Google Introduces BARD to Rival ChatGPT and Bing Chat – Check out How to Access Google BARD
Key Highlights:
- Google has recently announced the launch of its AI-powered chatbot, BARD, which is poised to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing Chat in the rapidly evolving chatbot market.
- As a testament to Google’s commitment to innovation, BARD aims to enhance productivity, creativity, and curiosity while addressing the pressing concerns of potential biases and misinformation.
- Initially available to users in the United States and the United Kingdom, Google plans to extend BARD’s reach to a wider range of countries and languages in the near future.
BARD: Google’s Answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing Chat
In a bid to solidify its presence in the AI chatbot space, Google unveiled BARD, an AI chatbot designed to offer stiff competition to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s chatbot integrated within the Bing search engine.
BARD has been described as an early AI experiment by Google, with the primary objective of enhancing productivity, fostering curiosity, and accelerating the generation of ideas.
Users can benefit from BARD’s capabilities by obtaining tips, explanations, or creative assistance for tasks such as outlining blog posts. Google’s foray into the AI chatbot arena is a strategic move aimed at maintaining its dominance in the search engine market while adopting innovative AI technology.
Delving Deeper into BARD’s Technical Aspects
BARD is driven by a research large language model (LLM) which serves as a lightweight and optimized variant of Google’s LaMDA. As BARD continues to evolve, it will be equipped with increasingly advanced models.
As more people engage with LLMs, these models become better at predicting helpful responses. BARD is strategically designed to complement Google Search, enabling users to verify its responses or explore sources across the web.
Interestingly, BARD operates as a standalone webpage, featuring a singular question box, rather than being integrated into Google’s search engine. This approach allows Google to embrace new AI technology while preserving the profitability of its search engine business.
Addressing Unpredictability Concerns with a Cautious Rollout
Given the concerns surrounding unpredictable and occasionally unreliable chatbot technology, as evidenced by some competitors, Google has adopted a cautious approach to BARD’s release. The company acknowledges that LLMs can sometimes produce biased, misleading, or even false information.
To address these issues, Google allows users to choose from multiple drafts of BARD’s response. Furthermore, users can collaborate with BARD by asking follow-up questions or requesting alternative answers.
Google’s AI Ambitions and the Race to Ship AI Products
With OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s introduction of chatbot technology in Bing, Google has prioritized AI as its central focus. Google’s internal teams, including AI safety researchers, are working in tandem to expedite approval for a variety of new AI products.
BARD’s development is guided by Google’s AI Principles, with an emphasis on quality and safety. By leveraging human feedback and evaluation, Google aims to improve its systems.
The company has also implemented guardrails, such as limiting the number of exchanges in a dialogue, to ensure interactions remain helpful and on-topic.
A Long Journey: BARD’s Development Since 2015
The technology underpinning BARD has been in development at Google since 2015.
However, similar to OpenAI and Microsoft’s chatbots, BARD has not been released to a broader audience due to concerns regarding the generation of untrustworthy information and potential biases against certain groups.
Google acknowledges these issues and is dedicated to bringing BARD to market in a responsible manner.
How to Access Google BARD
Users interested in trying BARD can sign up at bard.google.com. Although initially rolling out in the US and UK, Google has plans to expand its availability to more countries and languages over time.
Those eager to access BARD outside of these regions can potentially use a VPN to bypass the limited rollout.
To sign up for BARD, users are required to have a Gmail address. It is important to note that Google Workspace email accounts are not currently accepted. This requirement ensures that Google can manage access and maintain a level of control over the initial user base during the rollout phase.
Final Thoughts
BARD represents Google’s latest foray into the AI chatbot market, offering a competitive alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing Chat.
With its focus on enhancing productivity, creativity, and curiosity, BARD aims to provide users with valuable assistance across various tasks.
As Google carefully navigates concerns surrounding biases and misinformation, the company is set to expand BARD’s availability to a wider audience, making it an AI chatbot to watch in the coming months.
