A new Google chatbot has been released after interest in AI has increased massively over the last few months. With ChatGPT on everyone’s minds, it seems the search engine is getting involved with their own version, Bard. With worries about the implications of ChatGPT on education, perhaps the Google AI will raise the same concerns. For now, we look into what the feature is.
A few years ago, artificial intelligence was being dabbled with, but it still felt like something from the future. However, in the last year, it has exploded into our lives. Though the results have often been entertaining, with different conversations and tests giving hilarious responses and answers, questions have been raised about what it means for the future of education. For instance, concerns have been raised already about university students using ChatGPT to write essays for them.
What Is Bard, The Google Chatbot?
Google has been working on an “experimental conversational” AI ever since they developed LaMDA a couple of years ago. LaMDA, Language Model for Dialogue Applications, provides “next-generation conversation and language capabilities”; this is the technology behind Google Bard.
Bard will draw on the breadth of knowledge across the internet. It will provide up-to-date and high-quality answers to questions posed by users. Determined to be a place for curiosity and creativity to be explored, the Google Chatbot hopes to explain and educate without the user trawling through dozens of websites to find answers.
An example Google give is that it can explain the James Webb Telescope discoveries in simpler terms to a child. This definitely poses lots of opportunities for education. Even at a younger age, complex theories and stories can now be deciphered as quickly as a click of a button.
Bard isn’t available to the public quite yet, having been released to trusted testers only yesterday (February 6). However, the plans are to officially release it within the next couple of weeks.
A ChatGPT Alternative
With a powerhouse like Google creating a conversational AI, comparisons between it and ChatGPT are inevitable. The latter is already an established AI chatbot; users can input minimal information and get up to 1000 words back. Understandably concerns have been raised about the implications of this on university students. Students could easily write academic essays with the service without much input.
No doubt, similar worries will be raised with Google Bard. Anything that can bring information across the internet together into a cohesive sentence, let alone an essay is a powerful tool. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility — but that doesn’t make the temptation of AI any less.
Currently, the Google chatbot is only being released with a “lightweight” version of LaMDA. However, the hopes are to increase its power and capabilities over time. With many universities cracking down on ChatGPT use, it’s only a matter of time before the same needs to be done with Bard.
Over the years there will be more and more ChatGPT alternatives. Many of them will have improved technology and capabilities. What it means for the future of education, be that university level or lower can’t be known yet. But, it seems fairly certain that AI will affect learning going forward.
AI isn’t all bad, despite its negative implications. The efficiency it offers is second to none, be that with ChatGPt or Google. It just can’t be ignored that the introduction of the Google chatbot is a massive player in the AI game. It’s very possible that we’ve reached the point of no return, progressing into a society heavily influenced by artificial intelligence.