ChatGPT, the chatbot developed by OpenAI and introduced in November 2022, has been taking the internet by storm, and a single thought might have come to your mind.

I was definitely wondering. The first action I take now when I require answers is turning to ChatGPT and then trying a google search IF I am not satisfied with the bot’s replies. However, a tech giant is a tech giant for a reason, and Google has, not unsurprisingly, come up with an answer.

Enter … ** theatre sounds and flashes **

Oops sorry, wrong bard.

Google Bard

Google Bard was announced on Feb 06th, 2023. It is powered on next-generation AI and based on one of its own language models, LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), as well as a much lighter version of LaMDA so it will be pretty scalable. This bot will be integrated into Google search and it will be given access to the web so it can keep its answers up to date. Google hasn’t revealed much about Bard yet but has promised to release it in the upcoming weeks, although there is no mention of the exact dates. Currently, it’s only accessible to a selected set of testers.

Some of the example use cases provided by Google are;

🔵 Simplifying complex topics

🔵 Plan a friend’s baby shower

🔵 Compare two Oscar-nominated movies

🔵 Get lunch ideas based on what’s in your fridge

And asking questions like;

🔵 What are the best constellations to look out for when star gazing

🔵 Is piano or guitar easier to learn and how much practice does each need

Google has entered the public race rather clumsily. It has already made a blunder, so the going might be tough.

What are the other tech giants doing?

Microsoft

Microsoft seems to have started early in the race. Even though Google launched its large language model “LaMDA” in 2021, it did not specifically launch a chatbot based on it. Microsoft, however, invested in OpenAI in 2019 and 2021 and serves as OpenAI’s cloud computing service provider with Microsoft Azure. Then, on Jan 23rd of 2023, Microsoft announced an investment with OpenAI, of around $10 billion.

Soon after Google announced its Google Bard, on Feb 07th of 2023, Microsoft announced that it is launching an “AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser”. The models that the OpenAI trained using Azure are now being fine-tuned for use in Bing. Microsoft says that “the new Bing is running on a new, next-generation OpenAI large language model”, and that it is powered by ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 and is more accurate and faster. Microsoft also hints at integrating the ChatGPT-like AI into its other tools such as Word, Powerpoint, etc.

Simply put, Microsoft’s new Bing will give you a search + browsing + chat all-in-one experience.

To use it, you can type into the search box as seen in the image above, OR you can also click the new ‘Chat’ option on the top menu.

Some of the example use cases provided by Microsoft are;

🔵 Planning trips

🔵 Creating content

🔵 Write emails

🔵 Make quizzes

🔵 Prepare for a job interview

And ask questions like

🔵 I like electronic music and want to go to my first festival this year. Do you have any recommendations or tips for me?

Quick Comparison - ChatGPT vs Google Bard vs the new AI Bing

Meta

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram, seems to be taking a rather quiet, sort of observational approach to this AI conversational chatbot race. The reason behind this could be the company’s couple of failed efforts previously in this area.

Meta released an AI chatbot called Blenderbot in August 2022.

This bot is trained on a data set that has garnered information from all over the internet, including people’s different opinions. Unfortunately, from the day it was released to today, it’s only available in the US. Even on VPNs, it cannot be accessed unless from the US. It also has seen a decline in users, probably because of its controversial replies to queries.

Then Meta launched Galactica, an open-sourced large language model designed for a specific use case: science, such as summarizing scientific articles, solving math problems, etc. But it was taken down within just 3 days after its release as it was subjected to huge criticism from its users, due to Galactica not being able to tell “fact from fiction” and inaccurate responses.

However, Zuckerberg still hopes to be a leader in generative AI, as revealed in a conference call recently, and we might see a different approach to that of Microsoft’s or Google’s chatbot integration into the browser search.

Opera

Opera browser is also adding a feature called “shorten” - a ChatGPT-based tool to summarize web pages and articles, to its sidebar. Apparently, this is only a part of a larger plan to integrate more AI tools into the browser.

Baidu

Hang on, what in the world is Baidu?

Baidu Inc. is a Chinese company and is an internet search provider. You could say that it is the Chinese version of Google. It’s also one of the largest AI companies in the world.

Along with the Bard, and Bing announcements, Baidu revealed that they are also making a chatbot similar to ChatGPT and it will be released somewhere in March. This revelation even made the company’s shares jump by 15%!

The bot’s name is Ernie.

Named after Sesame street’s Ernie? Sadly, no, it stands for “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration” - and it’s the name of the language model. Like its name, Baidu says that it’s integrated with “extensive knowledge” and “massive data”.

Seems like we are heading into an exciting year. That’s all, folks! If you want to know more about how to utilize conversational AI chatbots like ChatGPT to your project please reach out to us here and we can have a conversation.

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