Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, is reportedly testing new artificial intelligence-powered chat products that are likely to impact its future public product launches. The company is working on a code red project under its cloud unit, called “Atlas”, which is designed to respond to ChatGPT, the large language chatbot that was launched late last year by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based start-up backed by Microsoft.
Google is testing two new AI-powered chat products, including a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard”, and an alternate search page with a question-and-answer format. Apprentice Bard uses Google’s conversation technology LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), and is designed to provide employees with detailed answers to questions in a similar manner to ChatGPT. On the other hand, the alternate search page is intended to provide more human-like responses, as it suggests several follow-up questions related to the initial question, and includes links and headlines along with typical search results.
Google’s AI chief, Jeff Dean, and CEO Sundar Pichai have recently hinted that the company may launch similar products to the public later this year. The company has a long history of pioneering AI and is widely regarded as a leader in the field, with its prime business being web search. However, the sudden popularity of ChatGPT has raised concerns among Google employees about the company’s competitive edge in AI, leading to more employee feedback being sought on the current efforts underway.
Apprentice Bard has replaced Meena, a previous version of a smart chatbot that was discontinued after it launched internally. The new chatbot has seen its responses become more advanced in recent weeks, and has been prioritized over other projects due to the impact of ChatGPT.
The company has also been testing LaMDA against ChatGPT, comparing the performance of both chatbots in side-by-side comparisons. One of the examples showed that while LaMDA was able to answer the question of whether ChatGPT and AlphaCode, a coding engine owned by Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind, were going to replace programmers, it couldn’t match ChatGPT in terms of creativity and artistry.
Google has stated that AI is a foundational and transformative technology that can have a significant impact on individuals, businesses, and communities, and that it is committed to making sure that its AI technology is helpful and safe before releasing it externally. The company has also emphasized that it is focused on developing and deploying AI to improve people’s lives, and that it is considering the broader societal impacts these innovations can have.
