Google plays it safe with initial Bard rollout

Google has begun rolling out early access to its Bard chatbot in the US and UK.

The ChatGPT rival was announced via a blog post in February, seemingly to get ahead of Microsoft’s own big reveal event the next day.

Microsoft’s plans to integrate a new version of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine set off alarm bells at Google. In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai invited the company’s founders – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – to return for a series of meetings...

21 March 2023 | Applications

Microsoft’s AI chatbot is ‘unhinged’ and wants to be human

Early testers of Microsoft’s new AI chatbot have complained of receiving numerous “unhinged” messages.

Most of the attention has been around Google’s rival, Bard, embarrassingly giving false information in promo material. That error, and Bard’s shambolic announcement, caused investors to panic and wiped $120 billion from the company’s value.

However, unlike Microsoft, Google is yet to release its chatbot for public testing. Many have complained that it...

16 February 2023 | Applications

Googlers slam CEO and call Bard reveal ‘botched’

Google employees have slammed CEO Sundar Pichai and called the Bard chatbot reveal ‘botched’.

Microsoft’s alternative, ChatGPT, set off alarm bells at Google. In response, Pichai invited Google founders – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – to return for a series of meetings to review the company’s AI strategy.

Following those meetings, it was clear that Google intended to get its AI products to market faster. The company allegedly decided to speed up its AI review...

13 February 2023 | Applications

Google will leapfrog rivals with AI event next week

Google is holding an AI event next week to make some announcements ahead of rivals.

The web giant says the event will provide an update on how Google is “using the power of AI to reimagine how people search for, explore, and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need.”

OpenAI reportedly set off alarm bells at Google with ChatGPT. At the invite of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the company’s founders – Larry...

3 February 2023 | Applications

Baidu to launch powerful ChatGPT rival

Chinese web giant Baidu is preparing to launch a powerful ChatGPT rival in March.

Baidu is often called the “Google of China” because it offers similar services, including search, maps, email, ads, cloud storage, and more. Baidu, like Google, also invests heavily in AI and machine learning.

Earlier this month, AI News reported that Google was changing its AI review processes to speed up the release of new solutions. One of the first products to be released under...

30 January 2023 | Applications

Zoom enters the conversational AI arena 

Zoom is getting into the conversational AI arena with the launch of Zoom Virtual Agent.

The chatbot solution aims to improve how businesses assist their customers and employees by delivering fast and highly-personalised responses.

“Every leader I speak to is seeking dual outcomes from their CX technology: superior omnichannel resolutions for their customers and an improved bottom line,” said Mahesh Ram, Head of Digital Customer Experience at...

27 January 2023 | Applications

Meta’s chatbot hates Facebook and loves right-wing conspiracies

A chatbot called BlenderBot was launched by Meta on Friday and it’s already been corrupted by the darker parts of the web.

To ease us in with the odd but harmless, BlenderBot thinks it’s a plumber:

https://t.co/KWEHxoXpqg also has thoughts on the Deep State and thinks it’s a plumber. I did not suggest this. pic.twitter.com/SbOj7hziSg

— Jeff Horwitz (@JeffHorwitz) August 7, 2022

Like many of us, BlenderBot criticises how Facebook...

10 August 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

The NHS hopes an AI chatbot will help tackle patient wait times

An NHS trust in Liverpool is partnering with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to develop an AI chatbot to help tackle patient wait times.

Brits have become used to long NHS wait times for many years. However, the post-covid backlog has sent the number of patients on waiting lists rocketing:

There are many strong views on what NHS reforms are needed, but one thing everyone can agree on is that the current trajectory is unsustainable. Modern technologies will be vital...

29 July 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

Google places engineer on leave after claim LaMDA is ‘sentient’

Google has placed one of its engineers on leave after claiming the company’s LaMDA chatbot is “sentient”.

The engineer in question, Blake Lemoine, is part of Google’s Responsible AI division. In a Washington Post article posted over the weekend, Lemoine said that he believes LaMDA has achieved sentience.

Here’s an excerpt from one conversation between Lemoine and LaMDA:

Lemoine: So let's start with the basics. Do you...

13 June 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

McDonald’s drive-thru AI bot may have broken privacy law

McDonald’s announced earlier this month that it was deploying an AI chatbot to handle its drive-thru orders, but it turns out it might break privacy law.

The chatbot is the product of a voice recognition company McDonald’s snapped up in 2019 called Apprente which is now known as McD Tech Labs.

McDonald’s deployed the chatbots to ten of its restaurants in Chicago, Illinois. And there lies the issue.

The state of Illinois has some of the strictest data...

11 June 2021 | Ethics & Society