According to a report from CNBC this week, Google has been working on an AI chatbot that’s set to potentially integrate into Google Search or other future public product launches. Apparently, Google employees are being asked to test a new search page design that incorporates human-like question-and-answer format results on top of the already existing Knowledge Graph links.
Recently, the company went on “red alert” when ChatGPT – a smart AI chatbot that’s taken the world by storm – was said to be a threat to the future of Google’s dominant Search business. The bot technologies in question are being dubbed “Atlas” (heh, Cloud Atlas, anyone?) and “Apprentice Bard”, and replace a previous internal effort called Meena.
Those familiar with Apprentice Bard state that it looks similar to ChatGPT insomuch that you can type a question into a dialogue box and get a plain and simple answer. One major difference between Bard and ChatGPT, however, is that the latter is intentionally outdated in its understanding of occurrences and knowledge by a few years, while the former and upcoming competitor by Google is said to be more on the up and up of recent events.
The jury is still out on whether or not LaMDA – the technology that drives Apprentice Bard – is actually sentient or not, and while I do believe reports that state the hysteria surrounding this possibility are blown out of proportion, I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to be concerned by these claims. However, with Google scrambling to create and implement a response to ChatGPT, I don’t think it’s beyond working too quickly to implement the necessary checks and balances, despite its AI ethics efforts. CNBC was told that Googlers who have tested the technology have noticed its responses becoming more advanced over the past few weeks (something that’s natural with time and usage as the bot learns).
“We have long been focused on developing and deploying AI to improve people’s lives,” a Google spokesperson said. “We believe that AI is foundational and transformative technology that is incredibly useful for individuals, businesses and communities, and as our AI Principles outline, we need to consider the broader societal impacts these innovations can have. We continue to test our AI technology internally to make sure it’s helpful and safe, and we look forward to sharing more experiences externally soon.”
CNBC
A design that’s currently being tested on Google Search with Apprentice Bard implementation (CNBC has had eyes on this but did not make it available) sees a small gray bubble directly underneath the search bar with more human-like answers followed by a handful of related follow-up questions. Below that are your standard blue links for results.
A Google spokesperson told the outlet in response to this report that the tech giant has “long been focused on developing and deploying AI to improve people’s lives” and that it believes AI is a “foundational and transformative technology that is incredibly useful for individuals, businesses, and communities.”
Lastly, it made sure to remind everyone that it will continue to be very cautious about how it uses and releases this technology to maintain safe and helpful experiences across the industry. AI is an extremely dangerous but promising societal advancement, and if we’re not careful in playing with fire, we will get burnt, so for everyone’s sake, I hope Google is right.
