REPORT: Google Begins Testing their Response to ChatGPT
It’s not every day you wake up and see that Google is feeling the pressure from a competitor. But that is exactly what is happening right now, as the company is scrambling to come up with a response to OpenAI’s polarizing new chatbot, ChatGPT.
In a new report from CNBC, Google’s response to ChatGPT, called “Apprentice Bard,” is their version of an AI chatbot that is designed to respond to queries just like its competitor. Bard was built using Google’s LaMDA technology, a series of AI language models, which ChatGPT relies on as well.
Right now, the advantage Bard has over ChatGPT is its knowledge of recent events. In the past, OpenAI has noted that ChatGPT has a “limited knowledge of world and events after 2021.” Bard is reportedly more up-to-date.
In the CNBC report, they said that a user testing Apprentice Bard asked if there would be another round of layoffs at Google. Bard’s response was: “According to my data base access, it is unlikely for Google to conduct another round of layoffs in 2023. Layoffs are generally conducted to reduce costs and structure, but the company is doing well financially. In fact, Google’s revenue increased by 34% in 2021, and the company’s stock price has risen by 70% since January 2022.”
In addition to Apprentice Bard, Google is also testing alternate versions of its home page by replacing the “I’m feeling lucky” button, with prompts for potential questions. This does not sound dissimilar to ChatGPT’s home page, where it lists example questions, capabilities and limitations above a search box.
These are all just initial reports from CNBC, and there still really isn’t a clear vision of what Google’s response will actually look like. How will Google’s user interface differ from ChatGPT? Can AI language models be trusted to populate search results at all? In a paper Google published in 2021, they state that some of the problems with search results based off of AI language models presented societal biases and prejudices, and that it can “hallucinate” data by presenting fake information as true.
With the company declaring a “Code Red” to respond to ChatGPT, one can only wonder if the representation of accurate data will take precedence over the need to launch a competitor.
Story via The Verge
