- Kyle Chua
AI Chatbot Race: Microsoft Gains Lead As Google’s Bard Underwhelms
There's an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race brewing between global tech giants, and Microsoft currently has the lead.
The software giant earlier in the week announced it was updating its two search engines, Bing and Edge, with AI-powered features it developed in partnership with OpenAI, the startup behind the viral ChatGPT. That announcement came on the heels of Google's reveal of Bard, an experimental AI chatbot that the company plans to use to enhance its own search engine.
Google on Wednesday, 8 February, hosted a conference to demonstrate the technology, and, according to Bloomberg, it didn't go so well, with investors being "largely underwhelmed". In an advertisement that simulates the demonstration, Bard is fed the query, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year old about?”. To which one of its replies is, "JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system." NASA, however, says that it was a different telescope that took the first pictures, not the JWST.
While the blunder likely won't hurt Google in the long run, it does suggest that Bard could perhaps use some more time in development. It also paints a picture of the risks of giving the public access to such a service. Then again, the AI technology isn't out yet, with it only being available to trusted testers. OpenAI's ChatGPT has been reported to make mistakes as well, so Bard isn't alone there.
Google's stock price did drop by 8.9% after the demonstration, the biggest drop since 26 October.
"That is why you see such a reaction, because this is the money generator, the cash cow in Alphabet’s portfolio," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh.
Google in a statement said the error "highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process". The company plans to combine the external feedback it receives with its findings from its own testing to improve Bard's responses.
"They did this in haste," Singh said, hinting that Google may be feeling some pressure from ChatGPT and Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI. "You don’t expect it from a company that is so dominant, and really has always been able to fend off any challenges as far as their core search business."
Microsoft and Google can only expect more competition in the future, with tech giants from China also looking to join the race. Chinese e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba is supposedly rushing the development of a ChatGPT equivalent. Details about the technology aren't available yet, but the company is said to be already in the middle of testing. The news comes after it was reported that Baidu is also launching its own AI chatbot service, built on the company's Ernie natural language processor.
Microsoft is currently leading the AI chatbot arms race after Google's demonstration of Bard left investors "largely underwhelmed".
In an advertisement that simulates the demonstration, Bard is fed the query, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year old about?”.
One of its replies reads, "JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system" – which NASA says is false.
Chinese e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba could also become a major player in the race, with it supposedly rushing the development of a ChatGPT equivalent.