Tech giant Google has recently introduced its ChatGPT competitor, “Bard,” to the public for testing. The AI chatbot has been designed to simplify users’ interactions by providing concise responses, leveraging the vast knowledge available on the internet. Here’s what you need to know about Bard:
Key Features
- Simplification: Bard offers easy-to-understand answers to users’ queries.
- Data-driven: The AI chatbot harnesses the power of the internet to formulate responses.
A Word of Caution
Despite its promising capabilities, Bard is still in the nascent stage of testing, making it prone to occasional errors. In an email sent to Google employees, CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the likelihood of missteps:
As more people start to use Bard and test its capabilities, they’ll surprise us. Things will go wrong
Pichai wrote, according to a report in CNBC. Pichai further emphasised the importance of user feedback, stating:
But the user feedback is critical to improving the product and the underlying technology.
Limited Rollout
As of now, Bard is only available to a select group of users in the UK and the US. To experience this new AI chatbot, individuals must join a waitlist and patiently await their turn.
Coming Soon to India
Indian users might be eager to get their hands on Google’s latest innovation, but Bard is not yet available in the country. However, Google has plans to expand its reach, so Indian users can expect to interact with Bard in the near future.
In addition to the previously mentioned features and rollout plans, Google’s Bard has been specifically designed to enhance users’ productivity and spark their curiosity. According to a Google blog post:
You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity. You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post.
A Collaborative Effort
The development and testing of Bard have been a massive collaborative effort within the Google family. In the same email where CEO Sundar Pichai expressed caution about potential errors, he also expressed his gratitude towards the 80,000 Google employees who participated in testing the AI chatbot internally. Pichai wrote:
I’m grateful to the Bard team who has probably spent more time with Bard than anything or anyone else over the past few weeks. Also hugely appreciative of the 80,000 Googlers who have helped test it in the company-wide dogfood.
Building on Years of Research
Pichai highlighted that Bard is a result of years of technical breakthroughs, including Google’s groundbreaking 2017 Transformer research and foundational models such as PalM and BERT. The company’s dedication to ongoing research and development in AI has culminated in the creation of this innovative chatbot.
Despite Google’s extensive internal testing and development efforts, Bard encountered some challenges shortly after its launch. The AI chatbot came under fire for providing inappropriate responses, factual inaccuracies, and other errors.
A notable controversy arose when Reuters reported that Bard had given a factually incorrect answer in its own advertisement. In response to these setbacks, Google took swift action to improve the chatbot’s performance.
Google Employees Step In to Refine Bard
To rectify the issues and enhance Bard’s capabilities, Google called upon its employees to assist in fixing the chatbot’s mistakes and further test its performance. Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s vice president of search, sent an email to employees, urging them to work on Bard and rewrite its responses, as reported by CNBC.
The email also contained a link to a “do’s and don’ts” page, which provided guidelines for employees as they collaborated on refining Bard’s responses. By involving the entire team in the process, Google aimed to ensure that Bard would offer users accurate and reliable information in future interactions.
As Google’s Bard enters the competitive AI chatbot market, it is evident that the technology will continue to evolve with the valuable input of users. Indian users can look forward to the day when they can put Bard to the test and contribute to the growth of this cutting-edge technology.