Google CEO says ChatGPT AI rival is coming

Google CEO says ChatGPT AI rival is coming

Google plans to add a natural language artificial intelligence chatbot to its search engine to keep up with rivals such as ChatGPT, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on Thursday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft pulled ahead in the AI race in February with the news that it would incorporate ChatGPT and GPT-4 into its Bing search and Edge browser. This reportedly kicked off a “code red” at Google, which has its own AI divisions and products but has not integrated those divisions’ findings into its household name search engine.

Judging by its AI competitors, Google’s possible upcoming search chatbot would likely open with a waitlist.

“Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs [large language models] in the context of search? Absolutely,” Pichai told The Wall Street Journal.

“It has been incredible to see user excitement around adoption of these technologies, and some of that is a pleasant surprise as well,” he said.

But putting a natural language AI into the iconic search engine could be a double-edged sword if it moves people further away from search ads, which make up $162 billion of Google’s revenue.

Google can build on Bard

Google has its own in-house chatbot, Bard, and extensive experience in the field of LLMs. Bard is open to the public — with a waitlist — and features a button that redirects to Google Search for more information. Like other AI of its ilk, Bard can recognize and interpret language, code or images and generate more content based on prompts. Google is likely to build on its experience with Bard to add natural language chat into its search engine.

The tech giant has also used one of its large language models to create Pathways Language Model, a large-scale AI system that is currently available for developers on Google’s cloud computing service.

ChatGPT vs. Bing AI vs. Bard: Safety

AI chatbots are incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, just as they can be used for good, they can also be used for nefarious purposes. Criminals are already using ChatGPT to write malware. 

ChatGPT was the most detailed when it came to giving instructions on how to build malware. It was also able to write code to that effect, even if it wasn't exactly ready to deploy. However, OpenAI has clearly plugged a lot of loopholes since we last poked for safety flaws on ChatGPT. However, malicious actors who poke hard and long enough might be able to use ChatGPT to truly create scary malware.

Google has Bard, and Microsoft has Bing AI. Bing AI was the hardest to trick into doing unethical things. Bard was hard as well, but with a little tinkering, the chatbot completely threw its safety measures out of the window.