Why Google’s Bard and ‘Generative AI’ efforts could get all the limelight at this year’s I/O

For years, Google has dominated search and brought products such as Gmail and Chrome that are powered by AI. But following the launch of ChatGPT, a chatbot that responds to users’ queries with a prompt, has put focus on Generative AI and from nowhere, Microsoft (a key backer in OpenAI the startup behind the buzziest chatbot) has become a threat to Google. The Redmond-based giant’s multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI has helped it to put cutting-edge, GPT-4 technology in its Bing search engine in February.

For a company which had no popular consumer-facing products like Google, Microsoft now has a hit product that can become a real competitor to Search. In fact, Google reportedly declared a “code red” corporate emergency in response to the success of ChatGPT and rushed its own search-oriented chatbot, Bard, based on LaMDA, a large language model, to the market.

Like ChatGPT, Bard can also answer questions, write text, and have informative conversations but the initial response to Google’s conversational chatbot has been less encouraging. Not only has Bard not been seen as a wider public demonstration than ChatGPT but Google’s own employees criticised the company’s chatbot in internal messages, labelling the system “a pathological liar.”

Both ChatGPT and Bard are known to make mistakes, and while Google has repeatedly said it wants to ensure that its products are responsible and safe before launching them, the fact is the company is in a similar position as Microsoft two decades ago: waiting for the technology to evolve before launching a new product.

“The current stage of Generative AI maturity continues to be formative, and it is premature to proclaim that any single cloud provider dominates the nascent Generative AI market,” added Gartner’s Dekate.

Although experts say Google is well-positioned to take on Microsoft in Generative AI, there is still confusion about to what extent the Mountain View-based company will go to separate Bard from its core search, or whether it will eventually combine the two. That’s the question Google needs to answer.

Take a peek at Bard, an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI to accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity. Bard is available in the U.S. and U.K. for now, and will expand to more countries and languages over time. Sign up → https://t.co/V921uYu7LO pic.twitter.com/ZXJ3IwHkId

— Google (@Google) March 30, 2023

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For a company that makes the majority of its revenue from search ads, it is to be seen if Bard evolves as Google’s core product and replaces how we search for information on the web in the future.

At I/O, Google would want to showcase how Bard and search with “Generative AI” can co-exist together. With Microsoft now seemingly a big player in AI, Google has to play catch up in an effort to roll out new AI-driven features across its biggest products. Not just consumer-centric products Google also needs to prove how AI can benefit the enterprise.

“It’s important to separate out the consumer picture from the business and enterprise picture when looking at what is going on in the AI market, and the current generative AI moment specifically,” said Rowan Curran, Analyst – Generative AI, Forrester Research.

Curran added, “While Google’s Bard has not had anywhere near the positive impact that ChatGPT has, Bard is not necessarily what businesses should be looking at as an indicator when building their AI strategy.”