Google is opening up its conversational AI service,
Bard
, to some public users starting today.
The company introduced the first
waitlistfor Bard, a ChatGPT
competitor, after internal testing. For now, the beta version of Bard is launching on a dedicated site,
bard.google.com, rather than being
incorporated into Google's search engine and other products.
-
Google said it's opening up access to the English version of the language model to a limited number of users who sign up in the U.S. and U.K., with plans to expand to more users, countries, and languages over
time.
- Bard, a direct interface to a language model developed by Google, can hold back-and-forth conversations and answer questions, the same as ChatGPT.
- Unlike the latter, Bard will generate several drafts of each answer, and users can ask follow-up questions for further information or responses.
- In addition, the service will feature a "Google it" button at the bottom of an answer that directs users to a new tab with answers from Google's search engine.
Zoom out:
- Google described Bard as an "early experiment" that allows users to collaborate and try out the generative AI technology.
- The feedback during the early phases is "critical" to helping improve Bard, which can still dispense "inaccurate or offensive information that doesn't represent Google's views," the company said.
- Bard runs on an "efficient and optimized" version of Google's AI model called LaMDA, short for "Language Model for Dialogue Applications."
-
Bard's chief competitor, Bing AI, is powered by OpenAI's latest
GPT-4 model
. Microsoft's AI-powered Bing chatbot was launched to the public
in February
.
