Artificial intelligence: Google launches Bard, its competitor to ChatGPT
From Google to Microsoft, internet companies are investing heavily to develop their own artificial intelligence (AI) on the internet, the new playground of a booming sector.
AFP - FABRICE COFFRINI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Google announced on Monday February 6 the launch in the test phase of its conversational robot, called Bard, a few months after that of ChatGPT, the software of the American startup OpenAI which unleashes passions.
Advertisement
Read more
ChatGPT has the answer to everything.
AI, in which Microsoft has just invested billions, has become a
social phenomenon
.
Its users use this system to write scenarios or press articles.
Students jumped at the chance to ask ChatGPT to do their homework for them.
And Google decided to counterattack with its own robot, Bard.
"
Bard's ambition is to combine the breadth of knowledge in the world with the power, intelligence and creativity of our great language models
," said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, parent company of Google, quoted in a statement.
► To read also: Media: what generative artificial intelligence can bring
The software “
leverages information from the web to deliver up-to-date, high-quality answers
,” the manager said, saying “
Bard can be a breeding ground for creativity and a launching pad for curiosity.
” .
Explaining NASA Discoveries to a 9-Year-Old
The chatbot is able to “
explain the latest NASA discoveries from the James Webb telescope to a 9-year-old child, or tell you about the best strikers in current football, then offer you specific training to improve you
” .
Bard relies on LaMDA, a computer program designed by Google to generate conversation robots (chatbots), the first version of which was unveiled by the Mountain View (California) group in 2021. LaMDA was talked about in June 2022 when a Google engineer, Blake Lemoine, had claimed that artificial intelligence programs were becoming “
conscious
”.
An opinion much criticized in the middle, which considered it absurd or, at best, premature.
The ChatGPT Revolution
While artificial intelligence has been pervasive in the tech industry and beyond for years, if not decades, the release of ChatGPT in November changed the general public's view of its capabilities.
It is not the first software of its kind, but it surprised by the quality of its responses, whether writing a text on a given topic, explaining a complex subject in an intelligible way, or even create a poem or the lyrics to a song.
► To read also:
ChatGPT artificial intelligence is panicking the world of new technologies
Already
a partner of Open AI
, the creator of ChatGPT, Microsoft announced at the end of January that it would invest “
several billion dollars
” to extend their collaboration, after having made two investments in 2019 and 2021. Microsoft, Google, but also Meta and Amazon are among the most important players in artificial intelligence, a technology to which they devote colossal investments.
According to several American media, the arrival of ChatGPT has shaken up Google, which already had LaMDA but which has since worked hard to offer, within tight deadlines, a product similar to the OpenAI conversational robot.
Between fascination and concern
Google said on Monday it was launching Bard with a stripped-down version of LaMDA, "
requiring less computing power
" to enable use by "
more users
" and "
to process a higher volume of feedback.
" .
For now, the use of the software will be limited to "
trusted testers, before making it more widely available in the coming weeks
," said Sundar Pichai.
This testing phase aims in particular to "
ensure that Bard's answers reach a high level in terms of quality, security and anchoring in real-world information
", according to him.
Like ChatGPT, conversational robots fascinate as much as they worry, between tools likely to save humans tedious tasks and a threat to many jobs whose usefulness they could question.
(
With
AFP)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Google
Facebook
New technologies
Knowledge Science