Google unveils conversational AI service Bard

Search giant, Google has concluded plans to release its own conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) service called Bard.

The coming of Bard is expected to deepen competition within the AI space globally.

Announced yesterday by Google Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai, analysts believe that the coming of Bard is in response to Open AI’s Chat GPT, which has become a global sensation since coming on board in December 2022.

Google said Bard is now open to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.

Recall that last week when the American company released a search trend report, it informed that across the globe and in Nigeria, AI is gaining serious attention, as more people now see it as next revolution in technology advancement.

Pichai explained the company’s earnings call, that AI has been a focus for the company in the last six years, stressing that from presenting Transformers, the grandmother of contemporary languages in 2017 to introducing the state-of-the-art big language model, LaMDA, in 2021, Google has continued to put AI at the core of its efforts.

Speaking more on what brought about Bard, Pichai said: “Two years ago, we unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA for short). We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard.

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.

“Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launch pad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.”

Pichai emphasised that AI is the most profound technology Google is working on today.

“Whether it’s helping doctors detect diseases earlier or enabling people to access information in their own language, AI helps people, businesses, and communities unlock their potential. And it opens up new opportunities that could significantly improve billions of lives.

“That’s why we re-oriented the company around AI six years ago, and why we see it as the most important way we can deliver on our mission: to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” he said.