By Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced on Thursday that it is expanding the reach of its artificial intelligence chatbot, Bard, to Europe and Brazil. This expansion marks the most significant step for Bard since its launch in February and puts it in direct competition with ChatGPT, a rival backed by Microsoft. Both Bard and ChatGPT utilize generative artificial intelligence to engage in human-like conversations and provide responses to various prompts. The introduction of these products has generated widespread excitement worldwide, although some caution remains.
Numerous companies have eagerly embraced the potential of AI, investing billions of dollars in the hopes of reaping substantial advertising and cloud revenue. Notably, billionaire Elon Musk recently unveiled xAI, his long-awaited AI startup, which includes a team of former engineers from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
Google has also enhanced Bard by introducing new features that are available globally. In a blog post, Jack Krawczyk, Google’s senior product director, announced that users can now interact with Bard in over 40 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi, and Spanish. Krawczyk emphasized that hearing responses out loud can offer a fresh perspective and aid in idea development. Additionally, users can modify Bard’s tone and style of responses, choose conversation pins and names, export code to various platforms, and incorporate images into prompts.
The launch of Bard in the European Union faced delays due to concerns from local privacy regulators. However, Google has since engaged with these regulators to address issues related to transparency, choice, and user control. Amar Subramanya, the engineering vice president of Bard, stated that users have the option to opt out of data collection.
Google recently faced a new class action lawsuit in the United States, accusing the company of misusing personal information from users to train its AI system. When asked about the development of a Bard app, Subramanya refrained from commenting, highlighting that Bard is an experiment and expressing Google’s desire to be both bold and responsible.
Nevertheless, the novelty factor of AI chatbots may be diminishing, as recent web user statistics indicate a decline in monthly traffic and unique visitors to ChatGPT’s website for the first time ever in June.
Overall, the expansion of Bard into Europe and Brazil represents a significant milestone for Alphabet as it competes with ChatGPT and aims to provide users with a versatile and interactive AI chatbot experience.
