Google's CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the initiative in a blog post, characterising it as an "experimental conversational AI service" that will respond to user queries and participate in conversations.

Pichai said the software will be offered to "trusted testers" today and "more freely available to the public in the coming weeks."

Bard will be flexible like OpenAI's ChatGPT, but its features are unclear. A screenshot suggests asking Bard how to plan a baby shower or what can be made from lunch ingredients.

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Pichai writes that Bard can inspire creativity and curiosity. "It can help you explain discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about football's best strikers, and then get workouts to improve your talents."

Pichai says Bard "draws on information from the web to deliver fresh, high-quality responses" to recent events, something ChatGPT struggles with.

"What findings from the James Webb Space Telescope can I teach my 9-year-old?" an animated GIF asks Bard. and getting suitable responses.

Bard's unexpected announcement and lack of details reflect Google's "code red" from ChatGPT's release last year.

OpenAI's decision to make ChatGPT publicly available online exposed millions of people to this revolutionary approach of autonomous text synthesis, despite its non-innovative technology.

ChatGPT's effects on work, education, and internet search—especially for Google—have been dramatic.

Microsoft capitalised after investing billions in OpenAI. The company may add ChatGPT to Bing and its office software.

Last week, screenshots of ChatGPT-enhanced Bing emerged.

Even though Google pioneered the critical technology—the transformer that forms the "T" in GPT—and has extensive knowledge of the type of AI that enables ChatGPT, the corporation has been more careful about making its tools available to the general public. 

Google made LaMDA, the language model that underpins Bard, available through its AI Test Kitchen programme. This version just produces text for a few searches.

Google and other corporations have worried about a backlash against unproven AI. One academic called large language models like LaMDA and GPT-3.5 (which runs ChatGPT) "bullshit generators" for their propensity to propagate hate speech and confidently state erroneous information. Google 2021 explored AI-accelerated search's downsides.

Bard will change Google's view of this technology. Pichai's blog post emphasises that Google will utilise Bard's solutions must fulfil a high standard for quality, safety, and grounding in real-world knowledge, according to "external input alongside our own internal testing" The system will still make errors, some of which may be grave.

Google emphasises how it has integrated AI into several products, including search.

Google has recently started summarising more search results with AI to reveal website content rather than letting people click and explore.

Pichai's post predicts the following traits will become more common:

As if that weren't enough, Google is hosting an AI, search, and other events on Wednesday. The Verge will inform you of breaking news before a chatbot can (for now).