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Since ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot, was released in December 2020, the technology community expected to see a response from Google. On Monday February 6, 2021, expectations were met and the Californian giant announced the launch of a competitor for ChatGPT: Bard. Equipped with power and intelligence that is intended to be as close as possible to that of people, this experimental service powered by the LaMDA language model is intended to bring search engines to a new level.
A conversational agent connected to the Internet
A major difference between ChatGPT and Bard lies in their respective information sources. As ChatGPT shuts down at the end of 2021, Bard will have direct access to the Internet, allowing it to provide current, high-quality responses to Internet users. This feature will also offer Bard the opportunity to offer comments on news or even simple explanations on complex subjects. To ensure that the answers provided by Bard meet the criteria of quality, security and anchoring in the real world, Google will first give access to its chatbot to a group of trusted testers. A lighter version of the LaMDA model will then be deployed to the general public in a few weeks.
Google puts all its AI technology at the service of Bard
Google’s interest in artificial intelligence is not new. In 2017, the Californian multinational launched Transformer, a technology that initiated the wave of major language models such as GPT-3 from Open AI, support for ChatGPT. Google also acquired DeepMind in 2014, a start-up specializing in deep learning, to improve its AI products. However, it was only two years ago that LaMDA, the language model on which Bard relies, was developed, but without being publicly deployed until now.
ChatGPT, a welcome opposition for Google?
While theAI faces criticism regarding its potential dangers (for example stating incorrect facts), it takes an ever more important place in society. The issues linked to artificial intelligence have never been so highlighted. In this context, competition with ChatGPT represents a good opportunity for Google which can position itself as a leader in the field.
An opportunity to renew itself for Google
The arrival of Bard also represents an excellent opportunity for Google to renew itself. Indeed, the integration of this conversational robot into the search engine will allow the multinational to transform its platform and make it evolve towards a system capable of synthesizing information to provide answers to questions for which there is no not a single correct answer. The launch of Bard by Google is an expected response from the Californian company to the success of ChatGPT. However, this does not mean that Google is in a defensive posture. On the contrary, the Mountain View giant intends to take advantage of the opportunity to renew its search engine and position itself as a leader in the world of technology. It remains to be seen whether the testing phase carried out by experts will meet the optimal quality requirements set by Google.
