February 8, 2023: On Monday, Google announced an artificial intelligence chatbot technology known as Bard that the firm will commence rolling out in the future weeks. The announcement confirms the reporting. Bard will compete with rival ChatGPT, an AI service made by OpenAI.

Bard is powered by the firm’s significant language model LaMDA or Language Model for Dialogue Applications.

On Monday, the company said in a blog that Google would open up the conversation technology to “trusted testers” before creating it more widely available to the public.

In the previous week, Google is testing a few of these features with employees as an area of a “code red” plan to respond to ChatGPT, the popular chatbot in part by Microsoft. Features also have a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard” and a new search desktop design that could be used in a questioning format.

“Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Quest that distil complex information and many perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly get the big picture and learn a lot from the web, whether searching out additional perspectives, such as blogs from people playing piano and guitar, or going deeper on a connected topic, like steps to get started as a starter,” wrote CEO Sundar Pichai.

The firm gave an example of using Bard to simplify complex topics, such as explaining discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old.

The product tests come following a recent all-hands meeting where employees increased concerns about the firm’s competitive edge in AI, given the new popularity of ChatGPT.

At the time, Google’s AI chief, Jeff Dean, told workers that the company has considerably more “reputational risk” in giving wrong information and therefore is moving “more conservatively than a tiny startup.” Therefore, he and Pichai teased that Google may launch the products to the public sometime this year.

Google’s prime firm is web search, which has long been touted as a pioneer in AI. In recent weeks, leaders have asked more employees for feedback on their efforts.

On Monday, the company emphasized that it will need rigorous testing, saying, “we’ll mix external feedback with our testing to make sure Bard’s answers meet a high bar for quality and safety in real-world information.”