Google Bard prepared to compete with Microsoft in the AI 'wars' sparked by ChatGPT

Revolutions are not supposed to be televised, but the revolution has since been televised, streamed, TikToked and spread across in different social mediums. The latest revolution is Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Google's announcement of Bard is certainly the latest in an era of artificial intelligence that actually began a few years ago. But OpenAI predicted change with ChatGPT and accelerated Google's big moves.

Google and AI are Back

In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai called artificial intelligence the most profound technology they are working on today. Pichai and Google have been working on AI models and technologies for various things. In fact Google refocused the company around AI six years ago, and it's still at the heart and soul of Google.

Pichai also said that this happened in 2017 when Google released a research called Transformer, which is now the basis for many of the generative AI applications that you're starting to see today.

Google's AI efforts are reflected in most of its popular apps and services. Whether it's Gmail, Maps, or search, AI has been at the forefront and now it's doing its work in the background.

The arrival of ChatGPT and Microsoft's involvement and investment transformed AI from a relatively quiet and powerful tool to one with immediate impact.

Google is doing everything to beat Microsoft.

Google as then, was ahead of Microsoft in almost every popular technology. Gmail came into the scene leaving behind Hotmail (later the new Outlook). Chrome came along and turned Internet Explorer into cruel memes and mocked it.

Microsoft started the mobile OS game, but Android came along and confined it first to the trash, then forcing Microsoft to empty the trash.

But with ChatGPT, Microsoft may have stolen a match. OpenAI was not Microsoft's idea, but it could turn out to be the smartest billion dollars that Satya Nadella has spent this decade.

ChatGPT surprised everyone certainly not Google when it arrived on November 30, 2022. It went viral, became popular and started a conversation about artificial intelligence that was previously strictly limited to technical circles.

Google already had some really cool AI models doing exciting and innovative work in the background. As Pichai pointed out, it had BERT and MUM, two models used in search that are very useful for understanding human language.

According to a report, Pichai sent an email to all Google employees asking them to help improve Bard. All Googlers are welcome to help Bard. "Next week, we invite everyone at Google to help shape Bard and participate in a special company-wide trial," he wrote in an email.

Microsoft's response to Bard was quick, with a surprise event where it will probably announce the integration of ChatGPT with the Bing search engine. Search is another place where Google is way ahead of Microsoft, as Bing has a fairly small share of users.

Both Microsoft and Google are going head-to-head in the AI ​​war, and while they say there are no winners or losers in the war, it could be a big win for digital citizens.