Google is reportedly getting ready to launch Bard, its own AI language model that will compete with OpenAI’s GPT-3 and ChatGPT. In the past, the company has been hesitant to jump the market on launching its own AI tools because it wanted to be sure they would be helpful and not harmful when it finally did. Last month, it even went so far as to state that Bard was not anywhere near ready for public use, but now it seems as though it magically is.
Our work on Bard is guided by our AI Principles, and we continue to focus on quality and safety. We’re using human feedback and evaluation to improve our systems, and we’ve also built in guardrails, like capping the number of exchanges in a dialogue, to try to keep interactions helpful and on topic.
Google Blog
Recently, Google announced its first foray into generative AI with a tool called “Help me write” in Docs and Gmail. This feature is similar to Canva’s Magic Write and assists users in generating written content. It’s not meant to replace their creativity or originality. Instead, it helps support their writing process by providing assistance with the initial stages of creation. “Help me write” is actually a part of Bard. “Apprentice Bard”, which is it’s full internal code name, was tested internally last month as a part of Google Search.
Surprisingly, some Pixel Superfans (credit: u/mon205, kudos: Android Police) have received an email inviting them to test it out earlier than the general public. The invite itself had a link to a form asking for the user’s email address so that they could participate in the test, with the possibility of being “randomly selected”. While no one has access to Bard just yet, Google is clearly gathering a small pool of interested individuals who can provide feedback.
Despite the excitement around the announcement of Google’s version of the AI revolution, ChatGPT remains the current reigning champion in the market. Microsoft recently jumped the gun and launched it’s Bing AI, possibly in hopes of stealing some of the audience from Google Search, but they have been slow to catch up with ChatGPT’s popularity and simply appeared to be a crazy rogue AI released into the wild too soon.
If you’re interested in trying Bard out, Google has set up a waitlist where you can enter your email addresses and be notified when it becomes available for use. Oh, and this is an odd and small but interesting detail that I’m clearly geeking out about too much, but Bard already has a cool icon that you can add to your Chromebook as a standalone web app by following our simple guide.
We’re starting to open access to Bard, an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. We’re beginning with the U.S. and the U.K., and will expand to more countries and languages over time.
Google Blog
If you have questions about Apprentice Bard or want to learn more about what capabilities it will have, you can check out the built-in a FAQ section on the official website. I know AI could be the end of us all one day, but I’m still excited to see how it stacks up against the competition.
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