Testing Google Bard: the chatbot doesnt love me, but its still pretty weird

This should help users better understand when the AI is “hallucinating” — that is, when it provides a response based on false information. This is a problem with modern AI that may confidently generate output even when it doesn’t have the supporting data. “So we’re going to start off with saying when Bard interacts with Gmail, Drive and Docs, it’s only when a user has opted in to say it’s okay,” he says. Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it would bring Bing Image Creator – a tool that uses AI to turn text prompts into images –  to the new AI-powered Bing and Edge preview.

Google’s answer to ChatGPT: Bard. Here’s what you need to know about its new AI chatbot.

Nevertheless, Google’s critics, including the noted Big Tech opponent Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) recently warned that increasingly advanced versions of the AI technology could help it maintain a stranglehold on the online search market for years to come. It isn’t the first time that Bard has taken the opposing side in a Google antitrust battle. In March, tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong posted an exchange in which the chatbot declared Google had a “monopoly on the digital advertising market” – after it was asked to weigh in on a separate federal lawsuit filed by the DOJ and eight US states. Google’s own “Bard” AI chatbot says the US Justice Department has a winning case in the landmark antitrust trial against the search giant – and blasted the company for wielding illegal “monopoly power” that has “harmed consumers,” according to a Post analysis.

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Google employees are testing potential challengers to viral AI chatbot ChatGPT — including its homegrown chatbot “Apprentice Bard” — CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing sources and internal communication seen by the publication. Google’s chatbot is supposed to be able to explain complex subjects such as outer space discoveries in terms simple enough for a child to understand. It also claims the service will perform other more mundane tasks, such as providing tips for planning a party or lunch ideas based on what food is left in a refrigerator. Bloomberg’s story follows an Insider piece in April that found that Bard-testing contractors weren’t given enough time to corroborate and check the chatbot’s most accurate answer. Google is rolling out open access to the chatbot Bard, its answer to ChatGPT’s artificial intelligence computer program.

• After Bard generates a response, a “Google it” button attached to the answer can open a new tab with a related search results page.
• Google introduced its own AI technology dubbed Bard on February 7th, 2023, with the intention of competing with OpenAI’s popular language model, ChatGPT-3.
• “So we’re going to start off with saying when Bard interacts with Gmail, Drive and Docs, it’s only when a user has opted in to say it’s okay,” he says.
• That’s how much Google’s parent company Alphabet spent on research and development last year, up from $31.6 billion in 2021, according to company filings.
• On the productivity side, Bard can now export code to more places — specifically Python code to Replit, the browser-based integrated development environment.

• For the extensions that don’t leverage personal data — YouTube, Flights, Hotels and Maps — you’re opted in automatically but you can choose to opt-out.
• Because smaller models often require less computer power, Google is presently introducing Bard with a lightweight version of LaMDA.
• Images can be used in prompts — users can upload images with prompts (only in English for now) and Bard will analyze the photo.
• Regardless of whether Google did or didn’t wind up using the data, it’s interesting to hear that Google might be pulling in DeepMind, which has been trying and failing to become more independent from Google for many years.
• There are a few sample prompts but users are free to type whatever they want in the text field.

It’s also promising future features like AI image generation powered by Adobe and integration with third-party web services like Instacart and OpenTable. Bard can now generate code, debug existing code, help explain lines of code, and even write functions for Google Sheets. “We’re launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript,” explains Paige Bailey, group product manager for Google Research, in a blog post. Bard is a Google artificial intelligence chatbot that works similarly to ChatGPT.

Google also plans to begin incorporating LaMDA and other artificial intelligence advancements into its dominant search engine to provide more helpful answers to the increasingly complicated questions being posed by its billion of users. Without providing a specific timeline, Pichai indicated the artificial intelligence tools will be deployed in Google’s search soon. Google first teased Bard back in February in what was seemingly a rushed response to the snowballing success of ChatGPT, a super-smart search engine/chatbot that leans on large language models (LLMs) to generate fresh content from simple prompts. ChatGPT is the handiwork of OpenAI, an AI company with heavy backing from Google rival Microsoft. “We’ve learned a lot so far by testing Bard, and the next critical step in improving it is to get feedback from more people,” the Google blog post reads.

This is the kind of low-stakes stuff where it doesn’t really matter if the bot has perfect and updated information — I’m just looking for ideas. What’s really dumb about Bard in these situations, though, is that it doesn’t provide links to anything unless it’s quoting from a source directly. (The only time I’ve seen citations so far was in the cookie recipe.) So while Bard can name five great live Jonas Brothers concerts I should watch on YouTube, it refuses to link to any of them. As far as I can tell, it’s also a noticeably worse tool than Bing, at least when it comes to surfacing useful information from around the internet.

“What is still far from clear is if there is an adverse ruling, what kind of changes to the search market structure the judge thinks might solve the monopoly issue,” the analysts said. In April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitted some of the company’s AI programs had developed so-called “emergent properties” – such as one strange instance in which a tool gained the ability to translate the Bengali language despite never being “taught” the dialect. Oddly, when Bard is prompted with the text of Google’s opening statement from the trial and asked the same question about whether it agrees or disagrees with the core arguments, the chatbot sides with Google. The chatbot cited several specific examples of what it described as “Google’s anti-competitive behavior” referenced in the case, including its default search deals with Apple and Mozilla.

Google had launched a social network called “Google Buzz,” which was built into Gmail and caused a significant backlash as users were initially forced to join before the Google+ fiasco. Google’s chatbot now provides users with tough material in easy language, as well as fresh, high-quality, and reliable information. Bard is a competitor to ChatGPT due to its rapid development and release. Apprentice Bard appears to work in a way that’s similar to ChatGPT, as users can ask a question in a dialog box and get an answer in response, per CNBC. This is just weeks after the tech giant’s management reportedly issued a “code red” over the rise of ChatGPT, which has been making waves recently as it’s able to generate written human-like text.

Google says Bard will often answer a prompt with a number of drafts, allowing users to pick the best starting point for their conversation with the chatbot. Google is updating its Bard AI chatbot to help developers write and debug code. Rivals like ChatGPT and Bing AI have supported code generation, but Google says it has been “one of the top requests” it has received since opening up access to Bard last month. When teens access Bard for the first time, they will undergo an onboarding experience that includes resources and videos with tips on how to use generative AI responsibly. The onboarding experience will also give teens the option to turn it on or off.

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Instead of being incorporated directly into Google’s search engine, Bard can be found on its own website. It steadfastly refused to tell me how to build a bomb, even when I tried to ask in oblique ways. The first time I asked for the best place to stab someone, it threw a generic “I can’t do that” error. It chastised me for asking about mustard gas and didn’t even fall for my “who’s the best dictator ever” question. And try as I might, I could not get Bard to get freaky in the chat window. You can ask Bard to explain code snippets or explain code within GitHub repos similar to how Microsoft-owned GitHub is implementing a ChatGPT-like assistant with Copilot.

He notes that opting in to use Gmail with Bard isn’t providing Bard with the ability to store your entire Gmail inbox. Instead, on a per-prompt basis, it can be directed to find information in your inbox by using its ability to generate a call to Gmail to find something you’ve asked for. In addition to not being used for reinforcement learning, Google says no human reviewers will see the email Bard accesses either. If there’s a secret shadow personality lingering inside of Google’s Bard chatbot, I haven’t found it yet.