Google expands AI dominance with Bard: A game-changing competitor to Microsoft’s ChatGPT

Google announced Wednesday that it will open Bard, a competitor to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, to 180 countries as it expands the use of artificial intelligence on its platform.

At Google’s annual developer conference in Silicon Valley, executives said generative artificial intelligence will also be used to power the tech giant’s leading search engine.

“We’ve been applying AI for a while, and with generative AI we’re taking the next step,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the thousands of developers gathered at the event.

“We’re reimagining all of our core products, including search,” he said.

Google is competing with rival Microsoft, which has rushed to integrate capabilities like ChatGPT into a wide range of its products, including its Bing search engine.

Microsoft rushed into AI despite fears about the technology’s potential threat to society, including its effects on the spread of disinformation and whether it could render entire work groups obsolete.

Google Search’s Cathy Edwards said the new experience would be similar to a search “overloaded” by a chatbot.

Other Google executives talked about how generative AI is being integrated into Gmail, photo editing, online work tools and more.

The company’s AI work would be done in a “bold and responsible” way, senior product director Jack Krawczyk said at a news conference.

Google’s extension meant it removed Bard’s waiting list, allowing users around the world to access it in English after months of testing in the US and UK.

According to Krawczyk, Bard will be changed to support 40 languages in the coming months.

“We’re excited to get Bard into more people’s hands,” Krawczyk said.

“We’re pretty excited about where Bard is going.”

Google also announced browser “extensions” that infuse apps and services like Gmail and Maps with AI capabilities.

Bard technology enables features such as text fill to facilitate email drafts and suggesting ideas for artwork by viewing an image of available supplies.

Google also lets partners build such plugins, including one from Adobe that lets users create images, Krawczyk said.

The tech titan also showed off new Pixel devices, including a $1,799 foldable smartphone with a foldable screen the size of a tablet computer when unfolded.

“You get the best of both worlds,” Google senior vice president Rick Osterloh said of the Fold.

“It’s a powerful smartphone when it’s convenient and an immersive tablet when you need it.”

Google also added a new tablet to the Pixel range and a more affordable version of its flagship phone.

– Risky technology? –

Google’s announcements come a week after rival Microsoft expanded public access to its creative AI programs, which run on models made by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

The AI-enhanced features of the company’s Bing search engine and Edge internet browser opened up to everyone.

Services have been enhanced with the ability to work with images and text, and Microsoft plans to add video to the mix.

Despite being deployed by two of the world’s largest companies, AI’s risks include its potential use of disinformation through voice clones, deeply faked videos and persuasive written messages.

In March, several experts called for the development of effective artificial intelligence systems to be suspended to allow time for their security.

Their open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, including billionaire Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, got Microsoft-backed OpenAI generative artificial intelligence technology.

A renowned computer scientist often called the “godfather of artificial intelligence” recently quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology.

Geoffrey Hinton, who created some of the technologies behind AI systems, argued that the existential threat of AI is “serious and imminent”.

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