A showdown between Google and Microsoft over artificial intelligence (AI) has been set up by Google’s announcement on Monday that it will release a conversational chatbot named Bard.
Microsoft has invested billions in the makers of ChatGPT, a hugely successful language app that convincingly imitates human writing.The San Francisco company OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made a splash for its ability to compose essays, poems, or programming code on demand in a matter of seconds, igniting widespread concerns about cheating or the extinction of entire professions.With hopes that it will adapt the programme to its Office suite and Bing search engine, Microsoft stated last month that it was supporting OpenAI and that it has started integrating ChatGPT features into its Teams platform.
The possibility of Google’s integration in Bing brought attention to the corporation and rumours that its globally renowned search engine would experience unprecedented competition from an AI-powered rival.According to media sources, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—who departed the company several years ago—were called back to explore solutions and expedite a reaction after ChatGPT’s sudden popularity was deemed a “code red” threat.
The lacklustre profits reported last week by Alphabet, the company that owns Google, which fell short of market forecasts, increased the pressure to act. The corporation revealed last month that it was letting go of 12,000 employees as it focused more on AI projects.The fact that Google made its announcement on the eve of Microsoft’s AI-related launch event is just another indication that the two tech titans will compete for control of the technology, also known as generative AI.
According to independent tech analyst Rob Enderle, “Generative AI is a game changer and just like the development of the internet sank the networking giants that came before (AOL, CompuServe, etc.), it has the potential to disrupt the competitive dynamic for search and information.
Response
Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated in a blog post on Monday that Bard conversational AI was going to be tested with the intention of making it more accessible “in the coming weeks.”The Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) technology serves as the foundation for Google’s Bard, which has been under development for a while.Pichai stated that “Bard aspires to integrate the depth of the knowledge of the world with the strength, intelligence, and creativity of our massive language models.
“He went on to say that the software “draws on information from the web to produce new, high-quality responses,” suggesting that it would provide responses that were current, something ChatGPT is unable to achieve.
Before the advent of ChatGPT, which was made available in late November, Google had been hesitant to introduce its own language-based AI out of concern about the reputational risk of making a premature release.Researchers have shown that the system can spew out false information or rubbish on a potentially huge scale utilising language models similar to Bard or ChatGPT.
In November, Meta, the owner of Facebook, was compelled to remove the release of its own massive language model called Galactica after three days because users immediately began sharing its biassed and inaccurate results on social media.Pichai emphasised that Bard’s responses would “reach a high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness in real world knowledge.”
In order to save computer power and reach a wider audience, Bard would source its responses from a constrained version of its underlying language model, similar to ChatGPT.Google also said that customers would soon see AI-powered improvements in its search engine, which is crucial for its impending battle with Microsoft.
According to Pichai, modern solutions would “distil complex facts and different opinions into easily digestible formats.”Generic AI-enhanced search engines “will deliver structured responses to inquiries and no longer links,” CNRS researcher Thierry Poibeau told AFP.However, Poibeau noted that bots like ChatGPT “can give erroneous responses, which is frustrating for a search engine.”