In November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT and its success opened the floodgates for AI chatbots. Companies have rushed to launch their own chatbots on the market, hoping to get a share of ChatGPT’s success – including Google.
Just three months after the launch of ChatGPT, Google announced Bard, its own chatbot. From the moment of its announcement – when the chatbot demo provided incorrect information about the James Webb Space Telescope – it was obvious that the chatbot was not ready for launch.
Still, Google opened its waitlist to the public on March 21, and due to the speed of execution, the chatbot leaves a lot to be desired. In our experience, it doesn’t answer basic questions, the wait time is long, sources aren’t blamed, and it pales in comparison to more established competitors.
“Pathetic”, “pathological liar”, “useless”
Even Google CEO Sundar Pichai called Bard an “improved Honda Civic” over ChatGPT and Bing Chat.
As if being compared to an “enhanced Civic” wasn’t enough, Google employees took to the stage to criticize the bot and Google’s AI activities. A Bloomberg article details discussions with 18 employees, along with documents in which employees express their displeasure with the chatbot and how Google rushed its release.
Among the highlights of the discussion, employees call the chatbot “pathetic,” “pathological liar,” “useless,” and more. Employees say ethics took a back seat when Bard was launched. Employees working in the ethics team were even encouraged not to interfere with the launch.
The article points out that Google “overruled” a risk assessment submitted by members of the security team, which reported that Bard could potentially cause harm. Shortly after these concerns were expressed, Google launched the robot as an “experiment”.
AI at the center of a heated debate
Google hasn’t stopped experimenting with AI and even extended it to other products, including its Google Workspace. Google is also reportedly working on developing a new AI-powered search engine and adding new AI features to its current engine.
The hasty use of AI models of this size, which could have a significant impact on society, has become a universal concern. A petition that has garnered more than 25,000 signatures calls for giant AI experiments to be halted due to the “runaway AI race” that is producing systems that their creators can “neither understand nor predict, nor reliably control”.
Governments have started to prioritize AI policy, with some countries opting to ban it altogether, such as Italy. At the same time, countries like the United States are developing strategies to protect users from the potential dangers posed by these systems.
Source: “ZDNet.com”