In March, Google released an artificial intelligence chatbot called Bard. It was Google’s answer to OpenAI’s very popular ChatGPT.
But Bard used less sophisticated artificial intelligence than ChatGPT. It came across as less skilled and less conversational. Within weeks, Google revamped the tool with upgraded technology, but ChatGPT continued to be the chatbot that captured the public’s attention.
On Tuesday, Google unveiled a plan to leapfrog ChatGPT by connecting Bard to its most popular consumer services, such as Gmail, Docs and YouTube. With the new features, Google took a step toward tying Bard into the company’s vast constellation of online products.
Although Bard hasn’t gotten as much attention as ChatGPT, Google’s AI tool has gone from being an also-ran chatbot to a close contender. Bard has not received as much attention as ChatGPT. In August, ChatGPT had nearly 1.5 billion desktop and mobile web visits, more than three times that of Google’s AI tool and other competitors, according to data from Similarweba data analysis company.
Still, Jack Krawczyk, Google’s product manager for Bard, said in an interview that Google was aware of the problems that had limited the appeal of its chatbot. “It’s nice and new, but it doesn’t really integrate into my personal life,” said Mr. Krawczyk that users had told the company.
Google’s release of what it calls Bard Extensions follows OpenAI’s announcement in March of ChatGPT plugins that allow the chatbot to access updated information and third-party services from other companies, including Expedia, Instacart and OpenTable.
With the latest updates, Google will try to replicate some of the capabilities of its search engine by incorporating flights, hotels and maps so users can research travel and transportation. And Bard can get closer to being more of a personal assistant for users, asking them which emails it missed and what the most important points in a document are.
AI chatbots are widely known to offer not only correct information but also untruths, in a phenomenon known as “hallucinations”. Users have no way of telling what is true and what is not.
Google believes it has taken a step toward solving these problems by revamping the “Google It” button on Bard’s website, which had allowed users to run Google searches on the queries they had asked the chatbot.
Now the button will double check Bard’s response. When Google has high confidence in a claim and can support it with evidence, it will highlight the text in green and link to another web page that supports the information. When Google cannot find facts to support a claim, the text is highlighted in orange instead.
“We’re really committed to making Bard more credible by not only showing confidence in our answers, but also admitting when we make a mistake,” said Mr. Krawczyk.
Various technology companies have poured billions of dollars into developing the so-called large language models that underpin Bard and other chatbots, systems that need vast amounts of data to learn. That has raised concerns about how companies like Google use consumers’ information.
The company has tried to allay concerns about how Bard would use that information.
“We are committed to protecting your personal information,” Yury Pinsky, Bard’s director of product management, wrote in a blog post. “If you choose to use the Workspace extensions, your Gmail, Docs, and Drive content will not be seen by human reviewers, used by Bard to show you ads, or used to train the Bard model.”
Mr. Krawczyk said Bard would protect user privacy, though he declined to comment on how other Google services used this type of data.
Google also updated Bard’s underlying AI, Pathways Language Model 2. It expanded the feature that allows users to upload images to more than 40 languages. And Google lets users share Bard conversations with each other so they can see the responses and ask the chatbot additional questions about the topic.
Although people in more than 200 countries and territories are able to use Bard, Google still calls the tool an “experiment” rather than a full-fledged product.
“This is still the early days of this technology,” Mr. Krawczyk said, “and they have profound capabilities, but they need to be well understood by the people who use them.”
