Every few years, a new technology or technological tool disrupts status quo and serves as a watershed, defining the new course of action. Tech giants jump in and the world takes notice. The company OpenAI, with its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, has brought about the newest such watershed tech moment.
ChatGPT became a global hit right after its launch last year, with its ability to do multiple tasks — from writing essays and poetry to solving among the toughest exams. The human intelligence found its match. While Microsoft has been a multi-billion dollar investor behind OpenAI for years, it has become an AI front-runner by integrating ChatGPT into its search engine tool Bing. It means that Bing now gives detailed responses to user queries rather than whipping out countless links. “The race starts today,” Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said as the company announced the integration. And an AI race it is.
A standalone ChatGPT was a disruptor but the same integrated with Microsoft’s search engine Bing is a threat, at least to Google, which has for long dominated the search engine landscape. In response to ChatGPT, Google had declared a “code red” and pulled out its big guns Sergey Brin and Larry Page who reviewed Google’s AI strategy, according to The New York Times. Alongside Microsoft’s announcement came Google’s that it is launching Bard, an AI-powered chatbot like ChatGPT. “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blogpost. Prior to the public rollout, the AI chatbot will open up for “trusted testers”, Google said in a blogpost. However, soon after the announcement, it hit a bump with parent Alphabet losing $100 billion after news agency Reuters pointed out an error in the new AI chatbot’s promotional video. The company event, too, failed to cause much dazzle.
Beyond the hits and misses, it is a Microsoft vs Google scenario, as evident from Nadella’s comments to The Verge. “I hope with our innovation they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. I want people to know that we made them dance,” the Microsoft boss said on Google competing with Bing’s AI.
Google’s AI guns
However, Bard is not the only AI tool Google is working on. And it seems in this AI race, it is not leaving any stone unturned. The company has invested over $400 million in Anthropic, an AI startup, as per media reports. Interestingly, Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI employees. One such is the former OpenAI VP of research Dario Amodei, who reportedly left the company as he felt there was a need for the AI industry to move beyond the few innovations, such as GPT-3. The company has developed a ChatGPT-like tool called Claude, which is yet to be rolled out for the public.
Quora too enters
Popular Q&A platform Quora also recently unveiled Platform for Open Exploration, or Poe, its AI-powered chatbot that allows one to ask questions, get answers and engage further in back-and-forth discussions. The app is currently available to iOS users while the same for Android is awaited. Speaking on the technology, Quora said the artificial intelligence on Poe is powered by models from both OpenAI and Anthropic, as per media reports.
China not behind
While the US tech space is increasingly moving towards AI, how can China be left behind? Alongside Google’s and Microsoft’s announcements, Chinese search engine giant Baidu announced its official entry into the AI race with its AI-powered chatbot. Named Wenxin Yiyan in Chinese and ERNIE Bot in English, it is set to be released in March. Short for Enhanced Representation Through Knowledge Integration, ERNIE is like ChatGPT and Bard as it too generates crisp responses to the users’ queries, and can write essays, and poems.
Chinese tech major Alibaba has announced that it will come up with a ChatGPT-style AI chatbot, which is being tested internally, as per media reports. Looking at the developments, it is becoming increasingly evident that search engines spitting countless links is set to be replaced by those coming up with sophisticated responses.
