Google has revealed its ambitious plans for its experimental chatbot, Bard. The tech giant envisions Bard as a pathway to creating another product with a user base of two billion, a milestone achieved by only a select few products to date.
Bard, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, is designed to assist users in brainstorming and retrieving customized information from the internet. Jack Krawczyk, the chatbot's product lead, emphasized the goal of making AI more accessible and practical for everyday consumers during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.
A key strategy involves integrating Bard’s capabilities with Google Assistant, a widely-used tool for tasks like setting timers and executing commands. Initially available on mobile devices, this integration aims to introduce AI to a broader audience.
This move aligns with Google's overarching ambition to expand the use of AI. Alphabet, its parent company, already boasts six products, including Google Search and YouTube, each with billions of users.
Despite the competitive landscape in the AI space, Bard has shown growth in web traffic, reaching 8.7 million in October, according to Similar Web data cited by Reuters. However, Bard has encountered challenges, such as generating non-existent content, a phenomenon referred to as hallucination. For instance, it displayed messages that didn’t exist when asked to analyze content in a user’s Gmail inbox.
Google expresses a commitment to enhancing Bard’s helpfulness and effectively accommodating a large user base. The company is presently not prioritizing monetization avenues like a subscription model or advertisements.
