Google opens Bard A.I. for testing by users in U.S. and UK
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
After months of public chatter about emerging chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, Google is opening its Bard AI platform to a limited number of users.
The company is officially allowing people in the U.S. and U.K. to sign up for its generative AI product at bard.google.com. Google said in a blog post Tuesday that it will be expanding availability over time to more countries and languages. The post, titled “Try Bard and share your feedback,” was authored by Sissie Hsiao, product vice president, and Eli Collins, research vice president.
“You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity,” they wrote. “You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post. We’ve learned a lot so far by testing Bard, and the next critical step in improving it is to get feedback from more people.”
Testers will need to sign in with a Google account.
Google is putting in place some guardrails to try and ensure that conversations between users and the AI don’t spin out of control. The company said it would cap the number of exchanges in a dialogue “to try to keep interactions helpful and on topic.” However, it won’t limit the number of daily chats, a spokesperson said.
Bard will display three different drafts to each response, the company said in a briefing, confirming CNBC’s reporting from earlier this month. Google expects the testing phase to help it understand how often people engage with Bard.
Google Bard displays three drafts in its query responses.
The launch comes after months of rapid testing following the November introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology, which has since been integrated into a limited version of Microsoft’s search engine Bing.
CNBC reported in January that, since late 2022, Google had been testing its LaMDA technology in the Bard chatbot and on search pages. Google announced the products the following week.
Google was criticized by employees and investors after Bard’s initial rollout, which appeared rushed to compete with Microsoft’s just-announced Bing integration of ChatGPT.
Last week, Google said it would open its AI products to a limited number of users of Workspace, which includes Gmail and Google’s productivity tools.
Expect mistakes
In Tuesday’s blog post, Google said each Bard query will include a “Google it” button underneath the prompt that will open a new tab to the company’s search page. Google sees Bard’s current format as a complementary feature to search, a spokesperson told CNBC.
The company is also warning that Bard may make mistakes.
When a user opens it, a pop-up display says, “Bard is an experiment,” and to “please remember that Bard may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses.” Users are directed to use the “Google It” feature to fact-check Bard’s responses if they’re in doubt.
Google warns users Bard is an experimental product that may give “inaccurate or inappropriate responses.”
Text also appears alongside results indicating that the information “doesn’t represent Google’s views.” Hsiao and Collins wrote that they used Bard to help write the blog post and admitted “it didn’t always get things right.” Inaccuracies are currently a big issue with large language models, or LLMs.
Last month, Google executives asked all employees to help fix Bard’s wrong answers, in a companywide effort.
“While LLMs are an exciting technology, they’re not without their faults,” Tuesday’s post said. “For instance, because they learn from a wide range of information that reflects real-world biases and stereotypes, those sometimes show up in their outputs. And they can provide inaccurate, misleading or false information while presenting it confidently.”
Bard queries will include a “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” option to solicit feedback.
WATCH: OpenAI says its GPT-4 model can beat 90% of humans on SAT
Tik Tok creators gather before a press conference to voice their opposition to the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2024.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
The Supreme Court on Friday will hear oral arguments in the case involving the future of TikTok in the U.S., which could ban the popular app as soon as next week.
The justices will consider whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law that targets TikTok’s ban and imposes harsh civil penalties for app “entities” that continue to carry the service after Jan.19, violates the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.
It’s unclear when the court will hand down a decision, and if China’s ByteDance continues to refuse to divest TikTok to an American company, it faces a complete ban nationwide.
What will change about the user experience?
The roughly 115 million U.S. TikTok monthly active users could face a range of scenarios depending on when the Supreme Court hands down a decision.
If no word comes before the law takes effect on Jan. 19 and the ban goes through, it’s possible that users would still be able to post or engage with the app if they already have it downloaded. However, those users would likely be unable to update or redownload the app after that date, multiple legal experts said.
Thousands of short-form video creators who generate income from TikTok through ad revenue, paid partnerships, merchandise and more will likely need to transition their businesses to other platforms, like YouTube or Instagram.
“Shutting down TikTok, even for a single day, would be a big deal, not just for people who create content on TikTok, but everyone who shares or views content,” said George Wang, a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute who helped write the institute’s amicus briefs on the case.
“It sets a really dangerous precedent for how we regulate speech online,” Wang said.
Who supports and opposes the ban?
Dozens of high-profile amicus briefs from organizations, members of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump were filed supporting both the government and ByteDance.
The government, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, alleges that until ByteDance divests TikTok, the app remains a “powerful tool for espionage” and a “potent weapon for covert influence operations.”
Trump’s brief did not voice support for either side, but it did ask the court to oppose banning the platform and allow him to find a political resolution that allows the service to continue while addressing national security concerns.
The short-form video app played a notable role in both Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ presidential campaigns in 2024, and it’s one of the most common news sources for younger voters.
In a September Truth Social post, Trump wrote in all caps Americans who want to save TikTok should vote for him. The post was quoted in his amicus brief.
What comes next?
It’s unclear when the Supreme Court will issue its ruling, but the case’s expedited hearing has some predicting that the court could issue a quick ruling.
The case will have “enormous implications” since TikTok’s user base in the U.S. is so large, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law.
“It’s unprecedented for the government to prohibit platforms for speech, especially one so many people use,” Chemerinsky said. “Ultimately, this is a tension between free speech issues on the one hand and claims of national security on the other.”
WATCH: It appears TikTok could really get shut down, says Jim Cramer
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway