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Tag: Bard

  • It’s Official: Bing Is Cool, and Google Search Is In Trouble

    It’s Official: Bing Is Cool, and Google Search Is In Trouble

    Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing represents an existential threat to Google’s search, with early reports suggesting Google may be in serious trouble.

    Microsoft unveiled its AI-powered Bing last week, using a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT. The move is largely seen as one of the biggest challenges Google has faced to its core search business and could help Bing make major headway against its rival.

    Early reports indicate that Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing is performing far better than critics anticipated and is serving up better results than an old-school Google search. In fact, CNET’s Stephen Shankland put ten questions to both search engines and came away preferring Bing’s response to eight of the questions. Interestingly, Bing did especially well on complex questions, as well as at providing information about recent events, such as the US shooting down a ‘high-altitude object’ over Alaska.

    Read More: Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Similarly, Android Central posted a poll to see how many of its readers would be willing to switch to the new Bing once it’s available to the public. A whopping 52% said they would switch and give Bing a try, with 11% already using Bing and only 30% saying they would stick with Google.

    Indeed, Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi revealed the company quickly saw more than one million people sign up to test-drive the new Bing.

    Needless to say, Google is not going to take this challenge to its business lying down. In fact, the company has been rushing to roll out its own ChatGPT challenger, Bard. Unfortunately, in its rush, the company bungled Bard’s unveiling. This led to a $100 billion drop in the company’s value and vocal criticism of CEO Sundar Pichai from Google’s own employees.

    The picture is clear: Microsoft has taken an early lead in the AI search wars and is moving quickly to capitalize on it. This has resulted in Bing being seen as cool — quite possibly for the first time ever.

    And Google? Google is in real trouble — quite possibly for the first time ever.

  • Google CEO Wants Employees to Spend 2-4 Hours Improving Bard AI

    Google CEO Wants Employees to Spend 2-4 Hours Improving Bard AI

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai is pulling out all the stops to improve the company’s Bard AI, asking employees to spend 2-4 hours helping.

    Bard is Google’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company is playing catch-up to OpenAI and Microsoft, with the latter planning to add ChatGPT’s successor to its Bing search engine. Despite Google’s long history with AI development, Bard’s launch did not go well, with the AI getting an answer wrong in the company’s ad, knocking $100 billion off of Alphabet’s value.

    Pichai is eager to see Bard improve and is recruiting Googlers throughout the company to achieve the goal, according to a memo seen by Business Insider.

    “I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential,” Pichai wrote. “The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly.”

    In this memo, Pichai is clearly trying to generate and channel excitement, asking employees to “contribute” their time toward the effort.

    Full memo, courtesy of Insider:

    Hi Googlers,

    Excited to see us opening up Bard for an internal dogfood to help us get it ready for launch. This is an important step as we work to develop the technology responsibly – a big thank you to the Bard team and to everyone who is spending time testing it. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can find instructions on how to participate at go/bard-dogfood.

    I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential. This will be a long journey – for everyone, across the field. The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly. That’s why we have thousands of external and internal testers testing Bard’s responses for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information. Let’s embrace the challenge and keep iterating, including with users and developers.

    And remember, some of our most successful products were not first to market. They gained momentum because they solved important user needs and were built on deep technical insights. Over time, we earned user trust and more people began to rely on them.

    Here is where we can use your help: Channel the energy and excitement of the moment into our products. Pressure test Bard and make the product better. I would appreciate it if each of you contributed in a deeper way with 2-4 hours of your time. See below for more detail.

    AI has gone through many winters and springs. And now it is blooming again. As an AI-first company, we’ve been working towards this for many years and are ready for it. Let’s stay focused on delivering amazing experiences for our users and launch things we can all be proud of.

    -Sundar

  • Google CEO Under Fire for ‘Rushed, Botched’ AI Reveal

    Google CEO Under Fire for ‘Rushed, Botched’ AI Reveal

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai is under fire from employees over how the company has handled its response to Microsoft’s AI.

    Microsoft unveiled a version of Bing that is powered by an updated version of the tech behind ChatGPT, bringing the power of artificial intelligence to web search. When ChatGPT first burst onto the scene, Google was caught off guard and has been scrambling to play catchup, unveiling its Bard AI in an effort to remain competitive.

    Unfortunately for the company, the launch did not go well. Bard got one of the questions wrong in the company’s ad, and one of the presenters at the big reveal forgot to bring a phone that was crucial to the demo, according to CNBC.

    The missteps are not going over well with Google employees, many of whom have been taking to Memegen, the company’s internal forum, to complain. While employees often post memes on the forum to goodnaturedly poke fun at the company, many of the responses to Google’s AI efforts took a more serious tone.

    “Dear Sundar, the Bard launch and the layoffs were rushed, botched, and myopic,” read one meme, accompanied by a serious picture of Pichai. “Please return to taking a long-term outlook.” The post received many upvotes.

    “Sundar, and leadership, deserve a Perf NI,” read another popular meme, referencing the lowest employment performance review category. “They are being comically short sighted and un-Googlely in their pursuit of ‘sharpening focus.’”

    One Googler even pointed out that the company’s handling of the unveil was confirming the industry’s fears that Google has lost its way and was caught flatfooted.

    “Rushing Bard to market in a panic validated the market’s fear about us,” read a highly-rated meme.

    Google is clearly in a position it is not used to being in, forced to play from behind and overcome a competitor’s technical advantage. Unfortunately, how Pichai and company have responded is not putting anyone’s fears to rest about the company’s ability to overcome this existential threat to its core business.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently commented that Microsoft ‘made Google dance,’ but he may not have realized just how uncomfortable a dance it is.

  • Satya Nadella: ‘We Made Google Dance’ With AI-Powered Bing

    Satya Nadella: ‘We Made Google Dance’ With AI-Powered Bing

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is enjoying putting pressure on Google using ChatGPT, saying he has “been waiting for it.”

    Microsoft unveiled an AI-powered version of Bing on Tuesday, offering a limited preview of its next-gen search engine. Microsoft is using a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT, and Nadella believes it will finally bring some real competition to the search market.

    In an interview with The Verge, Nadella acknowledged that Google is the undisputed leader but that Microsoft has a real chance to make some headway:

    We competed today. Today was a day where we brought some more competition to search. Believe me, I’ve been at it for 20 years, and I’ve been waiting for it. But look, at the end of the day, they’re the 800-pound gorilla in this. That is what they are. And I hope that, with our innovation, they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. And I want people to know that we made them dance, and I think that’ll be a great day.

    Many experts believe AI is poised to revolutionize the search market and represents the biggest threat to Google’s dominance. Nadella is right that Microsoft’s announcement ‘made Google dance,’ with the company scrambling to come up with an answer.

    Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai issued a “code red” in response, and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin began taking a hands-on role in the company for the first time in years. Google unveiled its answer in the form of its Bard AI, only to see it provide the wrong answer to a question in its debut ad.

    If Microsoft is able to execute effectively and capitalize on its position, it could greatly benefit customers, resulting in some of the biggest search innovations in the last two decades.

  • Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    Google Bard, the company’s ChatGPT competitor, has flubbed its debut by providing the wrong answer to a question.

    Microsoft unveiled its version of an AI-powered Bing yesterday, incorporating a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT. Google is working on its own competitor, Bard, but its debut leaves a lot to be desired.

    According to Reuters, Google’s advertisement for Bard includes the following question:

    *”What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year old about?”

    Unfortunately, one of Bard’s answers suggests the JWST is responsible for the first photograph of a planet outside our solar system when, in fact, the first such picture was taken in 2004 by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

    Investors were quick to take note of the mistake, driving Alphabet’s stock down 9% after the news broke. The selloff wiped out at least $100 billion from Alphabet’s value, underscoring the high stakes surrounding AI deployment.

    Google is clearly playing catch-up to Microsoft in the adoption of AI in its search business, and it doesn’t bode well that Bard is getting such a basic question wrong right out of the gate.

  • Sundar Pichai Unveils Google’s ChatGPT Answer: Bard

    Sundar Pichai Unveils Google’s ChatGPT Answer: Bard

    Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has unveiled Bard, Google’s conversational AI and answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    Pichai previously signaled a company “code red” in response to ChatGPT’s popularity. Executives were so concerned about ChatGPT that founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin came back to help the company come up with an answer.

    In a blog post, Pichai took the wraps off of the company’s efforts:

    It’s a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people. That’s the journey we’ve been on with large language models. 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. 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.

    Pichai touted the many ways Bard can be used:

    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 launchpad 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 also makes clear the company’s intention to aggressively integrate Bard and similar tech into its core search:

    AI can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights for questions where there’s no one right answer. Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that’s seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner. These new AI features will begin rolling out on Google Search soon.

    With Microsoft planning to unveil ChatGPT-powered Bing search and Google moving forward with Bard, the search industry is on the verge of a major evolution.