration of war when it invested in chat artificial intelligence, along with its desire to include it in its office software and its Bing search engine, changed the balance of power against the company that dominates the world’s search – Google. We already knew that the company was working on its own answer, and the world was waiting to see how it would react, and here it did.
Meet Bard – an experimental service for a conversational artificial intelligence model (Conversational AI) powered by LaMDA, Google’s language model for dialog applications. In a press release issued by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, he announced that the company is taking another step forward and allowing trusted testers to try it out, before it becomes available to the public in the coming weeks.
Pichai wrote: “Bard combines 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 up-to-date, high-quality answers. While Bard can express creativity and satisfy curiosity, it helps explain discoveries NASA news like the James Webb Space Telescope for 9-year-olds or learning more about the world’s best soccer players, then getting exercises to improve your performance.”
Google’s new tool came out in stages as the company’s CEO explains: “In the first stage we publish it with the light version of LaMDA. The much smaller model requires less computing power, which allows us to reach more users, and also get more feedback. We’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to ensure Bard’s answers meet a high standard of quality, safety and grounding in real-world information. We are excited for this phase of experimentation that will help us continue to learn and improve the quality and speed of Bard.”
1/ In 2021, we shared next-gen language + conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA). Coming soon: Bard, a new experimental conversational #GoogleAI service powered by LaMDA. https://t.co/cYo6iYdmQ1
Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023
The system will of course start with Google’s search engine, but the company’s intention is to integrate it with other systems and other artificial intelligence tools they are developing such as LaMDA, PaLM, Imagen and MusicLM.
To illustrate how artificial intelligence will manifest itself within the search engine, Pichai gives the following example: “When people think of Google, they often think of turning to us for quick factual answers, like ‘How many keys are there on a piano?’ But more and more people are also turning to Google to get deeper insights such as – “Is it easier to learn to play the piano or the guitar, and how much practice does it require?”. Learning about such a topic may require too much effort and often people want to explore a wide range of opinions or perspectives.
“Artificial intelligence can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights into questions that don’t have a single right answer. Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in the search engine that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easier formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web. Between Whether it’s by searching for additional perspectives, such as blogs by people who play both piano and guitar, or delving into a related topic, such as where to start. These new features, based on artificial intelligence, will start appearing in Google’s search engine soon.”
One of the things that has most advanced the subject of artificial intelligence so far has been the sharing of code to improve it. Here, too, Google decided not to close it only to itself, but to carry out collaborations. “Beyond our products, we think it’s important to make it easy, safe, and scalable so that others can benefit from this progress when our best models are put to use,” he wrote. pichaiNext month, we’ll be connecting developers, creators, and organizations to try out our Generative Language API, powered first by LaMDA with a variety of models.
“Over time, we intend to create a suite of tools and APIs that will make it easier for others to build more innovative applications using AI. The computing power necessary to build reliable and trustworthy AI systems is also essential for startups, and we’re excited to help expand these efforts through our Google Cloud partnerships with Cohere, C3.ai and-Anthropicwhich was announced only last week”.
One of the explanations for why Google delayed with its artificial intelligence was a fear of its dangers, Pichai also referred to this in his announcement: “It is imperative that we bring to the world experiences that rely on these models in a bold and responsible way. This is why we are committed to developing artificial intelligence responsibly: in 2018, Google was one of the first companies to publish principles for artificial intelligence. We continue to provide information and resources to our researchers, collaborate with governments and external organizations to develop standards and best practices, and work with communities and experts to make artificial intelligence safe and useful. Whether it’s an application of artificial intelligence designed to change how Fundamental to our products or making these powerful tools available to others, we will continue to be bold in the innovation we bring and responsible in our approach.”
