Google’s huge reveal for ChatGPT competitor Bard was fraught with fear and FOMO

Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, announced Monday Bard, Google’s Shakespearean new Ai service, that will include some chatbot features.

He said that the model will enable Google to answer simple facts like how many keys a piano contains, but it will also provide deeper insights. For example, asking a Bard-infused Google whether a piano is more difficult to learn than a guitar will result in a truly intelligent response.

It sounds amazing! Bard, however, will not be available to ChatGPT’s 100 million users.

Trust is the key word. Google doesn’t trust your information.

Google is currently in an odd position.

OpenAI is the startup behind ChatGPT. It’s moving ahead with its terrifying-smart bot despite problems around accuracy, latency and an apparent lack awareness about the second and third-order effects of its widespread usage. There is a paid version. It will also be able to help with business plans. It integrates with Bing, Microsoft’s slow search competitor to Google.

Google must maintain an edge in search technology, but its core business and large language models will make search more efficient . It is a public company so it must show mercurial investors it is still the number one in its market.

In a Tuesday note, Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, stated that Bing currently has only 9% of the global search market. However, further integration of this ChatGPT tool and algorithm into the Microsoft search platform could lead to major share shifts towards Redmond and Google.

The FOMO Bard announcement was made on the eve a Microsoft to competitor announcement. It showed off an AI-enabled Bing.

Google, on the other hand, is at greater risk of losing its reputation if Bard is made public to the world. Joe/Jane Public tweets are likely to be negative about Bard’s racist, sexist or hallucinatory nature. OpenAI is a startup. It can move quickly and cause havoc. Google can theoretically trigger investigations by releasing a single product. Its share price could plummet.

This is also a crucial moment in public opinion towards AI. OpenAI and Microsoft offer people an opportunity to see how AI will change their online experience. This could either convince them or scare them. Google sees AI “the most fundamental technology we are currently working on,” Bard cannot be the former.

So, deliberately vague language from Google about making Bard more widely available to the public over the next weeks and doing so in a “responsible” manner. It is eager to showcase its powerful tools without revealing too much.

It’s about Google’s bottom line and humanity’s responsibility. Humanity can’t be trusted.