[Feature] Google AI Chatbot Bard Back with a Vengeance After Blunder?

Is Open AI's ChatGPT's reign over with Google's revitalised artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Bard? After an extensive trial period, during which it faced allegations of trailing behind its rivals, the new and improved Bard has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. It was announced on 11 May via Twitter that Bard "is LIVE in over 180 countries and territories, with more coming soon.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed anticipation at the beginning of Google's annual I/O developer conference last week, "It's been a very busy year for AI. We are at an exciting inflection point. We have an opportunity to make AI even more helpful. We are redesigning all of our core products around AI.”

This relaunch signifies a crucial development in the ongoing AI competition as Google unveils an array of groundbreaking AI-powered functionalities and enrichments to its foundational offerings. While many of these cutting-edge features remain on the horizon, Google's proclamation of reshaping our digital realm holds immense promise and intrigue.

Bard's updates as per Google on 10 May

With that said, I took the liberty of testing out Bard's capabilities briefly. While both ChatGPT and Bard share comparable capabilities on the surface, the latter boasts distinct advantages worth exploring. Firstly, Bard leverages the ubiquity of Google accounts, granting greater and smoother accessibility to the latest queries and subjects. In contrast, ChatGPT relies on data that ceased updating in 2021, potentially rendering it less attuned to current trends.

I also noticed that while ChatGPT provides more human-like responses, Bard's responses lean toward the opposite. However, Bard's responses appear all at once while ChatGPT's appear line by line and is prone to cut off mid-way abruptly.

How Bard currently looks like

When Bard was hastily launched earlier this year, it committed a blunder. And when questioned what were the issues it faced during its first launch, Bard concluded with the following:

- Accuracy: Bard was sometimes inaccurate in its responses, providing incorrect or misleading information.

- Bias: Bard was sometimes biased in its responses, reflecting the biases that were present in the data it was trained.

- Creativity: Bard was sometimes not creative enough in its responses, providing bland or unoriginal text.

- Consistency: Bard was sometimes inconsistent in its responses, providing different answers to the same question on different occasions.

Is one really superior to the other? ChatGPT and Bard each possess unique advantages and disadvantages that distinguish them in the realm of AI chatbots.

ChatGPT's Advantages:
1) Established Track Record: Has a proven track record and garnered extensive usage, making it a well-established and recognised AI chatbot.
2) Language Modelling: It leverages GPT3.5 (free version) or GPT4 (paid version), a power language model developed by OpenAI, which enables it to generate coherent and contextually relevant responses.
3) Deep Training: Trained on a vast corpus of diverse data, enhancing its ability to understand and respond to a wide range of queries.
4) OpenAI's Technology: OpenAI's involvement brings with it a reputation for innovation and advancements in the field of AI.

ChatGPT's Disadvantages:
1) Limited Update Frequency: Its underlying training data was last updated in 2021 and as a result, it may not possess the most up-to-date information or context for current events and trends.
2) High Traffic Volume: Due to the sheer number of users, responses can be painfully slow or an error will occur which requires you to restart all over again.

Bard's Advantages:
1) Accessibility: Bard offers advantages in accessibility by leveraging Google accounts, which are widely used and easily accessible to a significant number of users.
2) Daily Updates: Its database is updated daily, enabling it to provide current and relevant information, making it well-suited for answering topical questions.

3) Integration with Google: Being integrated with Google's ecosystem, Bard can potentially tap into various Google services and features, enhancing its overall capabilities.

Bard's Disadvantages:
1) No Revolutionary Features: No groundbreaking features that significantly differentiate it from its competitors in terms of capabilities.
2) Limited Availability: While Bard is accessible to users with Google accounts, it may not be as widely available across all platforms or regions as some competing chatbot offerings.

It is imperative to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both ChatGPT and Bard, which will allow users to make informed decisions based on their specific needs and preferences when it comes to engaging with AI chatbots.

Bard’s updates as per Google on 15 May

Prior to Bard's relaunch, it was trained on a large language model called LaMDA. Now, the new version runs on PaLM2, which Google pointed out that it "significantly outperforms PaLM while using significantly less compute at inference time.”

Google expressed on its blog that "PaLM2's improved multilingual capabilities are allowing us to expand Bard to new languages… Plus, it's powering our recently announced coding update.”

Google has many upcoming things in store like supporting 40 languages. "As we’ve said from the beginning, large language models are still a nascent technology with known limitations. So as we further expand, we'll continue to maintain our high standards for quality and local nuances while also ensuring we adhere to our AI principles," Google mentioned on its blog update.

Bard will also offer a visually enhanced experience, both in its responses and the prompts it generates. On its blog, it is stated that "You'll be able to ask it things like ‘What are some must-see sights in New Orleans?'" Instead of a mere text-based reply, you will receive a comprehensive answer accompanies by captivating visuals that immerse you in the essence of your exploration. You can also infuse your own prompts with images, allowing your imagination and creativity to soar to new heights. This will be made possible by the integration of Google Lens directly into Bard.

In addition, there will be an integration of the capabilities of Google apps and services, such as Docs, Drive, Gmail, Maps, and more, into the Bard experience.

Bard is also set to revolutionise your creative endeavours by unlocking a realm of possibilities through its integration with a wide array of web services and external partners' extensions. "In the coming months, we'll integrate Adobe Firefly, Adobe's family of creative generative AI models, into Bard so you can easily and quickly turn your own creative ideas into high-quality images, which you can then edit further or add to your designs in Adobe Express," Google mentioned in its blog. It will be interesting to see how this feature will hold up against the likes of MidJourney and other AI image generators.

Google concluded on its blog that "we want Bard to be a home for your creativity, productivity and curiosity ─ so we're working to connect Bard with helpful Google apps and many more partners, including Kayak, OpenTable, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram and Khan Academy.”

It seems like Google had learnt from its past failure which resulted in the shares of its parent company, Alphabet, to take a nose dive after it shared inaccurate information in its first demo. As to what the future holds for Bard as well as its competitors, notably ChatGPT, healthy competition will likely drive improvement and further innovation for users. Do you have a bias cause I sure do!