The Facts
On Tuesday, Google announced that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Bard, will be available to the public on a rolling basis in the US and UK. The company, which has been developing Bard for years, said it’s still an “early experiment.”
Bard can give creative responses to detailed questions in English and engage in back-and-forth conversations. Examples have included helping plan a birthday party and a vacation with children to Tokyo.
The Spin
Narrative A
Google might be rushing out Bard too soon because of pressure from its competitors. It was already walking a fine line, hoping it doesn’t lose users of its profitable search business to the AI bot. Now it also has to worry about a misinformation problem that could tarnish the company’s reputation. Google might regret not waiting for Bard to be near-perfect while the other companies struggle through their AI rollouts.
Narrative B
Google may as well get out in front of the AI race because it has something the other companies don’t – a leading search engine that can be a backup for mistakes Bard makes or information it can’t find. For now, Bard is a complement to search. But as it works out the kinks, Google may have just started the future of search.
