Google Is Reportedly Testing Competition To ChatGPT

February 11, 2023

The Google chatbot is called Apprentice Bard and could be integrated directly into the search engine. In contrast to ChatGPT, the Google bot can also include current events in its answers.

Google is reportedly testing a competitor to ChatGPT, the chatbot that has taken the internet by storm since its inception. Google’s in-house AI chatbot is designed to help people find the right search results and could be integrated directly into the search engine. The news site CNBC had insight into Google’s internal documents and spoke to sources. Accordingly, the Google chatbot is called “Apprentice Bard” and is based on Google’s own language model LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Application).

According to an internal memo, Google is currently working on an answer to ChatGPT: “As a result of ChatGPT, the LaMDA team has been asked to prioritize working on an answer to ChatGPT. In the short term, it takes precedence over other projects.”

Google’s Chief of AI, Jeff Dean, also told his employees at a meeting that, unlike a startup like OpenAI that developed ChatGPT, Google has a reputation to uphold. So if the Google chatbot were to spit out false information to users, it would have far greater consequences for the company.

Basically Apprentice Bard should work very similar to ChatGPT: Users can enter a question and the bot spits out an answer. In contrast to ChatGPT, Google’s bot can probably also include current events.

In one example seen by CNBC, a Google employee asked the chatbot if there was another round of layoffs at Google. Around 12,000 employees were made redundant there in January. “According to my database access, Google is unlikely to conduct another round of layoffs in 2023,” the response reads. “Layoffs are generally carried out to reduce costs and structures, but the company is doing well financially. In fact, Google’s revenue increased 34 percent in 2021 and the company’s stock price is up 70 percent since January 2022.”

Additionally, CNBC has seen a draft design of a possible new search results page. Here, Google does not spit out links to suitable pages for a search query, but answers directly itself.

So users enter their question and get the answer straight away. The questions were displayed here below the search bar. Additionally, there was a small chat logo in the right corner of the search bar. So, there is a good chance that there will be some changes to the search engine with advanced features soon. But that’s not official yet.