Feb 6 (Reuters) – Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) said on Monday it would launch a chatbot service and more artificial intelligence for its search engine as well as developers, a response to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) in their rivalry to lead a new wave of technology.
The news follows rapid public adoption of ChatGPT, a Microsoft-backed OpenAI competitor chatbot that produces human prose on command and which some say will disrupt the way consumers search for information online. , the key to Google’s business.
In a blog post, Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said his company was opening a conversational AI service called Bard to test user feedback, followed by a public release in the coming weeks. He also said Google plans to add artificial intelligence features to its search engine that synthesize material for complex queries, like whether it’s easier to learn guitar or piano.
Pichai said of the chatbot, “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of global knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our ‘AI.
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For its part, Microsoft informs the media on Tuesday of the evolution of its own project with its CEO Satya Nadella, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Behind Google’s Bard is LaMDA, Google’s AI that generated text with such skill that a company engineer called it sensitive, a claim the tech giant and scientists have largely dismissed. .
How Google aims to differentiate Bard from ChatGPT was unclear. Pichai said the new service relies on information from the Internet; ChatGPT knowledge is up to date in 2021.
In a demo of the service, Bard as its rival chatbot invites users to give it a prompt while warning that its response may be inappropriate or inaccurate. He then provided three answers to a question about discoveries from a space telescope, the demo showed.
Google relies on a version of LaMDA that requires less computing power so it can serve more users and improve based on their feedback, Pichai said.
ChatGPT has occasionally turned away users due to explosive growth, with UBS analysts reporting it had 57 million unique visitors in December, potentially overtaking TikTok in adoption.
Google, meanwhile, plans to deliver technology tools, powered first by LaMDA and later by other AIs, to creators and businesses starting next month, Pichai said.
Google’s search update, the timing of which it did not reveal, reflects how the company is beefing up its service while Microsoft is doing the same for Bing, bringing OpenAI capabilities into it.
Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; edited by Jonathan Oatis
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