Like ChatGPT, Google is currently testing its own AI-based chatbot.
While Microsoft has announced a $10 billion investment in ChatGPT, Google wants to compete with its digital adversary with its own AI-based chatbot, with a tool called Apprentice Bard, reports the American media CNBC.
Google is currently testing this new solution to integrate it into its search engine. Concretely, the system is quite similar to that of ChatGPT: the user asks the chatbot a question and receives a complete and provided answer. But Apprentice Bard has a big competitive advantage over ChatGPT: it has the ability to answer questions about recent events, where ChatGPT’s database stops in 2021.
For now, the tool is being tested internally by company employees who are invited to give their opinion. One of these tests could be consulted by CNBC. The employee asked if Google was going to proceed with another round of layoffs.
Indeed, Google has laid off 12,000 employees since the beginning of the year. To which Apprentice Bard replied: “Layoffs usually happen when you need to cut costs, but the company is doing well financially. Google’s revenue grew 34% in 2021, and the stock price of society has increased by 70% since January 2022.”
Google is also testing alternative versions for its search engine. Among them, search results in the form of answers to questions asked by the user. They would thus appear in gray bubbles to give the impression of a more natural interaction than a simple page displaying websites.
This is not the first time that Google has launched an artificial intelligence chatbot. In 2020, the company had launched Meena, an intelligent chatbot, internally, but quickly abandoned the project. Since the explosion of ChatGPT, Google would have activated “code red” internally, worried about being passed over by Microsoft and Open AI in terms of innovation.
