Google Announces Bard, Its Rival To Microsoft-Backed ChatGPT

Key takeaways

• Google has announced its AI chatbot Bard, which is in private beta mode and is set to publicly launch within weeks
• This will be a direct competitor to Microsoft-backed, OpenAI-created ChatGPT, which has amassed a huge user base in a few short months
• Stocks in Alphabet and Microsoft have both picked up since the two started battling for dominance in the AI space

Buckle up folks, the AI wars have arrived.

Hot on the heels of Microsoft announcing its $10bn investment into ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI, Google has entered the fray with news of its own experimental AI. Bard, powered by the search engine stalwart’s LaMDA technology, has now launched to ‘trusted external testers’ and is expected to go live within weeks.

The move comes as the war to dominate the new technological frontier intensifies. The two Tig Tech giants are already rushing to beat one another to the top of the AI mountain, with no signs of slowing. Here’s what’s gone down this week.

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What has Google announced?

Earlier this week, Google announced it was releasing its ChatGPT rival called Bard to a selective test group. The system will also be used in its search function, with users seeing this phased in as soon as next month.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted about how Bard can help with searches, saying “AI can help us get to the heart of what [people are] looking for.”

Google will also release its Generative Language API for developers in the coming weeks, which is an exciting new direction for the world of AI programming.

What is LaMDA?

LaMDA, or the less-catchy Language Model for Dialogue Applications, will power the new chatbot. Google has had LaMDA in development for years at this point, formally announcing the project back in 2021. At the time, it boasted that LaMDA was capable of natural conversation far more advanced than other existing chatbots.

The LaMDA program hasn’t been without controversy. Last year one Google engineer claimed the program was sentient – and was swiftly fired for his comments (Google stated that the claims were “wholly unfounded”).

Google said a ‘lightweight version’ of LaMDA would be used to power its initial version of Bard, suggesting there’s still a lot left in the tank at Google HQ when it comes to AI.

What prompted Google’s AI announcement?

It’s fair to say the launch of ChatGPT had Google shook.

The chatbot had the company so frazzled that it issued an internal ‘code red’ over Google’s future. Entire teams have allegedly been switched over to focus on developing and launching AI products.

This is all because ChatGPT and AI as a whole have the potential to up-end the search engine world order. If users ask a chatbot questions away from the Google infrastructure, that’s valuable ad revenue and market share Google loses.

ChatGPT’s influence can’t be understated: the company registered one million users in five days and 100 million in just two months. For context, TikTok took nine months to gain as many users – and we all know how much that social media platform now dominates the internet.

Google will look to replicate this success with their AI model or risk losing its search influence. Google’s top revenue strategy relies on being the number-one search engine, so any rival like ChatGPT is mission-critical.

Will Bard rival ChatGPT?

When Microsoft threw down the gauntlet, Google decided to step up to the challenge. Now, the small digs between the two companies are already surfacing.

Google’s blog post focuses heavily on how Bard can provide up-to-date answers on things like the James Webb telescope; ChatGPT is only trained on data up to 2021. The company also claims Bard will be a lightweight model at first, “enabling us to scale more users”; ChatGPT fans frequently bemoan the service crashing.

Microsoft was quick to steal the limelight, making sure everyone knew its CEO Satya Nadella would be making a big announcement on machine learning soon.

Sure enough, on Tuesday, he announced Microsoft’s Edge browser and Bing search engine are now imbibed with the power of AI. Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, Yusuf Mahdi, said the model was more powerful than ChatGPT.

While Bing is a definite second-place search engine to Google, this could all change depending on how both companies utilize AI in their features – and how users react.

How did the markets react?

Google is making its AI stake amidst a backdrop of disappointing quarterly results, much like the rest of the tech sector. Its Q4 earnings showed a decline in advertising revenue and slow growth forecasts.

After the Bard announcement Alphabet stock picked up slightly, lifting to nearly $104. Interestingly, Microsoft’s chess game put a dampener on the market share. Once it teased its big event, shares in Alphabet lost their ‘big announcement’ gains.

Alphabet had the last laugh. Its stock price rose 3.6% after the Microsoft event while the latter saw a 3.8% gain.

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What’s next for AI in Big Tech?

When it comes to technology, trends come and go – but AI is here to stay, according to Big Tech bosses.

Both Microsoft and Google aren’t just stopping with developing their own AI chatbots. Google recently invested $300m in the AI start-up Anthropic, and has stakes in Cohere and C3.ai. It also has a long-term partnership with DeepMind, which has previously said its own AI chatbot is in the works.

Meanwhile, at the Microsoft press event on Tuesday, Microsoft’s Nadella remarked “this technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category”.

These are just two of many Big Tech behemoths. We’re yet to see what the likes of Meta, Apple and Amazon come up with regarding AI. The topic came up 37 times on Meta’s latest earnings call, while Apple is allegedly set to host an AI in-person summit for employees.

One thing is clear: what we’re witnessing is a disrupter to the market. As Big Tech squares off with one another for dominance, this can only be good for AI innovation as the technology develops.

The bottom line

For the first time in years, we’re seeing the potential for a power shift in the massive global search market. No one has been able to touch Google up until this point, but Microsoft’s strategic play has allowed them to turn Bing from the butt of a joke, to a potential kingslayer.

Of course, there’s still a long way to go and plenty of unexpected challenges for both companies.

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