Google has announced that it will integrate its generative AI chatbot, Bard, into its virtual assistant, which will enable it to provide more personalized and natural-sounding help to users on their mobile devices. The announcement was made during Google’s hardware event in New York on Wednesday, where the company also unveiled its new Pixel 6 smartphone and Pixelbook laptop.
Bard is a generative AI chatbot that can generate natural language responses based on the user’s input and context. It uses a large language model (LLM) that has been trained on billions of words from the web and other sources. Bard can handle complex tasks such as summarizing, generating content, answering questions, and having open-ended conversations.
Google’s vice president of assistant and Bard, Sissie Hsiao, told Reuters that the new version of the virtual assistant will be able to do things like help people plan a trip or catch up on emails and then ask follow-up questions. She said that the whole task can be done through a couple of simple questions that the user asks the assistant, which is a very powerful concept.
The new virtual assistant will also have access to the mobile phone’s camera and microphone, and let users input pictures or audio into the LLM to help answer questions. For example, the user can take a picture of a flower and ask the assistant what kind of flower it is, or record a song and ask the assistant to identify it.
Hsiao said that the new software will not include any revenue-generating features, as Google is still in the learning phase with generative AI. She said that Google wants to learn how to make a great experience out of this, and that the company is very excited about the potential of generative AI.
The new software will be available to Google’s trusted tester program soon, but the company did not disclose a general release date. The software will be compatible with both Android and iOS devices.
Google is not the only tech company that is exploring the use of generative AI in its products. Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Microsoft have also stepped up their efforts in this field this year. Generative AI is seen as one of the most promising and challenging areas of artificial intelligence, as it can create new and original content that can mimic human language and creativity.
