Bard is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, based on the LaMDA family of large language models. It was developed as a direct response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and was released in a limited capacity in March 2023 to lukewarm responses, before expanding to other countries in May.
On February 6, Google announced Bard, a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot powered by LaMDA Bard was first rolled out to a select group of 10,000 "trusted testers",before a wide release scheduled at the end of the month. Bard is overseen by product lead Jack Krawczyk, who described the product as a "collaborative AI service" rather than a search engine,[19][20] while Pichai detailed how Bard would be integrated into Google Search. Reuters calculated that adding ChatGPT-like features to Google Search could cost the company $6 billion in additional expenses by 2024, while research and consulting firm SemiAnalysis calculated that it would cost Google $3 billion. The technology was developed under the codename "Atlas",with the name "Bard" in reference to the Celtic term for a storyteller and chosen to "reflect the creative nature of the algorithm underneath". Multiple media outlets and financial analysts described Google as "rushing" Bard's announcement to preempt rival Microsoft's planned February 7 event unveiling its partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, as well as playing "catch-up" to Microsoft. Tom Warren of The Verge and Davey Alba of Bloomberg News noted that this marked the beginning of another clash between the two Big Tech companies over "the future of search", after their six-year "truce" expired in 2021; Chris Stokel-Walker of The Guardian, Sara Morrison of Recode, and analyst Dan Ives of investment firm Wedbush Securities labeled this an AI arms race between the two.
