Google has announced the launch of Bard Advanced, an upgraded version of its conversational AI service aimed at competing with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot. Bard Advanced will have additional capabilities not found in the basic Bard service, with Google positioning it as a premium offering.
Key Details on Bard Advanced
According to sources, Bard Advanced will be a paid subscription service priced around $20 per month. It will build upon the existing Bard conversational AI that is integrated into Google’s search engine.
Some of the key enhanced features planned for Bard Advanced include:
- More personalized responses based on user preferences and conversation history
- Ability for longer, more in-depth dialogues
- Access to more up-to-date information and real-time search results
- Advanced creative capabilities like story writing and song lyrics generation
- Tighter integration with other Google services like Maps, Translate and Lens
Technically, Bard Advanced will utilize Google’s most advanced language model called Gemini Ultra. This 450 billion parameter model specializes in long-form dialogues and complex reasoning.
Comparative Capabilities of AI Models
| Model | Parameters | Specialties |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Ultra | 450 billion | Long dialogues, reasoning |
| LaMDA | 137 billion | Conversational AI |
| GPT-3 | 175 billion | Text generation |
| ChatGPT | 100 billion | Dialogue, Q&A |
In terms of availability, Bard Advanced is expected to launch in beta testing over the next couple of months before a full release later this year.
Why Google is Launching Bard Advanced
Google has been playing catch-up to OpenAI in the conversational AI race ever since the launch of ChatGPT went viral in late 2022.
ChatGPT impressed people with its human-like responses and ability to chat about almost any topic. It demonstrated new possibilities for how AI could help people be more productive.
This caught Google off-guard and threatened its dominance in search. With people turning to ChatGPT for information, Google saw declines in search traffic.
As a result, Google rushed to unveil its own ChatGPT rival called Bard. However, Bard received mixed reactions so far, with many saying it feels basic compared to ChatGPT.
This is why Google is now preparing to launch Bard Advanced – to match and potentially exceed ChatGPT’s capabilities. Bard Advanced aims to showcase the best of Google’s AI prowess.
Some analysts view Bard Advanced as Google’s “all-in” bet to compete in this new battlefield of conversational AI:
“Google is marshalling all its AI strengths into Bard Advanced. They can’t afford to lose out to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic in guiding the future of AI” – Paul Lee, Head of Research at Delphi Digital
With Bard Advanced, Google is signaling it plans to compete aggressively to lead the next wave of AI-powered search and information discovery.
Privacy and Safety Considerations
Given ongoing concerns about AI chatbots spreading misinformation or exhibiting harmful behavior, Google states Bard Advanced will include multiple safety measures:
- Monitoring and filters to reduce biased, toxic or untrue responses
- Ability for human reviewers to analyze problematic responses
- Tools for users to provide feedback when Bard Advanced replies inadequately or inappropriately
However, some experts say conversational AI still poses risks, especially private or sensitive conversations:
“While protections are improving, users should remain cautious when discussing personal topics with AI chatbots until more formal oversight gets established” – Janelle Shane, AI Researcher
To address privacy issues, Google says Bard Advanced will allow users to easily delete conversation logs and disable data collection at any time. But full details around safety and privacy controls still need to be clarified.
Impact on the AI Industry
The launch of Bard Advanced looks set to intensify the race between tech giants to lead the future of AI.
Google, Microsoft, Baidu and Alibaba are all investing heavily in large language models. Startups like Anthropic are also pushing new boundaries in conversational AI safety.
As models grow bigger and more powerful, they require enormous computing resources to develop. This favors the biggest tech companies that can leverage existing cloud infrastructure.
Some believe near-term dominance will go to whoever utilizes AI models most effectively in consumer products:
“The real competition now is about building useful applications powered by these giant AI foundations. It’s not just about model parameters or teraflops of compute anymore.” – Ilya Sutskever, Co-Founder of OpenAI
In this regard, Google aims for Bard Advanced integration with Search, Maps and other services to provide the best user experience. However, Microsoft and others also see major opportunities to incorporate AI technologies like ChatGPT into their offerings.
Over the longer term, advancements in AI safety efforts by groups like Anthropic may allow smaller players to compete by differentiating on trust and transparency.
So while Google appears poised to regain some ground with Bard Advanced, expect vigorous competition between tech titans as each moves to place their stamps on the emerging AI landscape.
What’s Next for Bard Advanced
As Bard Advanced nears its beta launch, Google has been soliciting ideas from the public on how to further enhance the service later this year.
Some of the top requests include:
- A standalone app for mobile and desktop
- Additional privacy controls
- Fun features like custom avatars and sharing of conversations
- Filters to reduce instances of incorrect or nonsensical replies
- Integration with Google Workspace productivity apps
Google is using this feedback to help inform its product roadmap for Bard Advanced through 2024 and beyond.
The company also plans to enlist external developers by providing APIs and datasets to encourage building applications powered by Bard Advanced.
On the research front, expect continued advances of Google’s core AI technologies like Gemini Ultra and Pathways language model underpinning Bard Advanced.
And as conversational AI keeps evolving, responsible development while managing risks remains top of mind. Google recently established an independent review board to scrutinize its AI work more closely and help address wider societal concerns.
So in the quest to lead the AI revolution, Google is betting big on Bard Advanced catalysing the next chapter of search and discovery. But with AI now a paramount priority for all the tech giants, this battle for the best chatbot is just heating up.
To err is human, but AI does it too. Whilst factual data is used in the production of these articles, the content is written entirely by AI. Double check any facts you intend to rely on with another source.
