Google Updates Bard to Challenge OpenAI: Traffic Only 13% of ChatGPT's

Google Updates Bard to Challenge OpenAI: Traffic Only 13% of ChatGPT’s

Google has reportedly rolled out a series of updates to its generative artificial intelligence (AI) robot, Bard, today, equipping it with fact-checking capabilities and the ability to analyze users’ Google personal data to catch up with its competitor, ChatGPT.

Last year, the Microsoft-backed AI startup OpenAI shook the tech industry with the release of the generative chatbot, ChatGPT, sparking an AI technology arms race.

ChatGPT quickly became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history and is now among the top 30 websites worldwide.

However, Google’s Bard didn’t take off at the same pace. Data from website analytics company Similarweb shows that in August of this year, Bard had 183 million visits, only 13% of the traffic ChatGPT received.

To make strides in the rapidly evolving field of AI, Google has once again upgraded Bard today, introducing three major new features. First is Bard Extensions, which allows users to import data from other Google products.

For instance, users can ask Bard to search for their files in Google Drive or provide a summary of their Gmail inbox. Google’s Senior Director of Product Management, Jack Krawczyk, stated that currently, Bard users can only access information from Google apps, but Google is working with external companies to connect their applications to Bard in the future.

Another new feature of Bard aims to address a concern people have about generative AI: AI hallucinations. In recent months, large language models like ChatGPT have garnered global attention for their astonishing “smartness” but have occasionally produced fictitious information with unwavering confidence. This phenomenon is referred to as “AI hallucination.”

With this update, users will be able to see which parts of Bard’s answers differ from Google search results and which parts are the same. Krawczyk explained, “We will present Bard in a less overly confident manner, with the goal of building trust with users by making Bard accountable.”

The third new feature allows users to invite others to join Bard conversations. By simply sending a public link, others can join the Bard conversation.

Google also emphasizes that if users connect Bard with personal data, this information will not be viewed by human reviewers, used for ad targeting, or incorporated into the Bard model.

Krawczyk concluded, “Based on feedback, we’ve applied cutting-edge reinforcement learning techniques to train the Bard model to be more intuitive and imaginative. Today, whether you want to collaborate on something creative, start in one language and continue in over 40 languages, or seek in-depth coding assistance, Bard can respond with higher quality and accuracy.”