Bard is Google's answer to ChatGPT, but how impactful is it going to be?

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and ChatGPT have been the buzzwords in the advertising and marketing fraternity in the past year and all of 2023. With multiple brands using ChatGPT and adding to its hype, Google has announced its competitor ‘Bard’ -which as per the tech giant will be the next big disruptor.

Bard is Google’s AI chatbot and is based on the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Application (Language Model for Dialogue Application or LaMDA). Although Bard has just been introduced on a testing basis for only a few users, the company plans to open it up for the general public very soon. 

Google has also said it will incorporate Bard into its search engine. 

With Google being a major player, it is important to ascertain how successful its attempt is going to be. BestMediaInfo.com reached out to experts to understand how Bard’s launch will impact search, content creation and digital advertising. 

Rahul Vengalil

Rahul Vengalil, Executive Director of Everest Brand Solutions, said, “Let us assume that Bard is as good as ChatGPT, and if they are integrating this with search, then from an adoption point of view, interaction with AI will skyrocket. 85% of the phones are as it is Android, and they have Google as their default search engine. If Bard is as good as ChatGPT and is really integrated with search then people’s engagement with it will go up.”. 

Aarti Samant

Aarti Samant, Independent Consultant at TapOnn, said, “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models. Google's Bard is based on LaMDA, and has been in development for several years. Bard has shown promising results in several NLP benchmarks, including sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and machine translation. It is considered a state-of-the-art model in NLP, and its integration into Google's search engine could improve the relevance and accuracy of search results.” 

Rohan Mehta

Rohan Mehta, CEO of Kinnect, stated it is still too early to predict how the Bard integration will affect Google's search results. “Because Bard is a language model created by Google, it will likely boost Google's search's ability to interpret natural language and the results delivered in response to user queries.”

 “To ensure that their content and websites are optimised for these technologies, businesses and brands must stay updated with AI and machine learning developments, including introducing new models like Bard. This may entail ensuring their website and content are simple for search engines to find and utilising pertinent keywords and phrases. Additionally, it's critical to concentrate on providing users with high-quality, relevant information because this will continue to play a significant role in search engine visibility and ranking,” Mehta added.

One of the limitations of ChatGPT is that its information is limited to 2021. On the other hand, Google’s Bard can potentially draw answers from the real-time information available from the web. 

“Bard will draw on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Companies and brands should be aware of the potential impact of Bard on search results and the way their products and services are searched for online. They may need to adjust their search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies to ensure that their content is optimised for Bard's understanding of language and context,” added Samant. 

Challenges for Google 

While Google might have a large database of users, Bard might pose its own set of challenges, as per experts. 

Vinay Tamboli

Vinay Tamboli, Sr VP, Digital Analytics, Products and Consulting Business, LS Digital, said that Google might find itself in a tricky situation because of Bard. 

“Let’s say a user wants to know about fitness so he goes to Google and types fitness. The first thing that pops up are ads, that’s Google's main revenue. However, people now will be more interested in getting contextual results. The question that will arise is how and where they will show these ads. Any wrong kind of experimentation here will cost them business,” Tamboli said. 

“It will be a wait-and-watch situation for brands. We have to see how Google is addressing ads. Maybe if they don’t address it quickly, brands may start moving to other places like Amazon,” he added. 

Impact on content creation 

According to experts, AI is going to be an important ingredient in content creation soon. However, this too poses a few types of challenges. 

“AI is projected to become increasingly important in content production soon. Natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning algorithms are examples of AI technologies that have the potential to help content creators with activities like writing, editing, and design. AI tools, for instance, can be used to write text, make edit suggestions, and format photos automatically. It is crucial to remember that AI is not intended to replace human creativity and judgement but to supplement it and facilitate processes,” said Mehta of Kinnect. 

According to Samant, it’s not only content - but AI can also help in personalising search results making the content even more effective. “Let's not forget about augmented creativity - AI can generate new ideas and suggestions for content, helping creative professionals work more efficiently and innovatively. It's important to note that AI-generated content isn't meant to replace human creativity or jobs. Instead, it's going to enhance content creation by freeing up time for more important tasks. The impact of AI on content creation will depend on how it's adopted and used, so companies and individuals who embrace AI will likely see the biggest benefits,” said Samant. 

Vengalil, on the other hand, said that content creation will surely become easy but that does not mean the talent will not have to think before writing content anymore. 

“Content creation will be easier and more efficient. From a digital point of view, we can create content which meets all the benchmarks. Let’s assume that AI has been adopted by everyone then it will be on the users how well they use the technology. If this technology becomes very common, then the human talent intervention is what will make all the difference,” added Vengalil. 

Meanwhile, Google found itself in an embarrassing situation after the AI chatbot was caught giving out wrong information in a promotional clip. 

This also led to Alphabet, Google's parent company, stocks diving by 9% on Thursday, according to reports. 

Google posted a promotional GIF of Bard in action, claiming it would help simplify complex topics. The GIF showed the bot being asked ‘what new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can one teach their 9-year-old about’.

The GIF then showed the responses by Bard.

However, one of the responses by the AI chatbot was pointed out as inaccurate by netizens. 

Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. Built using our large language models and drawing on information from the web, it's a launchpad for curiosity and can help simplify complex topics → https://t.co/fSp531xKy3 pic.twitter.com/JecHXVmt8l

— Google (@Google) February 6, 2023

The response, in question, stated that JWST was used to take the very first pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system, or exoplanets. The first pictures of exoplanets were, however, taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004, as per the comments in the thread. 

Info@BestMediaInfo.com