Google unveils Gemini-Powered AI Chatbot ‘Bard’

Google has intensified its competition with OpenAI’s ChatGPT by launching an updated chatbot called Google Bard. Available to English speakers in over 170 territories, including the US, the new bot is powered by the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology called Gemini, which Google has been working on since the beginning of the year.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, referred to this as the “Gemini era” and stated that the company plans to integrate three different versions of the technology into various products and services in the coming months.

Pichai and Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind (the company’s AI lab), highlighted that Gemini surpasses Google’s previous chatbot technologies in terms of power, generating more accurate responses and approaching human reasoning in certain scenarios. They expressed satisfaction with Gemini’s performance, positioning it as a significant advancement in Google’s AI capabilities.

While OpenAI gained attention with ChatGPT last year, Google aims to catch up and surpass with its enhanced technology. The move comes after years of development efforts, with Google now emphasising improved accuracy and responsible deployment to avoid generating biased or harmful information, a concern shared by other tech giants like Meta.