Alphabet-owned Google is reportedly planning to launch an upgraded version of its generative artificial intelligence platform Bard, which aims to compete with Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. Bard, which was launched in February this year, is a conversational AI service that focuses on creating innovative ways to engage with information, including language, images, videos, and audio. Google has opened limited public access to the service for select consumers in the US and the UK.
In an interview on The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast, Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said that the company will be upgrading Bard to its more capable PaLM models, which will bring more capabilities in reasoning, coding, and answering math questions. PaLM is seen as a major advancement in generative AI, as it enables data scientists to train a single model across multiple systems capable of understanding hundreds of languages and generation tasks.
While Bard has not gained as many users as ChatGPT, which was launched last year, Pichai stated that Google is cautious about rolling out the capabilities of Bard to ensure they are effective and frictionless. The current model of Bard comes with various generative AI capabilities, such as giving users tips to achieve their reading goals or writing customized job descriptions.
Generative AI uses machine learning to produce content such as text, images, video, and audio. It can generate novel content in the right context, rather than merely analyzing or acting on existing data. Recent breakthroughs in the field could drastically change the way we approach content creation, according to a report from McKinsey and Company. The global generative AI market is expected to reach $188.62 billion by 2032, growing at an annual rate of more than 36%, from $8.65 billion last year, according to data from The Brainy Insights market research company.
Google said that it is building Bard responsibly, with the human factor in the spotlight, and is taking every step cautiously. Pichai stated that it is clear that generative AI systems are going to be very capable, and that anticipating potential issues and evolving to meet them is crucial. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is the representation of general human cognitive abilities in software. Pichai explained that AI safety is crucial because systems can cause disinformation at scale, and anticipatory measures must be taken.
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