Chatbots are all the rage since Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year. Now other tech giants are rolling out their own contributions to the artificial intelligence space, with Google owner Alphabet on Tuesday announcing the launch of a chatbot service called Bard.
"We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post. "And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks."
The announcement marks the latest salvo in a brewing Silicon Valley rivalry over the future of artificial intelligence, a technology with potentially widespread implications for computing, information-sharing, and work.
Bard combines information on the web with what are called "large language models" to generate "fresh, high-quality responses" to users, according to Google.
The version that will soon be available to the public, however, won't have the full computing power of Google's LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). Instead, users will test a "lightweight" version designed to allow for easier feedback.
The company also said that it plans to incorporate AI features into its search engine, so that users can ask more complex questions in their search bar.
Microsoft on Tuesday is expected to make a similar announcement about integrating ChatGPT with its Bing search engine. The company is holding a surprise news event at 1 p.m. ET just days after expanding its partnership with OpenAI through a new “multiyear, multibillion dollar investment.”
While the competitive pressure is on, Pichai noted that Google is trying to be "responsible" as it develops this powerful technology.
"Whether it’s applying AI to radically transform our own products or making these powerful tools available to others, we’ll continue to be bold with innovation and responsible in our approach," he wrote.
Apple has taken down an app that uses crowdsourcing to flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents after coming under pressure from the Trump administration.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
OpenAI could now be the world’s most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker. Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company’s valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI’s remarkable trajectory from its start as a nonprofit research lab in 2015.
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Electronic Arts, the video game maker of “Madden NFL,” “The Sims,” and other popular titles, is being acquired and taken private for about $52.5 billion in what could become the largest-ever buyout funded by private-equity firms.
