Google Opens Bard AI Chatbot to US and UK Users in Bid to Rival Bing
Google launches a limited rollout of its conversational AI, Bard, allowing US and UK users to test the chatbot as it races to catch up with Microsoft's AI-enhanced Bing.
Google opens early access to Bard, its ChatGPT-rivalling chatbot, to users in the US and UK through a waiting list. Powered by Google's LaMDA large language model, Bard allows people to ask questions using natural language instead of traditional search keywords. The tech giant frames this launch as an experimental collaboration tool that predicts and generates text one word at a time based on its training data from the internet.
This release comes weeks after Microsoft unleashes its GPT-4-powered Bing chatbot to the public, a move that previously triggered a "code red" emergency at Google. CEO Sundar Pichai urges employees to focus on building an AI search assistant to counter Microsoft's sudden advantage. Although Google teases Bard last month with mixed results, the company now feels confident enough to begin a cautious mainstream rollout.
As Google enters the generative AI chatbot race, competitors continue to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Microsoft adds image-generating capabilities to its Bing bot by leveraging the multi-modal features of OpenAI's latest GPT-4 model. At the same time, Adobe introduces Firefly, a new suite of generative AI tools designed specifically to help users create digital art.