In order to compete with the Microsoft-backed ChatGPT tool, Google has stated that it would soon release an AI-powered chatbot called “Bard.” This has given further fuel to the quickly escalating competition in the artificial intelligence area.
With the declaration made by CEO Sundar Pichai on his blog on February 6, the business has put an end to any rumors regarding its plan to compete with ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot that rival Microsoft is placing a lot of stock in.
After making earlier investments in the company in 2019 and 2021, software behemoth Microsoft announced last month that it had decided to continue its collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, with a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment” that is reportedly worth around $10 billion.
According to GlobalStats, Google held a 92.9% market share for search engines globally during January 2022 and January 2023 across desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms. Bing from Microsoft came in at number two with just 3.03 percent of the market. The threat ChatGPT poses to Google’s monopoly in the market and its growing popularity, however, is one that the latter can’t ignore.
In a few weeks, the public will be able to use Bard, a system built on Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Application (LaMDA), which is presently available to “trusted testers.” Since its release, users and observers have switched their attention from “Will ChatGPT be Microsoft’s masterstroke to undermine Google’s superiority in search engine technology?” to “Can Bard reverse Microsoft’s ChatGPT gains?”
Google didn’t have the first-mover advantage because of its late entry. In just two months, ChatGPT’s user base reached 100 million, demonstrating how popular it has become. In contrast, Facebook took over 4 months, Instagram over 2, and Google over a year.
Nobody should be surprised that Google has dropped a few of its cautions to announce its entry into the field after previously taking a cautious approach to AI technology due to the associated reputational risk. Google has an advantage over Bard in terms of resources. Both will provide in-depth answers to queries, but Bard will still have access to a far larger repository and will therefore be more accurate and up-to-date since ChatGPT can only use data as of 2021.
