Read more
ChatGPT rival: Google launches Bard chatbot in US and UK
Google launched its AI chatbot, Bard, in the US and UK to compete with Microsoft-backed ChatGPT.
Photo: iStock, edited with OpenAI and Google logos.
Google launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to rival ChatGPT. Bard was first announced in February and will be incorporated into Google Search in due course.
When Bard was first announced, Google and Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai, said Bard “seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models”.
Google Bard, a ChatGPT Rival
Bard was initially tested with 80 000 Google employees and will be now be rolled out to the public in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Other countries will be granted access as the trial continues.
What sets it apart from ChatGPT
In its current iteration, the chatbot can write computer code, articles and poems; even academic essays, similar to OpenAi’s chatbot.
However, ChatGPT is limited to a data set leading up to September 2021, Bard can access information in real-time; primarily through Google Search.
Google claims the responses provided by part will be consistent with search results. If this is the case, Bard might not suffer the hallucination saga ChatGPT brought on.
The Bard AI chatbot is powered by a lightweight version of the Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA).
Microsoft’s Bing GPT
Google said it will be proceeding cautiously with the launch, and took a jab at Microsoft for making the ChatGPT-backed version of Bing available too early.
When it was initially added, Microsoft said the new Bing version was “even faster, more accurate and more capable” than ChatGPT and GPT3.5.
In addition, Microsoft also announced that it would develop a “proprietary way of working with the OpenAI model that allows us to best leverage its power”.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is trying to stay ahead of the curve. The artificial intelligence research laboratory recently released GPT-4 to its paid members.
OpenAI’s GPT-4
The latest version is capable of carrying out complex instructions and has, according to OpenAI, more advanced reasoning capabilities.
It took the GPT-4 model for a spin on the day it was launched and asked it how it would describe itself.
The chatbot suggested I use this as a headline: OpenAI Unveils Groundbreaking GPT-4: A New Era in Artificial Intelligence, and said:
“Building on the success of its predecessor, GPT-3, this cutting-edge AI system takes natural language processing (NLP) and understanding to unparalleled heights.”
