“Google Is Asking Employees to Test Potential ChatGPT Competitors, including a Chatbot Called ‘Apprentice Bard’”, 2023-01-31 ():
Google is testing new artificial intelligence-powered chat products that are likely to influence a future public product launch. They include a new chatbot and a potential way to integrate it into a search engine.
The Alphabet company is working on a project under its cloud unit called “Atlas”, which is a “code red” effort to respond to ChatGPT, the large language chatbot that took the public by storm when it launched late last year. Google is also testing a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard”, where employees can ask questions and receive detailed answers similar to ChatGPT. Another product unit has been testing a new search desktop design that could be used in a question-and-answer form.
Leaders have been asking more employees for feedback on the efforts in recent weeks. CNBC viewed internal documents and spoke with sources about the efforts currently underway…Google’s AI chief, Jeff Dean, told employees at the time that the company has much more “reputational risk” in providing wrong information and thus is moving “more conservatively than a small startup.” However, he and CEO Sundar Pichai teased at the time that Google may launch similar products to the public some time this year. Google’s prime business is web search, and the company has long touted itself as a pioneer in AI.
Apprentice Bard: One of the test products is a chatbot called Apprentice Bard, which uses Google’s conversation technology LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications. “As a result of ChatGPT, the LaMDA team has been asked to prioritize working on a response to ChatGPT”, read one internal memo viewed by CNBC. “In the short term, it takes precedence over other projects”, the email continued, warning that some employees stop attending certain unrelated meetings.
Apprentice Bard looks similar to ChatGPT: Employees can enter a question in a dialog box and get a text answer, then give feedback on the response. Based on several responses viewed by CNBC, Apprentice Bard’s answers can include recent events, a feature ChatGPT doesn’t have yet. Apprentice Bard replaced Meena, a previous version of a smart chat bot that had launched internally but was later discontinued. Employees have noticed Apprentice Bard’s responses becoming more advanced in recent weeks.
…When a question is entered, the search results show a gray bubble directly under the search bar, offering more human-like responses than typical search results. Directly beneath that, the page suggests several follow-up questions related to the first one. Under that, it shows typical search results, including links and headlines.
…ChatGPT would be hired as a level 3 engineer: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google teams have also been testing a beta LaMDA chat against ChatGPT, itself. In separate documents, it selected examples of prompts and answers in side-by-side comparisons.
“Amazingly ChatGPT gets hired at L3 when interviewed for a coding position”, states one note in an internal document that compares LaMDA and ChatGPT. It didn’t state whether LaMDA would have performed similarly well.
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