https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64562672
Before the citizens of the information technology world had time to discuss the new chat bot ChatGPT, which had already been dubbed the "Google killer", a competitor launched its own bot Bard, also based on the principle of artificial intelligence (AI). While the Bard is still being tested by a group of testers, the company plans to introduce it to the general public in the coming weeks.
Bard is based on Google's already existing large language platform called Lamda, which is said to be so human-like in its responses that it seems reasonable. In addition to the new chatbot, the tech giant is launching new AI tools to help its existing search engines.
The task of AI-based chatbots is to search for information and respond to user requests. One of the most famous examples of such chatbots is ChatGPT. As BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman writes, whatever you ask this chatbot to write a song in the style of your favorite artist, do history homework, prepare a speech, or even come up with the right programming code - ChatGPT can get the job done, and do it in a very convincing manner.
However, this technology is still in its infancy. The chatbot uses only the information that is posted on the Internet, and although there is more than enough of it, the artificial intelligence is not yet able to distinguish trustworthy facts from fakes and takes everything at face value. Worse, he himself gives out the processed information as an indisputable fact, and this is precisely where the great danger lies.
Well, why is Bard better?
"Bard will combine the world's vast knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models," Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post. He emphasizes that he would like to see Google's AI services "brave and responsible", but does not go into detail about what could prevent the Bard chatbot from spreading potentially inaccurate and malicious content on the network. It is planned that at first the new platform will use a simplified version of Lamda, which does not require large capacities, so that the maximum number of people can immediately use it.
Google hastened to make its move before its competitor Microsoft announced the integration of the ChatGPT chat bot with the Bing search engine. To do this, Microsoft will make a multi-billion dollar investment in the company behind this OpenAI bot. At the same time, Microsoft promises that the chatbot built into Bing will be even more powerful than ChatGPT - it will give users more accurate answers and even help them with purchases.
Up to this point, Microsoft has been in no hurry to profit from its ChatGPT, and this chatbot is becoming free for users. However, recently OpenAI has introduced a subscription to an extended range of services in addition to free ones. However, according to experts, the creators of chatbots based on artificial intelligence are betting on the multibillion-dollar sector of Internet search, since potentially new chatbots can immediately answer the right question, instead of issuing whole sheets of pages with links.
So, Sundar Pichai points out that today Google users are asking much more sophisticated questions. For example, if earlier they could be interested in how many keys a piano has, now they want to know how much more difficult it is to master this instrument than a guitar. That is, it is no longer a matter of simple facts. "That's when AI can come in handy, synthesizing ideas to answer questions that don't have a clear answer," Pichai writes.
Does it follow from all this that in the near future a battle of chatbots gifted with machine intelligence will unfold before our eyes, and what do they themselves think about this?
When asked which of them is better, ChatGPT diplomatically replied that this was not the case. "I have neither the ability nor the desire to harm other companies, including Google," the bot emphasized. It is not yet known whether his point of view (if he has one, of course) will change after a multi-million dollar injection into his parent company.
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