Google after talks on releasing an alternative to chatbot ChatGPT from Microsoft-backed firm OpenAI unveiled an experimental conversation artificial intelligence (AI) service called Bard on February 6, 2023.
This newly launched chatbot will initially be opened up to 'trusted testers' before it becomes available to the public, said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in a blogpost.
Pichai had first initiated the conversation on the possible launch of a language model that will be a companion to search during the company's earnings conference call last week. This was also the time when many users were wondering if ChatGPT would replace Google as it made searching for information easier.
Another reason for concern for Google was that Microsoft had recently invested $10 billion in the AI research OpenAI and the company also has plans to add the AI capabilities in Google's competition Bing and other range of software products in Microsoft.
What will Bard do?
Bard will provide detailed answers to prompts by users, much similar to Google search. But this isn't a search space, it is a chatbot, which means that you can have an entire conversation with Bard and the answers to your questions will be provided in the same way. You can just type 'give me some lunch date ideas' and check out the search list.
The only difference between ChatGPT and Bard would be that Bard would be able to share more current information as it draws information from the web to provide high-quality responses. While ChatGPT's knowledge is only limited to 2021 and cannot provide information on current events.
Another distinction, though only for the beginning stage, would be that only few testers will be able to access Bard, but on the other hand ChatGPT is free for all and has already reached 100 million users in the last two months.
How does Bard work?
Bard is an AI powered chatbot that is powered by a large language model called Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) that was developed by Google and released in 2021.
The initial release would be based on a lightweight version of LaMDA as it would need less computing power and at the same time it can be scaled to more users for feedback.
Where can you access Bard?
Currently, Google Bard is not available to the public, it can be accessed by a few testers.
Open for developers
Additionally Google will also allow developers to build on top of their existing AI models. Developers, creators and enterprises can try Generative Language API which will be powered by LaMDA and other language models from March.
The tech giant also plans to create a suite of tools and APIs which can be used by developers to innovate and build more applications with AI.
