Google is scrambling to respond to the threat of OpenAI’s ChatGPT by augmenting its search engine with capabilities similar to the AI chatbot. We know Google is currently freaking out about AI chatbot ChatGPT, but a report from CNBC offers new details about how the search giant is apparently marshaling its response, reports The Verge.
Apprentice Bard
According to CNBC, Googlers are currently testing an AI chatbot of their own called “Apprentice Bard,” which offers responses to questions posed using natural language just like ChatGPT. Bard is built using Google’s LaMDA technology, which is itself similar to the GPT-series of AI language models that ChatGPT itself relies on. (Google has used LaMDA in the past to power similar chatbot demos at I/O, like its conversation with Pluto.)
One big advantage Bard reportedly has over ChatGPT is its ability to talk about recent events. As OpenAI warns, ChatGPT has “Limited knowledge of world and events after 2021,” but Bard is more up-to-date, even able to answer questions about Google’s recent layoffs.
CNBC says Google is also testing alternate versions of its home page, with one version replacing the “I’m feeling lucky” button with prompts for potential questions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this design sounds similar to the homepage for ChatGPT, which lists example questions, capabilities, and limitations above a search / dialog box.
Of course, this is all just early reports right now, and there’s no clear idea yet of what form Google’s response to ChatGPT will take. In addition to UI decisions there are also big questions about the validity of AI language models for the purpose of search at all. Google itself outlined some of the problems in paper published back in 2021, which include the tendency of these systems to replicate societal biases and prejudices, and the frequency with which they “hallucinate” data — presenting false information as truth.
