NEW YORK: Alphabet Inc’s Google has announced significant upgrades to its generative artificial intelligence, Bard, enabling it to fact-check responses and analyze users’ personal Google data. This move comes as Google seeks to remain competitive with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has gained immense popularity in the chatbot landscape.
ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, made waves when it was introduced last year, sparking a fierce competition among tech giants to offer consumers access to generative AI technology. It quickly became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history and currently ranks among the top 30 websites globally.
However, Bard has not achieved the same level of success. In August, it received 183 million visits, accounting for only 13% of ChatGPT’s traffic, according to Similarweb, a website analytics firm.
Google Rolling Out Bard Extensions
To stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, Google is rolling out Bard Extensions, a new feature that allows users to import data from other Google products. For instance, users can request Bard to search their files in Google Drive or provide a summary of their Gmail inbox. Although initially limited to Google apps, Google is actively collaborating with external companies to expand Bard’s connectivity to other applications in the future, according to Jack Krawczyk, Google’s senior product director.
Addressing a persistent issue in generative AI, Google has introduced a feature in Bard to combat inaccurate responses, often referred to as “hallucinations.” Users will now have the ability to identify which parts of Bard’s responses differ from or align with Google search results. Krawczyk explained that this transparency aims to build user trust in generative AI by holding Bard accountable.
A third significant feature enhancement in Bard enables users to invite others into Bard conversations, expanding its collaborative capabilities. With these updates, Google aims to revitalize Bard’s presence in the AI chatbot arena and provide users with an improved and more reliable generative AI experience.
